Tuesday, December 31, 2019
Learning To Code
The idea that 55-year-olds who have spent their lives in a very localized highly specialized profession should just take a few classes and then go move somewhere else for a new lucrative career is just... nuts. It's been nuts for decades. It was nuts when "job retraining" was supposed to make the NAFTA medicine go down. It's especially nuts when "tech" is a field known for elitism and age discrimination.
There aren't many coal miners so the focus on them is a weird fetish, but to the extent that "coal miners" is a metaphor, it's one for people who had hard jobs that went away and no amount of job retraining can reset their lives.
There aren't many coal miners so the focus on them is a weird fetish, but to the extent that "coal miners" is a metaphor, it's one for people who had hard jobs that went away and no amount of job retraining can reset their lives.
It's Tough To Make Predictions, Especially About The Future
But nobody listens to me. From 2017.
GM: Rumors of self-driving vehicles by 2018Lots of neato technology but no.
...
Ford: Truly self-driving vehicles by 2021
...
Honda: Self-driving on the highway by 2020
...
Toyota: Self-driving on the highway by 2020
...
Renault-Nissan: 2020 for autonomous cars in urban conditions, 2025 for truly driverless cars
...
Volvo: Self-driving on the highway by 2021
...
Hyundai: Highway by 2020, urban driving by 2030
...
Daimler: Nearly fully autonomous by early 2020s
...
Fiat-Chrysler: CEO expects there to be some self driving vehicles on the road by 2021
...
BMW: Fully self-driving vehicles possible by 2021
...
Tesla: End of 2017
Monday, December 30, 2019
I Did Not Read This Piece Before Writing That Post
But...
In these and other cases, Mr. Barr has embraced wholesale the “religious liberty” rhetoric of today’s Christian nationalist movement. When religious nationalists invoke “religious freedom,” it is typically code for religious privilege. The freedom they have in mind is the freedom of people of certain conservative and authoritarian varieties of religion to discriminate against those of whom they disapprove or over whom they wish to exert power.
This form of “religious liberty” seeks to foment the sense of persecution and paranoia of a collection of conservative religious groups that see themselves as on the cusp of losing their rightful position of dominance over American culture. It always singles out groups that can be blamed for society’s ills, and that may be subject to state-sanctioned discrimination and belittlement — L.G.B.T. Americans, secularists and Muslims are the favored targets, but others are available. The purpose of this “religious liberty” rhetoric is not just to secure a place of privilege, but also to justify public funding for the right kind of religion.
Mr. Barr has a long history of supporting just this type of “religious liberty.” At Notre Dame, he compared alleged violations of religious liberty with Roman emperors forcing Christian subjects to partake in pagan sacrifices. “The law is being used as a battering ram to break down traditional moral values and to establish moral relativism as a new orthodoxy,” he said.
Speaking Wingnut
It's often wrong to think conservatives are full of shit. They're just not using words and phrases to mean things that they normally mean. It's not true that they are big hypocrites or lying about "religious freedom," it's that to them, "religious freedom" means the freedom of members of their dominant preferred religion to enact theocracy and oppress everybody else. That is simply what it means to them.
In the wake of weekend attacks on a New York Hanukkah celebration and a Texas church service, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted, “Grateful to @realDonaldTrump and @VP for their commitment to protect #religiousfreedom at home and abroad. Thankful for the work of @IRF_Ambassador carrying the mantle on these issues. The fight to secure a religiously free world is urgent, and the U.S. will continue to lead.”
In under five minutes, Tapper responded to Pompeo: “The president proposed banning Muslims from entering the country and then his administration worked to make a legal version of such an order. That’s not a commitment to protecting #religiousfreedom.”
OPINION AND NEWS ARE DIFFERENT
This verbal defense tic from journalists started because readers would make dumb complaints like HOW DARE YOU DISPLAY SUCH BIAS AS A JOURNALIST to columnists who had to patiently explain that was their job or assert that beause Maureen Dowd was super liberal that the news side was BIASED.
Now it is just used as a shield from all criticism. Don't fault the NYT because of one columnist!!!
It is all one product with different elements. Gonna fault the appliance company if the milk frother on my espresso machine is bad, also, too.
Now it is just used as a shield from all criticism. Don't fault the NYT because of one columnist!!!
It is all one product with different elements. Gonna fault the appliance company if the milk frother on my espresso machine is bad, also, too.
A Society Of Corrupt Used Car Salesmen
Not a very new observation, but a healthy society requires a degree of trust, that every interaction or exchange is not a likely con, to function well and be pleasant. Avoiding be robbed and screwed can't be a full time job, and that's before we get to the fact that our legal system does not exactly empower everyone equally in these disputes.
Clearly, The Problem Is Our Readers
One reason I hate the NYT is the absolute contempt it has for the truth and for its readers.
Seems like bad qualities in a newspaper!!!
"Sorry I wrote that. It wasn't what I meant to say but that happens sometimes." Would be lie but not a "fuck you, readers" lie.
do they actually just think we’re stupid? https://t.co/HWh2sckuTD pic.twitter.com/K1T7Ix7Yq9
— Julia Carrie Wong (@juliacarriew) December 30, 2019
Seems like bad qualities in a newspaper!!!
"Sorry I wrote that. It wasn't what I meant to say but that happens sometimes." Would be lie but not a "fuck you, readers" lie.
Sunday, December 29, 2019
LOL
Bret Stephens’ latest column (https://t.co/6ECSD0oWe8), which argues that culture and history drive Jewish achievements, has been edited to remove a reference to a paper widely disputed as advancing a racist hypothesis. We’ve added the following editors’ note to the column. pic.twitter.com/Aj7eU3Fce2
— New York Times Opinion (@nytopinion) December 29, 2019
Truth
I live a lot of my professional life puzzling over social class and what-not. I can tell you this with the confidence of one thousand ancestors: almost all white elites think phrenology and race science are legitimate ideas. And by almost all I mean all. #lrt
— Tressie McMillan Cottom (@tressiemcphd) December 28, 2019
Somehow this stuff keeps appearing in our elite journals. Writers have editors, editors have editors above them, and yet...
All of our elite publications are *incredibly* racist, even if "race science" doesn't make a regular appearance. Yes. All. That black people are fundamentally inferior is the widespread belief necessary for this, even if few would state it precisely that way. But, hey, it's just science!
Saturday, December 28, 2019
Sonos
Outsourcing all content to Twitter today.
Read the whole thread, as the kids say.
Sonos states on their website that "sustainability is non-negotiable," and that they design products to minimize impact, but I work at an e-waste recycler and have demonstrable proof this is false.
— ralph waldo cybersyn (@atomicthumbs) December 27, 2019
Sonos's "recycle mode" intentionally bricks good devices so they can't be reused. pic.twitter.com/VJDNhYOxRy
Read the whole thread, as the kids say.
But There's Good Stuff In The NYT Too, Atrios
Pay for it if you want just don't do it because you think it's some sort of civic duty to do so.
"Ashkenazi Jews might have a marginal advantage over their gentile peers when it comes to thinking better. Where their advantage more often lies is in thinking different," says Bret Stephens. https://t.co/XQngBOMqmQ
— New York Times Opinion (@nytopinion) December 28, 2019
the guy allowing this to happen is currently in the running for dean baquet's job https://t.co/wOt5lfpb9t
— Ashley Feinberg (@ashleyfeinberg) December 28, 2019
They're Optional For Everyone!
Glad ignoring subpoenas is bipartisan now. Both sides!
Former Vice President Joe Biden confirmed Friday he would not comply with a subpoena to testify in a Senate trial of President Donald Trump.
Friday, December 27, 2019
And Another 10 Degrees
Doesn't sound good.
We all knew the global warming denial cycle so well that it was a joke years ago"
It isn't happening
It's happening but it isn't our fault.
It's happening and it's our fault but it's no big deal and it isn't worth the extravagant cost (hilariously small, 20 years ago) of doing anything about it.
It's happening and there's nothing we can do.
Goodbye world.
Bulls cannot breed at Inverell. They are becoming infertile from their testicles overheating. Mares are not falling pregnant, and through the heat, piglets and calves are aborting.
We all knew the global warming denial cycle so well that it was a joke years ago"
It isn't happening
It's happening but it isn't our fault.
It's happening and it's our fault but it's no big deal and it isn't worth the extravagant cost (hilariously small, 20 years ago) of doing anything about it.
It's happening and there's nothing we can do.
Goodbye world.
Trump'd
I suppose Bad Man Theory is just the flip side of Great Man Theory. Without the existence of One Horrible Man things would be very different. Donald Trump has altered history!
And, yes, sure that Donald Trump is president has altered history, but that's more about a few hundred thousand votes in the wrong places than Donald Trump. It isn't just him. President Rubio would be better in some ways and worse in many others, and the conservative movement/Republican party they preside over would be much the same. Some bad acts are uniquely Trump, and there are the tweets, but he didn't make Republicans what they are. Republicans made him their leader! And they stand with him. I don't just mean because they fail to pull some noble West Wing bullshit, I mean they *really stand with him*. Why wouldn't they?
