Rock on.
Saturday, November 03, 2018
The Real Racists
Sometimes academic nitpicking about language annoys people, especially when it seems to redefine words in common usage. Still without power, racism is...not especially important? Being a bigot makes you an asshole but if you lack power, and especially lack association with the dominant power structures, that's really about it.
But in our topsy-turvy world of objective journalism, you can't be seen as taking sides against people in power, so almost by definition they can't be racist (or at least you can't call them racists).
But in our topsy-turvy world of objective journalism, you can't be seen as taking sides against people in power, so almost by definition they can't be racist (or at least you can't call them racists).
Complete Mystery How To Make Voting Easy
Obviously things like early voting and vote by mail etc., but here in Philadelphia we have none of that. But we do have about one polling place per 1000 registered voters, and a nontrivial number of those registered voters have died or moved, so in practice the ratio is even better. I don't bring that up because I think the urban hellhole is always an example of what's right and good, but because I never have to wait more than a few minutes to vote and have never heard of stories of widespread voting problems due to long lines in the city (I'm sure it can happen occasionally with high turnout and an after work voting crush, but just generally not a problem).
Anyway this doesn't require some sort of advanced technology or massive overhaul to your voting system. Just. More. Polling Places. The stories of "long lines" are not heartwarming stories of democracy in action, any more than kids selling lemonade to pay for their mom's cancer treatment are heartwarming stories of American family and compassion. They're stories of policy failure.
Anyway this doesn't require some sort of advanced technology or massive overhaul to your voting system. Just. More. Polling Places. The stories of "long lines" are not heartwarming stories of democracy in action, any more than kids selling lemonade to pay for their mom's cancer treatment are heartwarming stories of American family and compassion. They're stories of policy failure.
Your Liberal Media
For the 10th time in the last 11 days, the New York Times and Washington Post have put the caravan of migrants -- currently weeks away in southern Mexico and dwindling -- on their front pages. https://t.co/Frn76NYVNP pic.twitter.com/soDS6geyhp
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) November 3, 2018
Friday, November 02, 2018
Gonna Have To Ban Cars Until We Figure Out What's Going On
They do make people crazy.
NEW YORK (AP) — Alec Baldwin has been arrested for allegedly punching someone during a dispute over a New York City parking spot.
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) November 2, 2018
Sunday Bobbleheads
For years I tried to highlight the imbalances on the Sunday shows and eventually I just gave up because it was clear that nobody involved could be shamed into acknowledging a problem. Not the bookers, not the hosts, not the supposedly "neutral" journalists who regularly participated in this sham. They didn't see a problem with it, or did not care.
The conservative line, which the shows implicitly acknowledge in the way they book the shows, is that all the "journalists" are liberals and the conservatives are necessary to provide balance. Journalists who participate on these shows, whatever is in their hearts, do not like to be tarred with an ideological label, and should object to the fact that "liberal" is being stamped on their foreheads every week. That's what they are telling their audience when they allow themselves be a part of this theater.
And whatever their actual ideological leanings, their "neutral" pose means they cannot respond in kind to conservative advocates and hacks who appear on the show. Nerf gun versus actual gun, at most.
If everybody involved believes these journalists are liberals they should be identified and self-identify as such. If not, they shouldn't allow themselves to be "balanced" by conservatives.
But, as I said, I was on this beat for years and nobody gives a shit.
The conservative line, which the shows implicitly acknowledge in the way they book the shows, is that all the "journalists" are liberals and the conservatives are necessary to provide balance. Journalists who participate on these shows, whatever is in their hearts, do not like to be tarred with an ideological label, and should object to the fact that "liberal" is being stamped on their foreheads every week. That's what they are telling their audience when they allow themselves be a part of this theater.
And whatever their actual ideological leanings, their "neutral" pose means they cannot respond in kind to conservative advocates and hacks who appear on the show. Nerf gun versus actual gun, at most.
If everybody involved believes these journalists are liberals they should be identified and self-identify as such. If not, they shouldn't allow themselves to be "balanced" by conservatives.
But, as I said, I was on this beat for years and nobody gives a shit.
Well Okay Then
I know Trump doesn't know what a trade deficit is. He thinks if the trade deficit is $300 billion that means that other countries are stealing $300 billion from us somehow, and that "bad trade deals" means they get to steal more from us. No I don't quite know how thinks this works.
But even within the Trumpian worldview of trade, this makes no sense.
