I don't think the pigeonholing is the real issue. There's with us or against us, cross issue fanaticism all over the place.
The issue with the omnicause is that it frustrates the use of state capacity the center left has traditionally championed. So you can subsidize construction of electric car charging stations. But you have to build them with union labor. And the materials have to come from MWBEs (or whatever the term is now). And there's no exceptions on normal environmental review processes. And the builder has to show its dedication to DEI through various internal hiring and training initiatives. And on, and on. Until pretty soon no one is actually building an electric car charging station despite the theorerically generous subsidy.
Yea, I think your previous comment gets to the difference, that being that these entities tend to lack their own information gathering apparatus, which is the expensive and thankless part. The new media still relies on the legacy media for stuff to comment on.
I was also expecting this to be last minute. Ensure that it's buried under all of the headlines about the ghastly things Trump has in store for us.
Not a betting man but I think it's unlikely Biden does anything norm changing for government employees. I also think chances Hunter is pardoned are a lot lower if Harris wins. In terms of size, scope, and complexity of burger I guess I'd say the people have spoken by electing Trump. We as a society simply do not care about this level of malfeasance from our ruling class. Biden has now officially made his contribution to the gap in accountability enjoyed by some but not others, but I find it really hard to look at this in particular as outside the scope of what we've long been willing to tolerate. Shame on him but a lot more shame on us.
For purposes of this hypo I think you're assuming that the activist groups with the ear of Democratic leaders actually do a good job of representing the interests and perspectives of gay Americans. And hey, maybe they do. But at minimum I'd say that's a premise that needs to be very thoroughly interrogated, lest the same kind of bleeding start there that has with hispanics (a term that may well be becoming meaningless) and black men.
Yea it's a fundamentally faulty vision of the world. When even the people you claim to be standing up for increasingly disagree that is the case it's time to rethink things. Well passed time really.
I think our political class lacks the language to describe what Trump really represents, which isn't fascism so much as a combination of illiberal democracy and corruption, falling somewhere between Silvio Berlusconi and the kind of Latin American strong man that loots what he can and mismanages the finances, but lacks the ideological commitment or competence to create and empower death squads. Why get your hands dirty over abstractions when you can make you and your friends and family rich(er) instead?
This kind of thing is bad and it can and should be opposed. However it cannot ever be defeated by anyone that has on some level internalized the idea that small-l liberal democracy is an artificial edifice covering for white supremacy or genocide or whatever other form of oppression, expressed in the most histrionic ways possible. They will lose because everyone knows that they are craven, cynical, and a different flavor of stupid and corrupt. And if we're going to be governed by stupid and corrupt regardless, we might as well pick the most entertaining of the options, that says he will fight for you instead of they(/them).
Yea, it seems to me that Bidenism had a very strong core of what a forward looking Democratic party should be about, that being strategic investment and modernization of our economy and civil infrastructure. Unfortunately it got weighed down in a combination of what I've heard called 'everything bagel liberalism' and a leader who age rendered incapable of making the case for it.
We had a very successful Thanksgiving, so successful that we had to pull out the extra tables. Two turkeys deep fried without damage to the house, took in a few friends and acquaintances with nowhere to go. Seventeen month old reached a state of total turkey ecstasy it was giving me flashbacks to my days going to sketchy rave parties up in Baltimore back in the day.
Name of the game this weekend is productivity. Not only do we have a total break from children's sports, but my oldest will spend not one but TWO nights with my mother in law. I am going to take this opportunity to do all the touch up painting, taking junk out of the garage to the dump, and a bunch of other chores around the house that have been pending since September. Plus putting up Christmas lights, getting gifts ordered, etc. etc. etc. With a little luck my wife and I will also have some time in the evening for a couch date. So a good way to finish out what is IMO the best week of the year.
North's explanation is all correct but bottom line is that prices are on average up almost 25% from where they were in 2019, including on a lot of essentials. It may just be the stage of life I am in with a couple younger kids but it has been a very serious pinch. It is blindingly obvious that cost of living got a lot more expensive every time we look at what we're spending on groceries and other basics every month. And we're the lucky ones who have been able to manage it without any big changes. We can easily make do without some of the extras.
Having more than a couple brain cells to rub together I understand that Donald Trump, especially the Donald Trump promising huge tariffs and big tax cuts isn't going to do anything about this. But even with full employment and a hot economy this has hurt, and if it's hurt me it's very easy to imagine it really hurting those less well off. It isn't made up, not in the slightest.
I agree with you. I also think Biden's foreign policy was overall solid, and a Biden that was 10 years younger may have been able to kick the ball in a very constructive post GWOT direction.