That people forget how bad Bush was - and not just Bush, but the entire conservative/Republican/media apparatus that surrounded him - makes me mad. Bush, too, was a very bad man who was completely unqualified to be president. Two Very Bad Stupid Republican Men in a row! Both surrounded by illustrious members of the conservative movement past and present. People we were reassured were very fine people. And were monsters.
"OOh..Dick Cheney just oozes credibility..." - said an objectitudinal journalist.
And, yes, sure that Donald Trump is president has altered history, but that's more about a few hundred thousand votes in the wrong places than Donald Trump. It isn't just him. President Rubio would be better in some ways and worse in many others, and the conservative movement/Republican party they preside over would be much the same. Some bad acts are uniquely Trump, and there are the tweets, but he didn't make Republicans what they are. Republicans made him their leader! And they stand with him. I don't just mean because they fail to pull some noble West Wing bullshit, I mean they *really stand with him*. Why wouldn't they?
That people forget how bad Bush was - and not just Bush, but the entire conservative/Republican/media apparatus that surrounded him - makes me mad. Bush, too, was a very bad man who was completely unqualified to be president. Two Very Bad Stupid Republican Men in a row! Both surrounded by illustrious members of the conservative movement past and present. People we were reassured were very fine people. And were monsters.
"OOh..Dick Cheney just oozes credibility..." - said an objectitudinal journalist.
Our Bastards
Gotta get the timing right.
The case marks the first time a Briton has been charged with terrorism offences related to a family member joining the YPG, a group which the UK has aided with training, weapons and ground troop support as part of the US-led international coalition against Isis.Better lock up the British government until we figure out what's going on.
...
“On the one hand Britain supports the YPG militarily as part of the international coalition and on the other hand it is actively persecuting people that have anything to do with it. I have no idea why [the police] have arrested my father and questioned my brother or mother. My actions are mine alone. Because they can’t get to me, they are targeting my family,” he said.
Though Never Take Investment Advice From Me
Still think the company is going to collapse, and Musk is a fraud, but Telsa stock price has SOARED since I said if I knew how to short a stock I'd short it (don't tell me how to short a stock I know I could figure it out if I really wanted to).
The Neato Gadget That Never Quite Works Right
I suppose that's basically my best-case prediction for self-driving cars for the forseeable future. Very neato! But always more frustrating than actually just doing it without the gadget. And every time you try to impress your friends, it fails.
The problem is that 2 ton cars traveling at 70MPH aren't soffrito choppers.
The problem is that 2 ton cars traveling at 70MPH aren't soffrito choppers.
Thursday, December 26, 2019
Afternoon Thread
I think the various layers of "security" added to the internet (passwords requiring Etruscan characters, 7-factor authorization, etc.) are not exactly helpful for senior citizens. Or me.
Whatcha Gonna Do
Unlike with Collins, Murkowski's furrowed brow can actually mean something...
WASHINGTON — Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska expressed unease in an interview broadcast on Tuesday with the Senate majority leader’s vow of “total coordination” with the White House on impeachment proceedings against President Trump, a potentially significant crack in Republican unity.
Ms. Murkowski, a moderate with an independent streak, told Anchorage’s NBC affiliate KTUU she opposed “being hand in glove with the defense” and voiced other concerns as the Senate prepares to hold a trial over the two articles of impeachment that the House approved earlier this month.
Wednesday, December 25, 2019
Tuesday, December 24, 2019
Whiplash
Publications change, but it's funny that people now get mad at the New Republic for (roughly) being too lefty instead of too righty. I mean people might have valid issues over and above that for any particular piece in the magazine, but that's the basic direction the complaints come from.
Nazis
I admit I am stunned at how fast we've moved from "Our founding mythology of the modern era is about the brave brave men who killed Nazis" to "Nazis just have a legitimate political viewpoint which must be respected."
Nazis are bad, you see, but the real Nazis are those who want to deplatform them, who are more Nazis than the Nazis, if you think about it and also get paid a zillion bucks to write for our prestigious publications.
Nazis are bad, you see, but the real Nazis are those who want to deplatform them, who are more Nazis than the Nazis, if you think about it and also get paid a zillion bucks to write for our prestigious publications.
Monday, December 23, 2019
Food Inspections
This is one that puzzles me. I know that the very best rich people only get their pork products from the finest Butchers To Rich People, but you know Mar-A-Lago stocks its breakfast buffet with only grade D pig assholes. More generally, most rich people don't really remove themselves from the food supply trough that the rest of us stick our snouts in. Some policies only hit the poor, but some really do hit most people.
ALBERT LEA, Minnesota — America's food inspectors are warning that "unsafe" pork is likely making it to consumers under a change in rules for meat inspection.
That change is now set to roll out nationwide to plants that process more than 90 percent of the pork Americans eat.
Poop Log
I am not in Barcelona but I have been there at Xmas time. Viggo explains their traditions.
So does Kate!
And Norah sings the song!
And your nativity scene is not complete without a caganer!
So does Kate!
And Norah sings the song!
And your nativity scene is not complete without a caganer!
Sunday, December 22, 2019
Wouldn't It Be Great If Everybody Agreed With Me
I really don't know how grown-ass adults think talk of "unity" is... a good thing? Possible? Something we want our politician to aim for? Something a politician can actually achieve? Something we want them to achieve?
Sure it's reasonable to prefer prominent powerful people who don't actively try to stoke conflict. The black guy from Kenya was like that, aside from the daring to president while being a Kenyan Muslim thing. How'd he do?
Costner praised Buttigieg as someone who won’t compete to be the loudest or flap his arms to get attention, but instead speaks about “a kind of unity I've been waiting and hoping to hear about.”
— Priscilla Thompson (@PriscillaWT) December 22, 2019
Sure it's reasonable to prefer prominent powerful people who don't actively try to stoke conflict. The black guy from Kenya was like that, aside from the daring to president while being a Kenyan Muslim thing. How'd he do?
Bad Santa
This time of year I am always reminded about when Lou Dobbs got mad at the movie Bad Santa because he thought it was about the "real" Santa (no there is no real Santa, try to follow along) being bad instead of a version of the usual trope of a mall Santa being bad and...
And 75 years ago today, Mickey Mouse first appeared on the silver screen. Now, normally, the last thing I would want to do is a movie review. But this is more of a corporation and brand name review. The same company that has given us all Mickey Mouse and Snow White is just about, in my opinion, to destroy its reputation with one movie. The movie is "Bad Santa." It's to be released by the Disney subsidiary Miramax next week.
It features a booze-crazed, thieving, skirt-chasing version of good old Saint Nick. Instead of climbing down chimneys and delighting youngsters all around the world, this Kris Kringle is more interested in picking up chicks and shouting profanities at kids. It's an unthinkable, in my opinion, assault on the senses and certainly an assault on the sensibilities of all that's wonderful about a cherished childhood icon.
Billy Bob Thornton R-rated Santa is so vile, so vulgar, we can't even hint about some of the things that he does on a family broadcast like this. And I can't imagine Disney doing more to dishonor its heritage, its brand and its audience. Michael Eisner, simply put, you should be ashamed. That's our show for tonight. We thank you for being with us.
DISRUPTION
Smartphones changed "everything." I'll grant that. They were a big disruptive technology. Still changing everything.
But that's pretty rare. OK the internet before them. Um... transcontinental flights? Television? Automobile? Radio? Phones? Electricity? Telegraph? Trains? Not ranking these things, just throwing them out there are genuine "changed bigly" technologies. Otherwise... very few things are that disruptive.
Something like Uber... didn't change everything. A minor innovation in taxis. Change, sure, just not DISRUPTION.
Lots of things like that these days. Combination of techno-utopianism and venture capital unicorn seeking. GONNA CHANGE EVERYTHING. Usually not. Especially funny when they really are reinventing existing things. Like laundry service with an app! The 35th reinvention of the bus. That kind of thing.
But that's pretty rare. OK the internet before them. Um... transcontinental flights? Television? Automobile? Radio? Phones? Electricity? Telegraph? Trains? Not ranking these things, just throwing them out there are genuine "changed bigly" technologies. Otherwise... very few things are that disruptive.
Something like Uber... didn't change everything. A minor innovation in taxis. Change, sure, just not DISRUPTION.
Lots of things like that these days. Combination of techno-utopianism and venture capital unicorn seeking. GONNA CHANGE EVERYTHING. Usually not. Especially funny when they really are reinventing existing things. Like laundry service with an app! The 35th reinvention of the bus. That kind of thing.
Source Cultivation
It's pretty obvious that some really bad people in the Trump administration are (and were) the favorite sources of journalists, even over and above the basic "well, they're all bad" caveat. And it's also really obvious that such sources are given a somewhat different kind of coverage than they would otherwise be. AND it's rather obvious that elite journalists didn't care when the press conferences got cancelled because a) Suckabee Handers was one of their favorite sources/friends/pals/guests at their wedding and b) because LOL press conferences are for losers without Suckabee Handers in their favorite contact list.
I'm not going to pretend I have a handle on all the ethics of "beat sweetening" but I'm reasonable sure the ethics involve a tradeoff in which valuable information might be elicited at a later date, not simply "I GET TO TO BE SUCKABEE HANDERS FAVORITE PRESS RELEASE OUTLET."
Suckabee is gone, of course, but Stephen Miller is there. And he's a Nazi!