I do not think decreasing our trade deficit with China while increasing our trade deficit with Malaysia...reduces our trade deficit.
But even within the Trumpian worldview of trade, this makes no sense.
WH CEA Chair Hassett, echoing Trump, says trade war with China is mostly hurting them not us
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) November 2, 2018
explains that American consumers can easily buy substitutes for all the generic Chinese manufactured goods from alternative sellers like Malaysia
I do not think decreasing our trade deficit with China while increasing our trade deficit with Malaysia...reduces our trade deficit.
Elite Journalism Is Filled With Racist White Supremacists
It's calmed down a bit recently, but for decades many of our leading lights were more than a little sympathetic to "Bell Curve" type "race science" and "racial realism." And I don't just mean at the National Review.
They don't like the ugly in the mirror, but it has long been ugly to the rest of us.
They don't like the ugly in the mirror, but it has long been ugly to the rest of us.
Obviously She Was A Crack Ho Like All Black Women
That's what he means.
The president loves his Yale Law grads. Abrams is a Yale Law grad.
ATLANTA — President Trump disparaged Stacey Abrams, the Democratic nominee for governor of Georgia, in ambiguous and unusually personal terms on Thursday, warning that “her past” left her “not qualified to be the governor.”
The president loves his Yale Law grads. Abrams is a Yale Law grad.
Whatever Happens On Election Day, Rest Assured America Remains A Center Right Country
Remember the avalanche of those takes when Obama won in 2008?
Thursday, November 01, 2018
Stop That
That Tesla calls it "Autopilot" combined with the tendency of Musk to make rather outlandish (and not) promises about capabilities is... a problem.
Musk likes to suggest regulators are getting in his way instead of acknowledging the reality that his fantasy technology doesn't (yet?) work. A reasonable if not fully educated buyer would conclude that the cars require less driver attention than they do.
California regulators, it turns out, take a dim view of Tesla Motors’ Autopilot — not the self-steering system itself, but the name.
In draft regulations released late Friday, the state Department of Motor Vehicles said car companies should not use the terms “self-driving,” “automated” or “auto-pilot” in advertising unless their cars are capable of driving themselves without human passengers paying attention.
For Palo Alto’s Tesla, that could pose a problem.
Musk likes to suggest regulators are getting in his way instead of acknowledging the reality that his fantasy technology doesn't (yet?) work. A reasonable if not fully educated buyer would conclude that the cars require less driver attention than they do.
Two Futures
Do they forget the caravan of doom the day after the election or do they go ahead and plan to start shooting when they arrive.
Give This Man A Ticket
While I am not fully aware of the driving laws in all 50 states, pretty sure "driving in public streets by remote control" is not legal generally.
And, yeah, sure Elon.
Driving around a parking lot (especially a garage) and finding a parking spot is one of the tasks that sounds easy to people but is actually really really hard! I do think people who drive a lot have internalized some of the basic tasks so much that they don't know which ones are straightforward for humans but probably not for machines. I, a rare driver, know that cruising around a parking lot is complicated!!!
I was not sure when I would use this feature... till today. @elonmusk @tesla pic.twitter.com/bC6rFt2SuW
— D Shawn Kennedy (@rarelyserious) October 31, 2018
And, yeah, sure Elon.
For those unfamiliar, this uses Tesla Autopark/Summon. Slightly smarter version hopefully ready soon. By next year, a Tesla should be able to drive around a parking lot, find an empty spot, read signs to confirm it’s valid & park.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 31, 2018
Driving around a parking lot (especially a garage) and finding a parking spot is one of the tasks that sounds easy to people but is actually really really hard! I do think people who drive a lot have internalized some of the basic tasks so much that they don't know which ones are straightforward for humans but probably not for machines. I, a rare driver, know that cruising around a parking lot is complicated!!!
The Show As Written
One of the worst perversions of objective "both sides" journalism, whatever its merits, is presenting Both Sides as they ask to be presented. As in, running the press releases. Report what they say they're doing, not what they're doing. Report what they say they "think" or "believe" (sometimes mind reading is possible!) not what they're doing, even when they're obviously contradictory. It's unfair, you see.
Anthropology And Sociology
The regular appearance of "we" versus "they" reporting is so laughably obvious in lifestyle/trend/real estate/gentrification stories (white people are always "discovering" neighborhoods, like the modern day Chris Columbuses that they are), but it also comes out a lot in basically any coverage of minority/immigration issues. Often it's subtle, but subtle doesn't make it better. I don't know how "objective" reporters can be so unaware of this in how they write.