The needle that I think is tough to thread is distinguishing the neocon pundits and writers from the permanent bureaucracy in the pentagon, the CIA, etc. To me we are the side for whom skepticism of these organs of the state should come most naturally. Yet trying to both give them the aggressive reform they need while also defending the larger principles of rule of law, democratic norms, the need for institutions to work in certain non partisan ways across transitions of partisan power ends up coming off as incoherent. Or at least it is really easy to paint that way, despite there being no inherent contradiction between our basic system being good and certain actors within it being in pressing need of reform.
Yea, I would build off this and say there's really two things going on. Part of it is that the neocons, the never Trumpers, etc. are an on paper (or online) only phenomena. And as much as I appreciate David's posts a lot of them rest on the false premise that there is a conservative opposition to Trump of any significance. There isn't, no one has buyer's remorse (yet). The people saying these things are in a separate sort of wilderness they may never emerge from and no one cares one way or the other if they do.
The second piece of this is that there really still is a bipartisan failure to grapple with the disastrous GWOT. There are some really serious things wrong with the intelligence agencies, the blob, etc.
It's a strange set of circumstances that has made them a de facto Democratic constituency, and a really difficult one to take on at that. At the same time the Trumpian response to the situation is to say 'Yea they're failures, and you know what we do with failures? We put f*cking idiots in charge of them.'
It's a bad dynamic and I'm not sure how we break it with the current alignment.
What North said. I guess I was so incredulous at the suggestion that something happened without us talking about it that I failed to make note of the (major) distinction.
Maybe. But that's a hell of a thing for us to gamble on. Even a nuclear missile that fails to detonate properly could be a huge mess. Or if they know some may be faulty it could cause them to fire multiple in hopes that at least one works.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.
On “Open Mic for the week of 12/2/2024”
I don't think the pigeonholing is the real issue. There's with us or against us, cross issue fanaticism all over the place.
The issue with the omnicause is that it frustrates the use of state capacity the center left has traditionally championed. So you can subsidize construction of electric car charging stations. But you have to build them with union labor. And the materials have to come from MWBEs (or whatever the term is now). And there's no exceptions on normal environmental review processes. And the builder has to show its dedication to DEI through various internal hiring and training initiatives. And on, and on. Until pretty soon no one is actually building an electric car charging station despite the theorerically generous subsidy.
"
One break... comin' up!
On “Joe Biden Pardons Local Man”
Yea, I think your previous comment gets to the difference, that being that these entities tend to lack their own information gathering apparatus, which is the expensive and thankless part. The new media still relies on the legacy media for stuff to comment on.
"
It doesn't have the same charm, that's for sure.
"
Or crack pipes.
"
We've also learned that no one cares what journalists think either. They may be the least credible group in the entire country.
"
I was also expecting this to be last minute. Ensure that it's buried under all of the headlines about the ghastly things Trump has in store for us.
Not a betting man but I think it's unlikely Biden does anything norm changing for government employees. I also think chances Hunter is pardoned are a lot lower if Harris wins. In terms of size, scope, and complexity of burger I guess I'd say the people have spoken by electing Trump. We as a society simply do not care about this level of malfeasance from our ruling class. Biden has now officially made his contribution to the gap in accountability enjoyed by some but not others, but I find it really hard to look at this in particular as outside the scope of what we've long been willing to tolerate. Shame on him but a lot more shame on us.
On “Open Mic for the week of 11/25/2024”
For purposes of this hypo I think you're assuming that the activist groups with the ear of Democratic leaders actually do a good job of representing the interests and perspectives of gay Americans. And hey, maybe they do. But at minimum I'd say that's a premise that needs to be very thoroughly interrogated, lest the same kind of bleeding start there that has with hispanics (a term that may well be becoming meaningless) and black men.
On “I Told You So”
Yea it's a fundamentally faulty vision of the world. When even the people you claim to be standing up for increasingly disagree that is the case it's time to rethink things. Well passed time really.
"
Agreed.
"
Stop crying wolf.
"
I think our political class lacks the language to describe what Trump really represents, which isn't fascism so much as a combination of illiberal democracy and corruption, falling somewhere between Silvio Berlusconi and the kind of Latin American strong man that loots what he can and mismanages the finances, but lacks the ideological commitment or competence to create and empower death squads. Why get your hands dirty over abstractions when you can make you and your friends and family rich(er) instead?
This kind of thing is bad and it can and should be opposed. However it cannot ever be defeated by anyone that has on some level internalized the idea that small-l liberal democracy is an artificial edifice covering for white supremacy or genocide or whatever other form of oppression, expressed in the most histrionic ways possible. They will lose because everyone knows that they are craven, cynical, and a different flavor of stupid and corrupt. And if we're going to be governed by stupid and corrupt regardless, we might as well pick the most entertaining of the options, that says he will fight for you instead of they(/them).