I'm not going to pretend I have a handle on all the ethics of "beat sweetening" but I'm reasonable sure the ethics involve a tradeoff in which valuable information might be elicited at a later date, not simply "I GET TO TO BE SUCKABEE HANDERS FAVORITE PRESS RELEASE OUTLET."
Suckabee is gone, of course, but Stephen Miller is there. And he's a Nazi!
Saturday, December 21, 2019
Dangerous Car Design
You can feel buttons and knobs and if you are used to the car at all you don't really have to look more than a glance to use them. Touch screens are... bad.
Loud Obbs
Long not been one of his biggest fans, and he was on CNN hating immigrants back before it was even that cool, but even I wouldn't have predicted this.
Eminent Domain
I'm so old I remember when eminent domain that didn't involve taking the homes of black people to build urban highways really made conservatives mad.
Customs and Border Protection, which is part of Homeland Security, doesn't yet own most of the land where it plans to build the wall. In fact, Wolf's photo op was staged on a half-mile section of the levee that was only recently acquired by the federal government. Hidalgo County land records show that much of the property needed to complete that stretch of wall is still in private hands.
Disorderly property records, complications with landowners and a cumbersome condemnation process have slowed progress to a snail's pace. That's despite an army of federal land specialists trying to rush the process to please the president.
Hopey Changey
One thing I really don't bother with any more is thinking "oh, well, that campaign rhetoric is dumb but it isn't designed to appeal to ME it will surely go over well with the mass of rubes in this country who aren't advanced politics knowers like me."
It is a pundit brain way to think about politics.
It is a pundit brain way to think about politics.
Friday, December 20, 2019
Books I Liked This Year
Internet Brain and being busy with various things and just failing kept me from reading as much as I intended, but a few I liked:
Anna Burns, Milkman.
Cixin Liu, The Three Body Problem.
Richard Powers, The Overstory.
Sarah Rose, D-Day Girls.
Sally Rooney, Normal People.
Anna Burns, Milkman.
Cixin Liu, The Three Body Problem.
Richard Powers, The Overstory.
Sarah Rose, D-Day Girls.
Sally Rooney, Normal People.
Journamalism
Perhaps not the brightest bunch, really.
.@Poynter named @chucktodd "Media Personality of the Year" saying, @MeetThePress is the "gold standard" of Sunday shows. "His excellent interview skills and accessible delivery make him THE voice when it comes to news in these politically divided times."https://t.co/DyB0cP0e7c
— NBC News PR (@NBCNewsPR) December 20, 2019
The Pundit Primary
I don't think *my* preferences are always universal or majority ones, but...
I'll give Klobuchar credit for one thing - she said "fuck" in front of me 15 seconds after I met her, which I thought was funny, not so much because of Klobuchar, but because it was at a time when journalists pretended that people with potty-mouths (bloggers) were Very Bad and I'm like, "if a senator says this in front of me right after I meet her, pretty sure you've heard it all before, guys..."
guessing that of every candidate on that stage, Klobuchar has best chance to beat Trump by a lot https://t.co/GEsG3DztmF
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) December 20, 2019
I'll give Klobuchar credit for one thing - she said "fuck" in front of me 15 seconds after I met her, which I thought was funny, not so much because of Klobuchar, but because it was at a time when journalists pretended that people with potty-mouths (bloggers) were Very Bad and I'm like, "if a senator says this in front of me right after I meet her, pretty sure you've heard it all before, guys..."
Politicians And The Press
As I keep saying, a problem with a society run by people from elite institutions is that while people from them might realize that not everyone who attended them are supergeniuses, they do assume they must be the best there is.
As the book progresses, you start to realise why Britain is in such an unholy mess: a posh fellow with a degree from Oxford is assumed to know what he’s up to.
SUPERTRAINS
Not quite, but rare good news in train world.
In the biggest boost in decades to train travel in the D.C. area, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam and CSX announced a $3.7 billion agreement Thursday for the state to buy 225 miles of track and build new passenger rail improvements.
Virginia will buy half of the CSX rail line from L’Enfant Plaza in D.C. to downtown Richmond, which will allow for many more daily Amtrak and Virginia Railway Express trains, and, for the first time, provide weekend service on VRE’s Fredericksburg Line.
Thursday, December 19, 2019
King
The thing is, nobody in power on "The Left" (broadly defined) would make this argument, and nobody on "The Right" would make this argument if the president was a Democrat.
But, you know, both sides.
But, you know, both sides.
Life Choices
I get that Republicans support Trump (not approving, just I get it), but I don't get anyone wanting to get even more enmeshed in this shitshow.
NEWS in Playbook: MARK MEADOWS is leaving Congress. Will not run for re-election, and is leaving open the possibility of leaving sooner for a job helping TRUMP. https://t.co/1acQyCPPfo
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) December 19, 2019
Impeached
Trump is a dumbdumb with brain worms who is trapped in the past. He thinks the greatest thing possible, aside from leering at girls in a changing room, is being named Time's Man Of the Year, and that if you're president being impeached is very bad though he's probably not sure why. People saying mean things about him on teevee is, to him, hell.
What if the impeachment is just a distraction from some other thing Trump is doing??????
What if the impeachment is just a distraction from some other thing Trump is doing??????
Wednesday, December 18, 2019
The Sean Hannity Extended Universe
I've said for years that the conservative mythology has gotten too complex for newcomers. Time for a reboot!
Matt Gaetz just made a confusing mention of "smelly Walmart shoppers" in his impeachment speech.
— Will Sommer (@willsommer) December 18, 2019
That's an allusion to texts b/w Lisa Page and Peter Strzok. The phrase "smelly Walmart shoppers" has since been adopted by Hannity and others as a "deplorable" style badge of honor. pic.twitter.com/QEOfUcBRus
Charisma
Yes I'm being a jerk but one big mystery of politics is that I do imagine it takes *some* amount of charisma. I don't mean they are hotties with washboard abs, but people who at least have some sort of charm. People you wouldn't run screaming from at a party! And when Republicans in the House get up to the mic and start moving their pieholes...
Give Me All Your Emoluments
Final fundraising push! Then the begging bowl goes away from while.
Thanks so much! Blog on!
Thanks so much! Blog on!
Emoluments
Maybe I am dumb but if I had been in charge of the Democrats I would have been hammering Trump on his daily petty theft from day one. It's right there in the constitution quite clearly and people understand petty corruption. It's easy to explain!
Afternoon Thread
Can't watch at the moment but I assume that Republican Man is making some very powerful intellectually compelling good faith arguments.
Our Sister Network
Even now, the objectitudinal journalists are more likely to include conservative hacks in the journalist club than anyone tainted by associations with actual liberal media.
Purity Tests
This was... 2008.
Two thousand eight.
Democrats torn between party, GOP friends
Democratic party leaders have tapped Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz to raise money and coach candidates in a high-stakes, aggressive bid to expand the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives.
But as three Miami Democrats look to unseat three of her South Florida Republican colleagues, Wasserman Schultz is staying on the sidelines. So is Rep. Kendrick Meek, a Miami Democrat and loyal ally to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
...
This time around, Wasserman Schultz and Meek say their relationships with the Republican incumbents, Reps. Lincoln Diaz-Balart and his brother Mario, and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, leave them little choice but to sit out the three races.
Two thousand eight.
WINTER FUNDRAISING FUNSTRAVAGANZA DAY FINAL
Thanks so much to all! My blogs will remain mighty and strong.
Your Liberal Media
I suppose there are two basic issues with the elite political press in DC (#notalljournalists). One is that the entire culture is wired for Republicans. It isn't precisely that they're pro-Republican and, yes, I imagine most are actually Democrats (though certainly not all!), it's that the Republicans are always the protagonists of the story. The story of politics in America is ultimately the story of Republican Man. Sometimes he's up, sometimes he's down, sometimes he gets arrested, sometimes a black guy from Kenya takes his job, but still it's all about him.
The second is that elite reporters suck up to the powerful. Access journalism, the lure of book contracts, the lure of administration jobs, just generally being starfuckers... who knows precisely.
During the Obama years these things were somewhat in tension and from some perspectives the press coverage of the Obama administration seemed... not insane? Really it was still bad and it was still about Republican Man. Or, in the early years, Republican woman, as the most important person in the America after the election of the first African-American president was... Sarah Palin. But Obama also got some "suck up to power" coverage which made it *seem* much more balanced than it had been in the Bush years, though "more balanced," even to the extent that it was true, doesn't mean "more good."
But coverage in the Trump years is, for those of us who remember the Bush years, actually "normal." It's what they're comfortable with, only made uncomfortable by the fact that Trump is such a freak that it makes it that much harder for them to pretend that he isn't. Bush was a freak, too. He really was. Dumb guy who said dumb things all the time, if not quite as much of a rageaholic. Covering Bush as noble President-King was quite ridiculous, but they did it anyway. The Bush era was completely bonkers! Most people just didn't pay that much attention.
Anyway, the point I'm trying to make here is that this is just political coverage in the US. As applied to Trump it seems more absurd, but the basic model is what it has been for 20 years.
The second is that elite reporters suck up to the powerful. Access journalism, the lure of book contracts, the lure of administration jobs, just generally being starfuckers... who knows precisely.