It's also present in all the "real America" and "Trump voters still like Trump" stories. Or really any time someone from the New York Times gets off the lower half of the island. It's one of the maddening things about those stories. Who are they for? Nobody is interested in them - neither the subjects nor the audience of the newspaper - and nobody is placated by them. They're condescending.
It's also present in all the "real America" and "Trump voters still like Trump" stories. Or really any time someone from the New York Times gets off the lower half of the island. It's one of the maddening things about those stories. Who are they for? Nobody is interested in them - neither the subjects nor the audience of the newspaper - and nobody is placated by them. They're condescending.
Wednesday, October 31, 2018
Vote
If you claim to care about politics, it's the least you can do, assuming you haven't been purged from the voter rolls or that other obscene barriers have not been placed in front of you preventing you from doing that. That annoying guy who will spend 4 hours explaining why the purity of his essence requires that he doesn't vote is a total dick. I agree!
But lots of people don't vote. Most of them don't spend much time thinking about politics. Some of them don't see the point of voting and also don't spend 4 hours explaining this to you. They just have other things to do. Some have dumb ideas! Some think it doesn't really matter who is in charge. Maybe they have a point! For some people a half an hour (or more!) seems like a big bother. I work from home and have no kids and walk 200 feet to my polling place so it really is a zero effort thing. That isn't true for everybody.
Some people, like that dude who is a dick, are unreachable. That's fine. But everybody else... gotta convince them to vote. Go to elections with the electorate you have.
But lots of people don't vote. Most of them don't spend much time thinking about politics. Some of them don't see the point of voting and also don't spend 4 hours explaining this to you. They just have other things to do. Some have dumb ideas! Some think it doesn't really matter who is in charge. Maybe they have a point! For some people a half an hour (or more!) seems like a big bother. I work from home and have no kids and walk 200 feet to my polling place so it really is a zero effort thing. That isn't true for everybody.
Some people, like that dude who is a dick, are unreachable. That's fine. But everybody else... gotta convince them to vote. Go to elections with the electorate you have.
Liberals Are Supposed To Be Nice To Their Conservative Relatives
Especially around Thanksgiving.
Her dad is Steve West, 64, the Republican candidate for the Missouri General Assembly who made headlines after winning the GOP primary in August when word spread about his radio show and website through which he regularly espoused an array of bigotry including homophobia, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and outright racism.
“A lot of his views are just very out there,” Emily West said. “He’s made multiple comments that are racist and homophobic and how he doesn’t like the Jews.”
On Tuesday, her brother contacted The Star to say that he, too, was concerned about their father’s candidacy.
“My dad’s a fanatic. He must be stopped,” said Andy West, the middle of Steve West’s three children. “His ideology is pure hatred. It’s totally insane.
The Only Poll That Matters Is The One On...
I skipped the obsessive race- and poll-watching this cycle. Sports is fun to watch, but sometimes it's enough to know who won. Paying attention to the latest polls out of Nevada, or wherever, isn't going to change the outcome unless the universe operates differently than I imagine.
We'll know in a week!
We'll know in a week!
The Neighborhood
So much fun.
The stench of death hung heavy along South 11th Street in 1905. The smell had grown so bad that neighbors had gone to the local police district to complain. They claimed that a crazed man and woman were guarding a dead body inside a row house near Washington Avenue. They had been barring the door for weeks and, judging by the smell, the corpse had entered a state of advanced decay. There were flies covering the shutters of a rear bedroom of the building.
But they also recounted unbelievable details. Strange rituals went on inside and the residents of the home, which they had for years referred to as “House of Mystery,” worshipped a woman who they said could grant eternal life.
A dead body was still a dead body. A patrolman summoned a doctor from the city coroner’s office to investigate. The two men had little way of knowing that they were about to bring an end to a saga that had begun nearly 50 years earlier. A story of a secret society that had once enticed the city’s wealthy and powerful. A story of miraculous visions, grave robbing, con artistry, and court battles. They had no sense of the shock and horror they would soon feel, nor that the same feeling would soon grip the entire city.