On “Weekend Plans Post: Thanksgiving in Iceland”
Heh, sadly my girlie sized suburban needs included responsibly disposing of the oil I used to fry the turkeys. So off to the dump I went.
On “Turkeys and Drumsticks 2024”
Yea, it seems to me that Bidenism had a very strong core of what a forward looking Democratic party should be about, that being strategic investment and modernization of our economy and civil infrastructure. Unfortunately it got weighed down in a combination of what I've heard called 'everything bagel liberalism' and a leader who age rendered incapable of making the case for it.
On “Weekend Plans Post: Thanksgiving in Iceland”
We had a very successful Thanksgiving, so successful that we had to pull out the extra tables. Two turkeys deep fried without damage to the house, took in a few friends and acquaintances with nowhere to go. Seventeen month old reached a state of total turkey ecstasy it was giving me flashbacks to my days going to sketchy rave parties up in Baltimore back in the day.
Name of the game this weekend is productivity. Not only do we have a total break from children's sports, but my oldest will spend not one but TWO nights with my mother in law. I am going to take this opportunity to do all the touch up painting, taking junk out of the garage to the dump, and a bunch of other chores around the house that have been pending since September. Plus putting up Christmas lights, getting gifts ordered, etc. etc. etc. With a little luck my wife and I will also have some time in the evening for a couch date. So a good way to finish out what is IMO the best week of the year.
"
Looks really cool!
On “Huffpo reports that Harris internals *NEVER* had her ahead.”
North's explanation is all correct but bottom line is that prices are on average up almost 25% from where they were in 2019, including on a lot of essentials. It may just be the stage of life I am in with a couple younger kids but it has been a very serious pinch. It is blindingly obvious that cost of living got a lot more expensive every time we look at what we're spending on groceries and other basics every month. And we're the lucky ones who have been able to manage it without any big changes. We can easily make do without some of the extras.
Having more than a couple brain cells to rub together I understand that Donald Trump, especially the Donald Trump promising huge tariffs and big tax cuts isn't going to do anything about this. But even with full employment and a hot economy this has hurt, and if it's hurt me it's very easy to imagine it really hurting those less well off. It isn't made up, not in the slightest.
"
He's been saying that sort of thing for years. Probably right about it too.
On “I Told You So”
I think that time may come. At minimum it's hard to see how we return to the economic situation of 2019 with the policies proposed.
But it's hard for me to believe there's already any kind of widespread second guessing by his supporters. He hasn't even been sworn in yet.
"
I agree with you. I also think Biden's foreign policy was overall solid, and a Biden that was 10 years younger may have been able to kick the ball in a very constructive post GWOT direction.
The needle that I think is tough to thread is distinguishing the neocon pundits and writers from the permanent bureaucracy in the pentagon, the CIA, etc. To me we are the side for whom skepticism of these organs of the state should come most naturally. Yet trying to both give them the aggressive reform they need while also defending the larger principles of rule of law, democratic norms, the need for institutions to work in certain non partisan ways across transitions of partisan power ends up coming off as incoherent. Or at least it is really easy to paint that way, despite there being no inherent contradiction between our basic system being good and certain actors within it being in pressing need of reform.
"
Yea, I would build off this and say there's really two things going on. Part of it is that the neocons, the never Trumpers, etc. are an on paper (or online) only phenomena. And as much as I appreciate David's posts a lot of them rest on the false premise that there is a conservative opposition to Trump of any significance. There isn't, no one has buyer's remorse (yet). The people saying these things are in a separate sort of wilderness they may never emerge from and no one cares one way or the other if they do.
The second piece of this is that there really still is a bipartisan failure to grapple with the disastrous GWOT. There are some really serious things wrong with the intelligence agencies, the blob, etc.
It's a strange set of circumstances that has made them a de facto Democratic constituency, and a really difficult one to take on at that. At the same time the Trumpian response to the situation is to say 'Yea they're failures, and you know what we do with failures? We put f*cking idiots in charge of them.'
It's a bad dynamic and I'm not sure how we break it with the current alignment.
On “Open Mic for the week of 11/25/2024”
What North said. I guess I was so incredulous at the suggestion that something happened without us talking about it that I failed to make note of the (major) distinction.
"
I believe we discussed it in one of the comment sections last week.
On “Open Mic for the week of 11/18/2024”
I am relatively hawkish on Ukraine since they proved their willingness to fight for their independence. Just also clear eyed about the risks.
"
Maybe. But that's a hell of a thing for us to gamble on. Even a nuclear missile that fails to detonate properly could be a huge mess. Or if they know some may be faulty it could cause them to fire multiple in hopes that at least one works.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.