During the Obama years these things were somewhat in tension and from some perspectives the press coverage of the Obama administration seemed... not insane? Really it was still bad and it was still about Republican Man. Or, in the early years, Republican woman, as the most important person in the America after the election of the first African-American president was... Sarah Palin. But Obama also got some "suck up to power" coverage which made it *seem* much more balanced than it had been in the Bush years, though "more balanced," even to the extent that it was true, doesn't mean "more good."
But coverage in the Trump years is, for those of us who remember the Bush years, actually "normal." It's what they're comfortable with, only made uncomfortable by the fact that Trump is such a freak that it makes it that much harder for them to pretend that he isn't. Bush was a freak, too. He really was. Dumb guy who said dumb things all the time, if not quite as much of a rageaholic. Covering Bush as noble President-King was quite ridiculous, but they did it anyway. The Bush era was completely bonkers! Most people just didn't pay that much attention.
Anyway, the point I'm trying to make here is that this is just political coverage in the US. As applied to Trump it seems more absurd, but the basic model is what it has been for 20 years.
Tuesday, December 17, 2019
Objectitudinal
It isn't the most important thing, but it does provide a simple illustration. Describing that letter as "scathing" was a choice. It could have been described in plenty of other ways. More generally, a reader stationed on one of Saturn's moons who only knew about Our Big Wet President from what he or she read in the New York Times would not have a good sense of just what the soppy wet fella was really like, or what was really happening in the country. And if they aren't there to inform readers... what are they for?
"Denounced The Impeachment Inquiry In Scathing Terms"
That's one way to describe Trump's letter. The way the poets at the New York Times chose to go with you.
Can't believe you people still give them money.
Can't believe you people still give them money.
What Trump Wants Most Of All Is To Be Impeached
Can't believe people seriously entertained this thought.
Trump is dumb and has brain worms and he doesn't even know what impeachment is, really, but he knows it's "bad" when a president is impeached.
Trump is dumb and has brain worms and he doesn't even know what impeachment is, really, but he knows it's "bad" when a president is impeached.
DO YOU HAVE ANY HONOR SIRRAH DO YOU I SAY DO YOU SIRRAH
I suppose there are always a couple to pick off here and there, but overall "Republicans doing the right thing" is hope not a plan.
Instead of appealing to their better nature, make it clear that they are, in fact, assholes.
Instead of appealing to their better nature, make it clear that they are, in fact, assholes.
I Have Always Been Been A Never Trumper!
Didn't take Trump to make me a never Trumper! I deserve all the fame and especially fortune for my wisdom.
Day 6! Almost done.
Day 6! Almost done.
Lowest Bar
Even if we grant that the NeverTrumpers are sincere and not just grifters mad that their gang is not currently in charge, thinking "Trump is bad" is really the bare minimum to ask of anyone. None of them have had an epiphany about being conservative Republicans. They are all still that. Conservative Republicans, especially professional ones, are still bad people. I question their usefulness, too, but I could be wrong about that. Still I'm not gonna pat anyone on the head for merely saying Trump is bad, especially as even if they aren't just being grifters, they (the professionals) are having no trouble getting gigs and attention. Exiled from Trumpland, perhaps, but into the welcoming arms of MSNBC and elsewhere.
It Will Never End
One reason for the UK election results was a general desire to just get Brexit over with. But it will never be over.
But the French president warned Johnson continued regulatory harmonisation would be the price for protecting the flow of UK-EU trade. “The more ambitious the trade deal, the more we need regulatory harmonisation,” Emmanuel Macron said.
The new European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said talks on the future relationship would drag on beyond 2020, with certain parts of the deal needing to be prioritised and others left for later. EU officials could take the initiative and request an extension themselves as a way out of the problem.
Monday, December 16, 2019
Wow And Not A Single Ad On This Blog
Political advertising ain't what it used to be.
Michael Bloomberg has now surpassed $100 million in TV spending, per @Kantar_Media. Yeah, already. h/t @SooRinKimm
— Rick Klein (@rickklein) December 10, 2019
Sure
"Self-driving cars" will continue to improve and will become more and more "neato" but even if they achieve a satisfactory level of "safety" it is hard to envision that they will be actually useful for daily driving. This type of "fix" just isn't practical.
Self-driving cars aren’t quite ready for large-scale commercial deployment, but as the technology advances most companies developing it plan multiple layers of safety. Aurora, a startup that counts Amazon as an investor, thinks a system of remote monitors acting much like air-traffic controllers is one way to help ensure public acceptance of its robotic chauffeursOr commercially viable. "What if it's like a self-checkout system in the grocery store" basically.
Dozens Of People Could've Said "Maybe This Is A Problem"
But either they didn't see a problem or assumed their paycheck depended on them not seeing it.
HYPERBLOG
I have conducted a study and concluded that if I get TWENTY NINE POINT EIGHT BILLION DOLLARS then my wise blogs will travel faster to your brains.
Day 5 of fundraising fun!
Day 5 of fundraising fun!
Spending $29.8 Billion On My Blog Would Have Immense Benefits
Or million. Whatever.
CLEVELAND, Ohio — A high-speed hyperloop line that could zoom passengers through a vacuum tube from Cleveland to Chicago and Pittsburgh could cost from $24.7 billion to $29.8 billion to build, depending on variations in the route and stops along the way.My whole life I've seen reasonable transportation projects derailed by insane ones
Process
There's nothing corrupt about keeping the House impeachment process open. There is actually something corrupt about sending it all to the Senate where the corruption has been communicated clearly on the president's favorite TV network. It's a bit like handing a gun and your car keys to your cousin with the face mask and directions to the bank and hoping he'll make an ATM withdrawal and then saying "whocoodanode."
“Let’s impeach him now and NOT send it to the Senate rather keep investigating in the House, and add such supplemental articles as needed!” Dean wrote on Twitter this weekend. “Just let it hang over his head. If the worst happens and he is re-elected, send it to the Senate. But keep investigating!!”And stop with the Senate comity, "oh, gee, I really hope Mitch does the right thing." Mitch is not going to do the right thing. "Mitch is corrupt AF." Say it.
Dean is not alone in suggesting this. There’s a growing sense among those who believe that Congress has a duty -- both to the American people and to future presidents -- to call out high crimes and misdemeanors that impeachment is actually the be-all-and-end-all sanction, considering that a kangaroo court awaits in McConnell’s Senate. Indeed, people with access to Trump say that -- while he believes impeachment will help him in the 2020 campaign (and he may be right) -- he also sees the looming vote as a huge humiliation. As it should be.
Kill It
The thing is, this isn't a "crude and exist remark," like some drunk guy being an asshole at a bar, this is a boss trying to coerce an employee into having an abortion.
The issue is power. If Bloomberg is running around Manhattan catcalling women, that's "crude and sexist." This is something different.
Mike Bloomberg has on repeated occasions faced and fought allegations that he directed crude and sexist comments to women in his office, including a claim in the 1990s that he told an employee who had just announced she was pregnant to "kill it."Maybe it isn't true and the reporting can reflect that, but the reporting should reflect what the accusation actually is. It isn't that he said "nice jugs" on an elevator ride with her once.
"He told me to 'kill it' in a serious monotone voice," the woman alleged in a lawsuit. "I asked 'What? What did you just say?' He looked at me and repeated in a deliberate manner 'kill it.'"
The issue is power. If Bloomberg is running around Manhattan catcalling women, that's "crude and sexist." This is something different.
Sunday, December 15, 2019
Factions
People are competing for control of the Democratic party and they're doing a lot more than shitposting on the internet or sending $15 to their favorite candidate. They're spending lots and lots and lots of money and other resources even as elites bemoan "purity tests" and similar from the great unwashed. Every rich guy who maxes out to a candidate in the primary has a much more rigid purity test, backed up by money and power, than jerks on the internet do.
Sure Karen
One day Dems will realize they can't keep trying to hide* behind GOP Daddies.
*sorry, sorry, they won't.
A private campaign is underway to draft Rep. Justin Amash (I-Mich.) as an impeachment manager in the Senate trial of President Trump, a bid to diversify House Democrats’ appeal to voters with a rare conservative voice.And no Amash-the-Traitor won't appeal to conservatives. Trump appeals to conservatives. Ronald Reagan himself could appear on a horse and demand Trump's impeachment and there would be no "cover from GOP accusations that they’re pursuing a partisan impeachment." Even Grover Norquist would forget who Ronald Reagan was.
A group of 30 freshman Democrats, led by Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), has asked House leaders to consider the libertarian, who left the Republican Party earlier this year, for the small group tasked with arguing its case for removing Trump in the upper chamber, according to several Democratic officials.
The thinking, according to these people, is that Amash would reach conservative voters in a way Democrats can’t, potentially bolstering their case to the public. He also would provide Democrats cover from GOP accusations that they’re pursuing a partisan impeachment; Amash is one of the most conservative members of the House and a vocal Trump critic.
*sorry, sorry, they won't.
"My" Children Won't Be Locked In Cages
Almost all of us have empathy deficits to varying degrees and some of that is rooted in a very legitimate sense of "won't happen to me." But this life is messy and you gotta be Jeff Bezos rich to really not have to deal with the negatives of our horrible health care system. Being upper middle class with "good insurance" is not nearly good enough and we all get sick eventually.
I don't care, do you?