The Bubble
I imagine some of these Republicans are a bit shocked by the backlash about their Obamacare votes. I mean, everyone told them Obamacare was worse than Hitler (the bad liberal Hitler not the good conservative Hitler) and that voters hated it and that voting to get rid of it would be the most courageous thing since Churchill did... I dunno, whatever Churchill did.
No worries, though, they just get to lie about it now. Backsies.
No worries, though, they just get to lie about it now. Backsies.
Fox Con
The willingness of (especially but certainly not just) Republican state governments to just throw absurd amounts of cash at companies with few strings attached is incredible. Also that these sorts of things aren't always treated as "scandals."
Morning Thread
We had some fun yesterday.
Today, it's back to the grindstone.
Gotta get these bozos out of office.
GOTV.
Today, it's back to the grindstone.
Gotta get these bozos out of office.
GOTV.
Tuesday, October 30, 2018
Late Night
According to several sources Robert Mueller is a big poopyhead and he eats poop and he poops all the time and poop.
Totally Normal
It's the kind of thing people think they can get away with trying to do because they think it's just a normal standard thing that people do in politics.
An alleged scheme to pay off women to fabricate sexual assault allegations against Special Counsel Robert Mueller has been referred to the FBI for further investigation, according to a spokesman for the special counsel’s office, Peter Carr. “When we learned last week of allegations that women were offered money to make false claims about the Special Counsel, we immediately referred the matter to the FBI for investigation,” Carr said in a statement on Tuesday.
Nothing Really Matters
Whatever motivates people to get into journalism, it's certainly easier to succeed with your sanity intact within the supposed norms of "objective journalism" if you just don't give a shit about anything.
The Easiest Scoop
Trump's an asshole, but he's also an asshole who likes to please (or think he is pleasing - maybe "impressing" is a better word) the person sitting in front of him. The easiest way for a journalist to get a scoop is to feed some bullshit to him and have him repeat it back to them almost verbatim. Then he'll read the headlines, be impressed with his own brilliant idea, and his people will struggle (enthusiastically or not) to make it policy, at least until his brain worm brain forgets about it.
Not Just Trump
If Trump leaves office, things just don't snap back to "normal" as too many people seem to believe. The biggest mistake a Democrat will make in 2020 is running on the "let's make Washington bipartisan and good again" as if the only problem is Trump, as if bipartisanship is good, as if letting Republicans off the hook is a noble goal, as if we are a nation of West Wing fans who think Washington ever was or ever will be "good."
Morning Thread
We mustn't let facts get in the way.
We're all gonna die of small pox! It's true! I read it on the intertubes.
We're all gonna die of small pox! It's true! I read it on the intertubes.
Monday, October 29, 2018
Pithy
I have tried to find a short way to express this:
This is good and right. And not just about "unity" but about how the rest of the news didn't get how toxic Fox was until (a little bit) later in the Obama administration. Because for a time "we" were all Fox News (not me! that's why you read this sucky blog).
It’s notable that the last moment of purported ‘unity’ was GWB and the Iraq war – when the traditional media flocked to Fox’s view of the world, rather than vice versa.
This is good and right. And not just about "unity" but about how the rest of the news didn't get how toxic Fox was until (a little bit) later in the Obama administration. Because for a time "we" were all Fox News (not me! that's why you read this sucky blog).
Nazis Are Good Except Liberals Are Nazis and They Are Bad
That really is the state of the discourse at the moment. Nazis have a point and should be listened to, also liberals are bad because they are the real Nazis. Especially Jewish liberals. Total Nazis.
Cut Your Mic
IF you spent your entire adult life supporting the Republican party and then wake up under Trump and decide that maybe you made a few mistakes along the way, your book and book tour should not be navel gazing. It should be "here are people you should have listened to instead of me, a really stupid guy who caused a lot of problems." That would be valuable!
Monday Morning
I dread this week and any "October Surprise" dear leader has in store for us.
Let's hope it's just bluster and nothing real.
Let's hope it's just bluster and nothing real.
Sunday, October 28, 2018
Adam Speak
You listen.
The apparent spark for the worst anti-Semitic massacre in American history was a racist hoax inflamed by a U.S. president seeking to help his party win a midterm election. There is no political gesture, no public statement, and no alteration in rhetoric or behavior that will change this fact. The shooter might have found a different reason to act on a different day. But he chose to act on Saturday, and he apparently chose to act in response to a political fiction that the president himself chose to spread, and that his followers chose to amplify.