I don't care, do you?
Bringing The Fun In
I know I keep saying this but I find the Trump years to be utterly humorless, or more specifically that humor about the Trump years just grates on me. What could be funnier than just pointing and laughing at the buffoon, except it isn't really "ha ha funny." Even during the dark depths of the Bush years - and they were dark depths even if too many people were just sleepwalking through the years - dumb jokes kept me entertained. There are understandable reasons for this and some maybe not so good reasons for this, but I just want to gouge my eyes out when I read something like, "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE TOTALLY MOCKED KELLYANNE!!!!" or whatever. That's not a comment on the quality of SNL, which can be good or bad depending and I don't really care, just that however funny "Sean Spicer" riding around on a podium and yelling at that sexual harasser who works at the New York Times might be, it just isn't really funny to me. Maybe why is rather obvious. So the president is rapey and the guy who writes about him is rapey too! Not so funny when you think about it that way.
OK it's a bit that I'm just old and gloomy, but more that the humor and the horror are one and the same.
OK it's a bit that I'm just old and gloomy, but more that the humor and the horror are one and the same.
Strange Game
Not the first to point out that the DCCC has a tendency to recruit the worst people (and mess around in primaries even when they sometimes sorta claim they don't). Leaving aside any other possible (bad) explanations for why this is, it starts with a bias towards people who can raise lots of money before anyone even knows who they are, which means self-funders and people who know lots of rich people. Sure being able to raise money is genuinely part of the "job" of being a candidate, but showing up to the first meeting with a million in your pocket is not precisely the same skill and certainly restricts candidate recruitment o a certain type of person.
Not sure how much that applies in this situation, but in general...
Not sure how much that applies in this situation, but in general...
In light of the recent revelations regarding White House Senior Advisor Stephen Miller we must stand up against white supremacist terrorism and the racist rhetoric that encourages it. That is why I am an original cosponsor of H.Res. 299.
— Congressman Jeff Van Drew (@CongressmanJVD) November 25, 2019
Saturday, December 14, 2019
I Regret To Inform You I Was Wrong And They Are Bad
There's a certain set of elite types who swim in the law/national security blob sphere who exist to tell us that that the latest Trump appointee is Actually Good (Despite All Evidence You Hysterical Hippies) and then to circle back about 3 weeks later, when it's too late to even contemplate stopping their appointment, with "oopsie, my bad, yet again...I'll get it right the next time." (narrator: he did not get it right the next time).
Ben Wittes is the main one, but there are many.
Ben Wittes is the main one, but there are many.
WINTER FUNDRAISING FUNSTRAVAGANZA DAY 3
We are having so much fun!
Don't give me your grocery money, but consider giving me your NPR money. They'll probably just give it to Jonah Goldberg anyway.
Don't give me your grocery money, but consider giving me your NPR money. They'll probably just give it to Jonah Goldberg anyway.
Cable News Brain
Most people thankfully don't pay much attention to politics. Really it's a dumb hobby to care what Kellyanne said yesterday. And in the age of Trump, in which time has no meaning, I can't remember what Kellyanne (for example) said *this morning* and I have to pay attention to this stuff.
I think it was a bit different 15 years ago. Maybe winning the daily narrative mattered a bit more then. I think it's all oddly a longer game now, though I'm just thinking out loud.
But, anyway, turn off the damn cable news in campaign and congressional offices. Even 15 years ago that was good advice. It's certainly good advice now.
Gotta read this blog though! That's important!
I think it was a bit different 15 years ago. Maybe winning the daily narrative mattered a bit more then. I think it's all oddly a longer game now, though I'm just thinking out loud.
But, anyway, turn off the damn cable news in campaign and congressional offices. Even 15 years ago that was good advice. It's certainly good advice now.
Gotta read this blog though! That's important!
Friday, December 13, 2019
Pardon Him
I'm increasingly skeptical of the idea that anybody should be locked up, but...
In one case, Bevin pardoned a man convicted of homicide. That man's family raised more than $20,000 at a political fundraiser to help Bevin pay off a debt owed from his 2015 gubernatorial campaign.
In all, the former governor signed off on 428 pardons and commutations since his loss to Democrat Andy Beshear, according to The Courier-Journal. The paper notes, "The beneficiaries include one offender convicted of raping a child, another who hired a hit man to kill his business partner and a third who killed his parents."
Aberration
You can't look at the unanimous support of Trump by Republicans and think "well, this guy, he's just an aberration."
He is them.
He is them.
Smug
No perfect analogies, but the LibDems are like if you distilled every US manifestation of supposed "centrism" (Hot Soup, Tom Friedman, every senator who has been in a "gang of X", Third Way, most elite political journalists, Jon Chait, Claire McCaskill, etc...) into their essence and then animated some really unpleasant people with it. They get an absurd amount of media attention in the UK - jolly good pals - despite not exactly doing very well in elections recently or ever. And they are incredibly smug. Quite sure they are the smartest people in the room who should be in charge of everything if only the ungrateful peasants would recognize their genius.
Jo Swinson has apologised to the Liberal Democrats for a dismal election in which she lost her seat and the party slipped to 11 MPs, but said she did not regret fighting on a defiantly pro-remain platform.Better luck next time!
American Politics Knowers
Anyone trying to draw any conclusions from the UK election about the US political situation is being ridiculous and should be ignored, but if we are going to play that game, what lessons should UK Politics Knowers have taken from the 2016 US election?
Everything You Read About UK Politics Is Wrong
Politics Knowers in the UK are about as useless as the Politics Knowers here, and the people who write about UK politics here are even dumber.
But, to sum it up as simply as one can do without making (valid) excuses: Brexit split the Labour coalition and didn't split the Tory coalition (aside from a few of their peacocking Nevertrump (NeverBrexit) equivalents), and there was never a perfect strategy for dealing with that. No love for Corbyn personally, also, though (excuses time) his treatment by the media has not exactly been even handed (even from the parts of the media that are supposed to be).
As for the basic Brexit question, the Politics Knowers always wanted it to be a clean battle between Brexit (Tories) and Remain (Labour), though I don't think that was actually possible and don't think a non-Corbyn Labour leader could've or would've pursued that either.
Throw in the collapse of Labour in Scotland, which was kind of Labour's fault, though not really Corbyn's...
But, to sum it up as simply as one can do without making (valid) excuses: Brexit split the Labour coalition and didn't split the Tory coalition (aside from a few of their peacocking Nevertrump (NeverBrexit) equivalents), and there was never a perfect strategy for dealing with that. No love for Corbyn personally, also, though (excuses time) his treatment by the media has not exactly been even handed (even from the parts of the media that are supposed to be).
As for the basic Brexit question, the Politics Knowers always wanted it to be a clean battle between Brexit (Tories) and Remain (Labour), though I don't think that was actually possible and don't think a non-Corbyn Labour leader could've or would've pursued that either.
Throw in the collapse of Labour in Scotland, which was kind of Labour's fault, though not really Corbyn's...
Thursday, December 12, 2019
And No One Thought Of This Before?
When Dems didn't do anything after Mueller he started CRIMEING HARDER. Of course he's just gonna go full crime boss.
Yet Democrats are only just beginning to confront the paradox that their imminent impeachment vote creates: What happens when a remorseless president commits the same behavior that got him impeached in the first place — only this time after the House has already deployed the most potent weapon in its arsenal?That's why the narrowest and fastest possible process was... dumb? I am a dumb blogger and I knew that.
Story Continued Below
“I have not allowed myself to entertain that sequence of hypotheticals,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), a member of the House Judiciary Committee and a constitutional lawyer. “If he’s just impeached and not removed, we will definitely have to continue to deal with a lawless and ungovernable president.”
Right Into My Veins
Fantasy scenarios.
🚨 Tory insiders are telling me Boris Johnson could “genuinely be in trouble in #UxbridgeAndSouthRuislip”.
— Laura Jayes (@ljayes) December 12, 2019
Exit pollsters think the Lib Dem vote has collapsed there probably due to tactical voting for Labour.🚨@SkyNewsAust
Dumbest Pitch Ever
I know it's a standard joke now, that this is just some prestige television show with some fascinating plot twists. The writers keep pulling out some crazy shit!
But aside from the plot twists, just think of the cast. Imagine pitching this show in 2001 or whenever. Obviously "...and Donald Trump is president" is nuts. But otherwise! Rudy! The Dersh! Lindsey! President Putin of Russia! Boris Johnson! Tucker Carlson! Nancy Pelosi! Joe Biden! The gay mayor of South Bend! Harvey Weinstein! diGenova and Toensing!
But aside from the plot twists, just think of the cast. Imagine pitching this show in 2001 or whenever. Obviously "...and Donald Trump is president" is nuts. But otherwise! Rudy! The Dersh! Lindsey! President Putin of Russia! Boris Johnson! Tucker Carlson! Nancy Pelosi! Joe Biden! The gay mayor of South Bend! Harvey Weinstein! diGenova and Toensing!
WINTER FUNDRAISING FUNSTRAVAGANZA
Doing this every change of season now but lots of people do year end fundraisers and I don't want to step on their toes.