As for those who aided the president in his propaganda campaign, who enabled him to prey on racist fears to fabricate a national emergency, those who said to themselves, “This is the play”? Every single one of them bears some responsibility for what followed. Their condemnations of antisemitism are meaningless. Their thoughts and prayers are worthless. Their condolences are irrelevant. They can never undo what they have done, and what they have done will never be forgotten.
The Vitriol Is Coming From Inside The Studio
A delightful interview of Chuck Todd by Hugh Hewitt about Bill "Tiller the baby Killer" O'Reilly.
CT: Look, I agree with you. He was not sort of a traditional conservative. He was, to me, he gave voice, what he did, he was the tone setter. He was sort of that anti-political correctness. That was, if he had a true north, that was it, right?
HH: Yup.
CT: If there was some way he could do that story, and if he could do that every night, right, he would find a way to do some form of that every night. But what he was, was the you know, it’s like he was the opening act that brought the crowds, but he became almost more fun to watch than the concert itself, sometimes.
HH: Yeah.
CT: But he was the entertainer, probably more entertainer than any of the others, right? And anybody else in this ecosystem is, I mean, he said it in his own statement. I thought it was incredibly self-aware that he said informed and entertained. He used the word entertained.
HH: Yeah.
CT: No real journalist would use that.
HH: Yeah, yeah.
CT: Okay, and that’s fine. I admire the self-awareness at least by saying that. But, so but he set a tone, and I think so while he was never, you cannot take an issue and say Bill O’Reilly championed that issue beyond the war, the phony war on Christmas, right? That was like a fun, that was an entertainment thing for him. But you couldn’t say championed one issue or one cause or thing like that. But what was thought, what would the conservative media ecosystem be without him?
Wow Where'd He Get A Crazy Idea Like Soros Was Paying To Import Brown People To Take Over The US
Apparently all of our cable news pundits have not been watching their own networks for a couple of weeks.
It's The Partisans Who Are Wrong
Once conceit of "centrists" is that the reason people don't agree with them about everything (even as they are often quite vague about just what those things are) is that those other people are stupid. These days it gets framed as the fault of the internet and social media, as if the internet and social media don't make it both more possible and more likely for you to be pelted with a wide diversity of viewpoints than ever before in human history. But it's basically the same whine. Partisans to the left of me, partisans to the right, if only people were all open-minded and we just listened to Each Other (code for:shutupshutupshutup and listen to David Brooks) we would have consensus and Unity.
Sunday Roundtable
Face the Nation:
Jamelle Bouie, Jeffrey Goldberg, Lanhee Chen, Susan Page
Jeffrey Goldberg's a bit of a tough one. I'll lump "centrists" in with neutrals for the sake of this. I'm always putting the thumb on the scale against myself a little bit here because the point is not to argue about these things.
So, 1 conservative, 1 liberal, 2 neutral. The closest thing you get to a liberal-leaning panel on these shows!
This Week:
Matthew Dowd, Donna Brazile, Mary Jordan, Reihan Salam
1 conservative, 1 liberal, 2 neutrals (Dowd is a full of shift grifter, but that's his current self-identification).
Meet the Press:
Erick Erickson, Joshua Johnson, Amy Walter, Kristen Welker
1 batshit crazy racist conservative, 3 neutrals.
Total:
3 conservatives, 2 liberals, 7 neutrals.
A surprisingly liberal week!
Jamelle Bouie, Jeffrey Goldberg, Lanhee Chen, Susan Page
Jeffrey Goldberg's a bit of a tough one. I'll lump "centrists" in with neutrals for the sake of this. I'm always putting the thumb on the scale against myself a little bit here because the point is not to argue about these things.
So, 1 conservative, 1 liberal, 2 neutral. The closest thing you get to a liberal-leaning panel on these shows!
This Week:
Matthew Dowd, Donna Brazile, Mary Jordan, Reihan Salam
1 conservative, 1 liberal, 2 neutrals (Dowd is a full of shift grifter, but that's his current self-identification).
Meet the Press:
Erick Erickson, Joshua Johnson, Amy Walter, Kristen Welker
1 batshit crazy racist conservative, 3 neutrals.
Total:
3 conservatives, 2 liberals, 7 neutrals.
A surprisingly liberal week!
Sunday Morning
Echidne wraps up this past Dismal Week in American Politics.
Read it and weep.
All of that in just one week.
Read it and weep.
All of that in just one week.
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