Anyway no one is obligated to give this dumb blog money but if it provides you with some value and entertainment do consider it. Once upon a time I could have made more money by having really annoying ads but even that is barely possible now. Make 30% more than google ads with this auto on ad you can't close! The pitches aren't even tempting anymore. Google and facebook ate internet advertising and likely the entire internet.
Not complaining for me personally though lamenting the decline of the great promise of the internet generally.
Give to charity first. Buy presents for your kids first. But if this is worth a couple of expensive starbucks milkshakes worth of entertainment for you consider.
And thanks to all! People who give during fundraisers, people who give monthly, and the people who throw a tip at me randomly. All appreciated!
Anyway no one is obligated to give this dumb blog money but if it provides you with some value and entertainment do consider it. Once upon a time I could have made more money by having really annoying ads but even that is barely possible now. Make 30% more than google ads with this auto on ad you can't close! The pitches aren't even tempting anymore. Google and facebook ate internet advertising and likely the entire internet.
Not complaining for me personally though lamenting the decline of the great promise of the internet generally.
Give to charity first. Buy presents for your kids first. But if this is worth a couple of expensive starbucks milkshakes worth of entertainment for you consider.
And thanks to all! People who give during fundraisers, people who give monthly, and the people who throw a tip at me randomly. All appreciated!
Britain Trump
"Refuses to accept."
“Now Varadkar was able to do that,” Clarke continued, “confident the [EU] 28 would be all right, because what he shook hands on was what the EU had already agreed to offer Theresa May 12 or 18 months before. It was quite obvious from what Johnson said afterwards that he hadn’t understood what he was agreeing to. He had not recognised it as the original EU proposal. He still refuses to accept that he signed up to a customs union down the Irish Sea.”And he keeps lying about it.
UK Election Day
Whatever happens it will prove I was right about everything, and will also have major implications for US politics.
Wednesday, December 11, 2019
The Boy Is Going To Do It
Our final #GE2019 Westminster voting intention on behalf of the @Telegraph, is as follows:
— Savanta ComRes (@SavantaComRes) December 11, 2019
CON 41% (-)
LAB 36% (+3)
LD 12% (-)
Other 11% (-3)
9th - 10th Dec
(changes from Savanta ComRes/Sunday Telegraph, Dec 7th)https://t.co/SwZAJxFqTk pic.twitter.com/PRibInIPwE
American Meritocracy
If you see a rich white kid in an elite school, a reasonable assumption is his (or her) way was paved by cash.
James Littlefair, an advance staffer who worked for Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, has resigned from the department after his mother pleaded guilty to illegally helping him graduate from Georgetown University as part of the nationwide “Varsity Blues” college admissions scandal, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Have You Seen Donald Trump
I have no doubt that Donald Trump is capable of lapping George Bush as The Worst Preznit Ever, though Bush was in pretty good shape and ran, or at least mountain biked, pretty far and two-big-macs-from-cardiac-arrest Trump is going to have to work a bit harder than we are used to from him. Still his immediate threats to marginalized people domestically, as opposed to globally, are rather obvious and not especially narrowly targeted.
A big tell from elite journalists is they are incapable of shaking the "us" versus "them" perspective in their coverage. We are wealthy white New Yorkers, they are other people. Poor gross disgusting other people. Donald Trump is only the greatest show on Earth if the acid he sprays into the audience at the climax of the show will never reach you. You can only cover him as they too often do if you know the acid is for the groundlings, not the people in the real seats.
A big tell from elite journalists is they are incapable of shaking the "us" versus "them" perspective in their coverage. We are wealthy white New Yorkers, they are other people. Poor gross disgusting other people. Donald Trump is only the greatest show on Earth if the acid he sprays into the audience at the climax of the show will never reach you. You can only cover him as they too often do if you know the acid is for the groundlings, not the people in the real seats.
If Elected I Will Not Serve
West Wing Brain Joe Biden is promising to only serve one term if elected, ensuring a more useless presidency than he had previously promised.
I try not to hate these guys. I really do.
I try not to hate these guys. I really do.
We Love Israel - Now Go There!
Jews are the most reliable Democratic voting bloc after African-Americans in this country and while in general American Jewish views about Israel can be complicated and varied, the left of center view does not really mirror the right wing one which is, as with many thing, the dominant view as portrayed in our media. Not just about Israel the country per se, but about the individual and group Jewish-American relationship with that country more generally. I'm not going to speak for The Jews, but I will speak about the right wing conservative view of Israel by nonjews. The religious and nonreligious conservative views aren't so different. The former leans more towards "go back to Israel, so Jesus can come and kill you all." The latter is more "go to Israel and have a lovely ethnonationalist state and then we can do the same here, once everybody "nonwhite" goes back to wherever the hell they should go back to."
I do not think these views are good for The Jews or for anyone.
I do not think these views are good for The Jews or for anyone.
Tuesday, December 10, 2019
Nationality
Can't see any problems with this at all.
President Trump will sign an executive order defining Judaism as a nationality, not just a religion, thus bolstering the Education Department's efforts to stamp out "Boycott Israel" movements on college campuses https://t.co/0avw7eseMc
— NYT Politics (@nytpolitics) December 10, 2019
The National Poll Is The Only Thing That Matters
Not true, of course.
In 2012 Obama was basically never up that much over Romney in national polling.
new Quinnipiac national poll on 2020 general election shows every prospective Democratic nominee beating Trump :
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) December 10, 2019
Biden 51%, Trump 42%
Sanders 51%, Trump 43%
Warren 50%, Trump 43%
Bloomberg 48%, Trump 42%
Buttigieg 48%, Trump 43%
Klobuchar 47%, Trump 43%
In 2012 Obama was basically never up that much over Romney in national polling.
The CNN to Fox Pipeline
Lou Dobbs, John Roberts, Bill Hemmer, Tucker Carlson, Greta Van Susteren, Howie Kurtz, ....
Communicating True Things To Readers And Maybe Trying To Explain Things A Bit
It isn't new, but political reporters thinking (or claiming to think) that their job is to perform some elaborate ritual to keep sources happy and maintain some illusion of "balance" instead of trying to do what the title says is even more absurd now. People think journalism is important (yes) and think the New York Times does good work (of course it does some good work) and think supporting journalism means paying for the New York Times (no, really, no, it's like supporting higher education by donating to Harvard). And if you like the product pay for it. That's fine. But don't pay for it because you think you are fulfilling some sort of civic duty by paying for it. The New York Times has been hurting America my whole life. Every "but her emails" joke is about the New York Times and I don't know why everybody forgot this the day after the election.
Why should I pay for Peter Baker to call Ben Domenech to get quotes for a piece which basically blames normal people and "both sides" for the fact that elites, including elite journalists and columnists, and mostly Republican and conservative elites, are devoted to deceiving normal people, or at best obscuring the truth? Do your damn job and tell us who is full of shit. That isn't always completely clear, but often it is!
Unless that isn't your job... in which case, what would I be paying for again?
Why should I pay for Peter Baker to call Ben Domenech to get quotes for a piece which basically blames normal people and "both sides" for the fact that elites, including elite journalists and columnists, and mostly Republican and conservative elites, are devoted to deceiving normal people, or at best obscuring the truth? Do your damn job and tell us who is full of shit. That isn't always completely clear, but often it is!
Unless that isn't your job... in which case, what would I be paying for again?
What Is Truth? An Elusive Custard, Surrounding A Willow Tree
What is wrong with the New York Times.
The whole thing is really just my full page ad in the New York Times for "why you should cancel your subscription to the New York Times."
While truth was deemed an endangered species in the nation’s capital long before President Trump’s arrival, it has become axiomatic in the era of “alternative facts” that each person or party entertains only their own preferred variant, resisting contrary information.Both sides, you see, have alternative facts, and it is beyond my duties as one of the most elite journalists in the country, to go beyond this formulation. I will, however, get a Republican to comment on this.
“We’re in a dangerous moment,” said Peter Wehner, a former strategic adviser to President George W. Bush and a vocal critic of Mr. Trump. “The danger is people come to believe that nobody is giving them the facts and reality, and everybody can make up their own script and their own narrative.”Everybody can just make up their own script. Everybody! Who else should I quote?
“The story of the past half-century is the steady degradation of trust in the institutions and gatekeepers of American life,” said Ben Domenech, the founder of The Federalist, a conservative news site. “Everything from politics to faith to sports has been revealed as corrupted or corruptible. And every mismanaged war, failed hurricane response, botched investigation and doping scandal furthers this view.”How about a plagiarist who runs a hate site? Good idea.
The whole thing is really just my full page ad in the New York Times for "why you should cancel your subscription to the New York Times."
Monday, December 09, 2019
One Million Robotaxis
The Musk faithful still believe.
This past Saturday, some typical police activity turned chaotic after a Tesla Model 3 slammed into a police cruiser on the side of I-95 in Connecticut.
The scene, which until the crash was simply State Police responding to a disabled vehicle on the freeway, turned wild as the Model 3 first hit the police car, continued on to hit the disabled vehicle and finally came to a stop with some assistance from a second state trooper.
The driver told police he was checking on his dog in the back seat and had Tesla's Autopilot system engaged. Tesla does not advertise Autopilot as a completely self-driving system, though the name remains controversial, with critics saying it overpromises its abilities. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this incident.
Next Time
It really doesn't matter how badly things went in Afghanistan or Iraq or anywhere else, or that nobody could articulate a goal for either adventure. As soon as the Foreign Policy Estalishment shines the Eye of Sauron on Some Other Bad Guy I Mean Humanitarian Mission, all the usual suspects will fall all over themselves to say We Must Do Something and "something" always means freedom bombs.
I get surprised at how fast these things happen. Remember when Donald Trump bombed Syria and that was the day he became president and then everyone forgot about Syria?
I get surprised at how fast these things happen. Remember when Donald Trump bombed Syria and that was the day he became president and then everyone forgot about Syria?
LIFELONG MCD'S WORKER MAKES ALMOST ONE MILLION DOLLARS
Journalists do something transparently awful.
And then make an even worse attempt at defending it.
Or you could realize the story is actually "Liz Warren made surprisingly little money over the course of many years. Interesting!"
But, Atrios, they do good work, too! Yes, I know, our elite newspapers have both GOOD JOURNALISM and BAD JOURNALISM but the daily politics coverage is almost uniformly shitty and dangerous. And deranged.
And then make an even worse attempt at defending it.
So you could write that Warren made $1,970,781 from 1985 to 2009. And that would be accurate.
— Annie Linskey (@AnnieLinskey) December 9, 2019
But you can also write that Warren made $1,941,679.63 from 1995 to 2009. And that is also accurate.
Or you could realize the story is actually "Liz Warren made surprisingly little money over the course of many years. Interesting!"
But, Atrios, they do good work, too! Yes, I know, our elite newspapers have both GOOD JOURNALISM and BAD JOURNALISM but the daily politics coverage is almost uniformly shitty and dangerous. And deranged.
Yes I Expect Better Of Democrats
People often get mad when I make some critical remarks about certain prominent Democratic politicians. You might notice I don't say "so just vote for Trump!" It's sort of a given that the Dems are better, which is why I vote for them, but also... I expect a bit more from them?
I get that expecting more from Democrats is a weird thing objectitudinal reporters do, even as they fail to acknowledge that is what they are doing. Their double standard is because they are both sidesing everything. My "double standard" is that I...want them to be better.
I get that expecting more from Democrats is a weird thing objectitudinal reporters do, even as they fail to acknowledge that is what they are doing. Their double standard is because they are both sidesing everything. My "double standard" is that I...want them to be better.
Better Give It Another 18 Years
36 More Friedmans!
Always surging surging surging towards freedom!
A confidential trove of government documents obtained by The Washington Post reveals that senior U.S. officials failed to tell the truth about the war in Afghanistan throughout the 18-year campaign, making rosy pronouncements they knew to be false and hiding unmistakable evidence the war had become unwinnable.
Always surging surging surging towards freedom!
A person identified only as a senior National Security Council official said there was constant pressure from the Obama White House and Pentagon to produce figures to show the troop surge of 2009 to 2011 was working, despite hard evidence to the contrary.
How Much Do The Children Of Rich People Pay For Chocolate Milk?
A useful thing in recent years has been the ending of various dodges by the "better things aren't possible" crowd. The more "centrist" Dem candidate and their supporters aren't out there saying, well, this lefty goal is good but gotta get it through the Senate and whatchagonnado? They're saying better things are, actually, bad.
Not inspiring but good to know.
Not inspiring but good to know.
Sunday, December 08, 2019
Our Buddies
A weird thing I see a lot is older people being confused that people under the age of 50 don't automatically see Russia as the enemy something something cold war USSR commies. In no way am I offering this up as a defense of Putin or the various Russia-related activities that are happening at the moment, but from the fall of the Soviet Union until very recently it was very much deliberate US policy and, yes, propaganda from the usual media adjacent elements of the blob that Russia was our good buddy. The whiplash for most people isn't "hur dur how can people like Russia???" it's the opposite. When did they become our enemy??? The actual relationship began to sour during the Obama administration for various reasons but "Russia is actually bad now" didn't really become a thing until very recently.
How Much Do The Children Of Rich Parents Pay For College?
The answer (for most) is zero. It is free for the children of rich parents, folks. That's no malarkey! Malarkey free zone here.
Well Then
I know LOL nothing Trump says matters but if a prominent Democrat said something like this "we'd" be talking about the Democrats' anti-Semitism problem for the next 25 years.
Trump, speaking to the Israeli American Council: "You're not nice people at all, but you have to vote for me. You have no choice. You're not going to vote for Pocahontas, I can tell you that. You're not going to vote for the wealth tax!" pic.twitter.com/IXoaVUw6MU
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 8, 2019
Jetpacks
Maybe transporters?
It's maddening that transit agencies are run by people who want "innovative ideas." If you have no extra money, run lots of buses. If you have a bit of money and political will, run lots of buses with increasing degrees of their own rights of way (dedicated lanes, priority signals, separated lanes, etc...). If you have more money it's rail (sometimes even just making more use of what's already there). There's no magic, but also it isn't complicated.
It's maddening that transit agencies are run by people who want "innovative ideas." If you have no extra money, run lots of buses. If you have a bit of money and political will, run lots of buses with increasing degrees of their own rights of way (dedicated lanes, priority signals, separated lanes, etc...). If you have more money it's rail (sometimes even just making more use of what's already there). There's no magic, but also it isn't complicated.
Got an idea how to move lots of people between the Secaucus train station, MetLife Stadium and the American Dream retail and entertainment complex? Now is the time to formally pitch them to NJ Transit.
Close to a month after the transit agency held its innovation challenge on Nov. 7 at the Meadowlands with 140 participants, the agency now wants formal ideas from firms with the wherewithal to make them happen.
NJ Transit wants an idea with the capability to move 20,000 people an hour from Secaucus Junction to MetLife Stadium for special events, double the amount that can be transported now. The agency also wants transit ideas that can move up to 6,000 people an hour on a daily basis to and from American Dream.20,000/hour is hard without good rail. 6,000 is easy and it just requires a lot of buses.
Saturday, December 07, 2019
If You Can't Even Stand Up To McKinsey
Just laughing at Mayo Pete trying to claim that his former employer has cast a silence spell on him that not even a president could break.
diGenova and Toensing
It's probably the case that only weirdos who had cable news brain back in the 1990s when few people had cable news brain remember Joe and Vicky from that era, but when time traveler me goes back and explains 2019 to 1999 me, 1999 me is going to be pretty pissed off that Joe and Vicky are still around somehow. These deep Republicans operatives never disappear. Except maybe they have!
Friday, December 06, 2019
3.5%
Economists spent decades telling people that unemployment shouldn't really fall below 6% because reasons (INFLATION).
So much needless suffering.
So much needless suffering.
Thursday, December 05, 2019
Oh, Elon
So many rich manbabies.
Elon Musk’s attorney pressured a British cave explorer to apologize for criticizing Musk’s miniature submarine, in the third day of Vernon Unsworth’s defamation trial.
A Blue Ribbon Panel Of The Wise Old Men Of Washington
I also, too, don't think much of the Wise Old Men Of Washington because I've learned over the years that most of them are, at best, not wise. But also *normal people have no idea who the hell these people are.* Normal people barely know who John McCain is (was)!
People in DC have cable news brain. Probably now the young ones have Twitter brain, which is at least *better* than turning to Andrea Mitchell for wisdom. Appealing to the Hall Monitors or the Nonpartisan Referees or the Very Serious People has no appeal. "Well, jeez, I was going to vote for Trump but now that Colin Powell has spoken out against him...."
People in DC have cable news brain. Probably now the young ones have Twitter brain, which is at least *better* than turning to Andrea Mitchell for wisdom. Appealing to the Hall Monitors or the Nonpartisan Referees or the Very Serious People has no appeal. "Well, jeez, I was going to vote for Trump but now that Colin Powell has spoken out against him...."
HAHA FURRINERS LAUGH AT OUR PREZNIT
We are doomed.
I get that a primary campaign ad mostly designed to draw attention and maybe even just enrage Trump for lolz isn't going to matter for November. What does matter is all the Smart Politics Knowers gushing over the ad. Fan service ads are fine, but nobody who might vote for Trump is going to think, "Oh No, Macron laughed at him! Gonna rethink" The opposite, in fact. Pissing off stupid furriners is part of Trump's brand. It's like all the ads from a recent election in which Very Serious Republicans expressed their concerns about Trump. Yes voters who want to throw the bums out are going to be very upset to discover the bums don't like Trump.
Yes Trump loved to claim that the world was laughing at "us" because of Obama. Haha got him now! Does nobody speak wingnut? Trump just meant, "it's embarrassing that a black guy is in charge." That's it. Nobody cares about the opinions of our trusted allies.
This is a very smart ad https://t.co/FhlBl4tLf9
— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) December 5, 2019
I get that a primary campaign ad mostly designed to draw attention and maybe even just enrage Trump for lolz isn't going to matter for November. What does matter is all the Smart Politics Knowers gushing over the ad. Fan service ads are fine, but nobody who might vote for Trump is going to think, "Oh No, Macron laughed at him! Gonna rethink" The opposite, in fact. Pissing off stupid furriners is part of Trump's brand. It's like all the ads from a recent election in which Very Serious Republicans expressed their concerns about Trump. Yes voters who want to throw the bums out are going to be very upset to discover the bums don't like Trump.
Yes Trump loved to claim that the world was laughing at "us" because of Obama. Haha got him now! Does nobody speak wingnut? Trump just meant, "it's embarrassing that a black guy is in charge." That's it. Nobody cares about the opinions of our trusted allies.
Wednesday, December 04, 2019
Rob Speak, You Listen
Our health care system is a nightmare.
I won’t be voting in the coming general election. I would gallop to my polling station on a horse, or even crawl there to do so, (it’s not half a mile away), but I’m not a UK citizen, so I can’t. My family and I have lived here just over five years, and we pay taxes and national insurance. We also pay the immigrant health surcharge every year for each family member, according to the terms of our visas. However, we’re not quite there yet on the path to citizenship, so no votes for us this time. But I love the UK, very much and that’s mostly down to the people who inhabit it (that includes you!) so forgive me if I weigh in.
Strange to think now, but we were planning to leave the UK and return to the US after we’d been here a couple of years. We missed our friends and the wild nature of southern California. But then our youngest son was diagnosed with a brain tumour, and his treatment began at Great Ormond Street hospital in London. While its staff were the experts in treating his cancer, my wife and I devoted our attention to keeping the family together and making sure Henry and his brothers could be together as much as possible, be it in his hospital room or on the odd visit Henry could make to our house.
One Good Song
One hit wonders are about success. The one hit might not even be so good. But one good song! Might be nice to write one of those.
And it's just C F G.
And it's just C F G.
So Easy
I know it's a bit "if my dog could quack he'd be a duck" but I continually marvel at how easy it would be for Trump to be at least a +50% approval president and quite possibly THE MOST POPULAR PRESIDENT EVER. The economy is by some measures good (not ignoring the underlying fucked up aspects of our glorious country). That gets you most of the way there. Trump obviously has his gross beliefs (he's pretty big on the racism!) but I suspect they are less important to him than PEOPLE LOVING TRUMP because everything is less important to him than that.
Go do the president show. Appoint the evil judges. Be just somewhat less of an asshole, but still playing to the base with some "owning the libs" and even racism. 55% approval. Easy.
Go do the president show. Appoint the evil judges. Be just somewhat less of an asshole, but still playing to the base with some "owning the libs" and even racism. 55% approval. Easy.
Cruelty
I don't think I am an especially nice or compassionate person. I'm a bit (or more!) self-centered and selfish. I'd like to think I show up when people need it, but I probably don't quite enough. Possibly passive cruelty or the cruelty of indifference is much worse than I like to think it is!
But, still, active knowing cruelty. I don't get it, folks. That's some malarkey right there.
But, still, active knowing cruelty. I don't get it, folks. That's some malarkey right there.
But the money-saving recommendations the consultants came up with made some career ICE staff uncomfortable. They proposed cuts in spending on food for migrants, as well as on medical care and supervision of detainees, according to interviews with people who worked on the project for both ICE and McKinsey and 1,500 pages of documents obtained from the agency after ProPublica filed a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act.
McKinsey’s team also looked for ways to accelerate the deportation process, provoking worries among some ICE staff members that the recommendations risked short-circuiting due process protections for migrants fighting removal from the United States. The consultants, three people who worked on the project said, seemed focused solely on cutting costs and speeding up deportations — activities whose success could be measured in numbers — with little acknowledgment that these policies affected thousands of human beings.
America's Worst Humans
Bill Barr.
“But I think today, American people have to focus on something else, which is the sacrifice and the service that is given by our law enforcement officers,” Barr said. “And they have to start showing, more than they do, the respect and support that law enforcement deserves ― and if communities don’t give that support and respect, they might find themselves without the police protection they need.”
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for clarification on who specifically Barr was referring to when he mentioned “communities” and what he meant by people finding themselves without police protection.
Tuesday, December 03, 2019
Never Forget The Brown Suit
Like Pearl Harbor.
A company that President Trump urged military officials to hire for border wall construction has been awarded a $400 million contract to build a span of new barrier across an Arizona wildlife refuge, according to a Defense Department announcement Monday.Most likely outcome is they will steal the land and never build the wall. Capitalism!
Obama Scandals
The truth is there were many things in the Obama administration that should have been scandals but weren't. Bipartisan bailing out rich people and bombing brown people. The things that were "scandals" were totally dumb, like brown suit day and maybe a cop did a dumb thing by arresting a black guy on his own property.
But even by the perverse logic of this stuff, "Trump pardons war criminal" should be a big scandal. It wasn't your local lefty peacenik who prosecuted this guy, it was The Troops who said This Troop Is Bad.
But even by the perverse logic of this stuff, "Trump pardons war criminal" should be a big scandal. It wasn't your local lefty peacenik who prosecuted this guy, it was The Troops who said This Troop Is Bad.
Steyer
I didn't really pay attention to the guy when he did the impeachment stuff and I haven't really paid attention to him as Next President Of The United States. It's true of everyone, though some more than others, but as Kurt Vonnegut wrote:
There is a tragic flaw in our precious constitution, and I don't know what can be done to fix it. This is it: Only nut cases want to be president.
NORMS VIOLATORS
The funny thing is that a lot of NORMS - stuff like "don't criticize the president when you're in another country!" - were just shit Republicans made up and reporters pretended to believe were holy and sacred traditions dating back to the Mayflower or whatever. And now with Trump it's LOL there were never any NORMS? NORMS ARE A FREE SPEECH VIOLATION!!! I DON'T SEE YOUR NORM IN THE CONSTITUTION, BUDDY!!!
The big problem, always, is that Republicans pretend to be upset and reporters pretend to believe them and Democrats, for good or bad, are unwilling or unable to play the same game.
The big problem, always, is that Republicans pretend to be upset and reporters pretend to believe them and Democrats, for good or bad, are unwilling or unable to play the same game.
Monday, December 02, 2019
Exudes Competence
It's hard to explain Van Halen to The Kids Today, and also hard to explain the post-9/11 era. I mean I don't even try because OK BOOMER (I AM NOT A BOO..oh never mind), but for me it was a grand illustration of how deeply weird much of our elite press corps is. The Bush administration was filled with complete weirdos. OK maybe not *quite* as obviously demented as the Trumpkins, but not so much better, and that's before we get to the civilian Iraq occupation force. I watched them try to turn Don Rumsfeld into a sex symbol. There was a lot of deeply weirdo psychosexual Daddy stuff going on then.
"Exudes competence" is what one objectitudinal reporter supposedly said about Dick Cheney. Competent at something, I guess.
"Exudes competence" is what one objectitudinal reporter supposedly said about Dick Cheney. Competent at something, I guess.
He Isn't Even That Good At Owning The Libs
I'm not surprised that Trump's popularity doesn't dip below 40%. I highly doubt any president's popularity, absent a severe recession, will ever dip below 40%ish again. I'm not surprised that Republicans vote for him. I don't expect some moment when the guys-in-diners suddenly have an epiphany and realized he's actually bad. Not going to happen.
But I am surprised by the people who genuinely seem to be into the guy. Not a generic Republican president (most Republicans). Not Trumpism (Republicans+conservatives+some random others). But Trump himself. I don't get it.
But I am surprised by the people who genuinely seem to be into the guy. Not a generic Republican president (most Republicans). Not Trumpism (Republicans+conservatives+some random others). But Trump himself. I don't get it.
Bad Duncan
Fate, really.
SAN DIEGO — U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter plans to plead guilty on Tuesday to the misuse of campaign funds and has indicated he will leave Congress.
Mr. Mayor
Is this an act? I do not believe Mr. Harvard Rhodes Scholar had to serve as mayor for several years before he realized residential segregation exists. South Bend has been under a desegregation consent decree since 1981. It's still in effect today. He's saying he didn't know that? https://t.co/6lLqJV6bpU
— Max Kennerly (@MaxKennerly) December 2, 2019
That's A Big Drop
I'm a proud graduate of Indiana University of Pennsylvania but I admit I haven't paid much attention since I left. A 30% drop in students in the last 9 years? That's a major thing for any institution to deal with.
My first year tuition+room+board clocked in just at $5000. It wasn't quite "I can pay for all of this with a summer job" but it wasn't insanely above that, either.
My first year tuition+room+board clocked in just at $5000. It wasn't quite "I can pay for all of this with a summer job" but it wasn't insanely above that, either.
Real Genius
Sometimes I can't tell if they're really this dumb or if they just aren't playing the game we think they are playing.
Is this a "donors want" thing? A "Trump might tweet mean things about us if we don't pass it" thing? A "what moderate heartland voters really love is trade deals" thing?
I dunno, man.
HOUSE SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI has made no secret of her desire to pass the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement by the end of the year, telling reporters recently that it would be her goal for the House to vote on it before Christmas. Centrist Democrats have been insisting privately that a quick passage for the trade deal is necessary for moderate members of Congress to win their competitive reelections in 2020, to show they can “do something.” Unions have made clear, meanwhile, that from their perspective, USMCA lacks real labor enforcement mechanisms, which could undermine the whole deal, further drag down wages, and eliminate more jobs.A bit of both can be the case, of course.
Is this a "donors want" thing? A "Trump might tweet mean things about us if we don't pass it" thing? A "what moderate heartland voters really love is trade deals" thing?
I dunno, man.