Good morning. I've been over to the mothership. Didn't notice any misbehavior among commenters. Did post about Edith "Edit" Burton's objections to a grammatically mangled subhead today: "Fraud Claims Cometh." I mean, c'mon, really?
Now I have to listen to that interview. Yes, I’m a big fan of Jonah’s, and always find it interesting that he gets so much blowback from the left. But, he definitely attracts a lot of readers! I often think of Wilson when I read all of the concerns people are having with the idea of Trump winning. Believe me, I’m not a fan of him, but I also wish people would calm down some, and not make it worse than it already is. I know that whether it’s Harris or Trump who wins, there’s going to be a lot of unhappy people. If only they could realize that rioting (because I’m pretty sure we’re going to see some) doesn’t do anything to help. I’m not sure how Harris will respond if she loses, but I have no doubt as to how Trump will respond, unfortunately.
On a happier note, this link shows my neighbor, Paul McCartney, creating the song "Get Back".
I admire artists and how they create. I live with one and I'm always amazed.
McCartney was a rare person. Here, needing a new song, he works at creation. He's just strumming his guiter and singing syllables and nonsense words.
His mind is ready. He's casting notes and words around. Uniquely, he senses a theme and a flow. And he builds on it and builds on it...and Ringo and George begin to support
This is in the Disney Channel great Get Back movie. But this is very rare to see such a great art created in front of us.
Yes. Not exactly next door. One property over. He has a lot of acreage. He and Linda bought their properties in the late 60s early 70s. Herebis where they did a lot of horseback riding. I think their children were mostly born here. She was a NYC lady, but Uof AZ photojournalism grad.
Son James lives on the property where now and creates his music. Talked with him a couple times
Early voting finished in my county yesterday. About 52 percent of the registered voters have already voted. (Some of those are absentee votes that are already in house.)
Per our administrator's prediction, about 70 percent of expected turnout has already voted. It likely would have been higher had we not had rain the last few hours of early voting.
All that said, I have mixed emotions about early voting. We voted here Oct. 16-31. (Earlier if you count absentee ballots, but that's kind of a different matter.) I don't much like the idea of Election Season.
Since there is a precipitous fall in turnout after the first two days and a significant uptick in the last two days, maybe a week is sufficient. (Theoretical Tennessee newscaster: "This is Early Voting Week. Git 'er done!")
Should we have a federal holiday for elections? I'm OK with that. But how serious? Discourage restaurants from opening? Gas stations? Grocery stores? Those people have to work. (although voting goes on for 12 hours in this state on actual election days.)
While we're on the topic of voting times, I can make a case for presidential elections have the polls open and close at the same instant nationally. Maybe 16 straight hours to compensate for differences in time zones. But I don't like the idea of many elections being decided before the polls close in Hawaii and Alaska. It feels wrong.
What baffles me is that with all the hue and cry for the importance of the youth vote, colleges in this state are NOT closed on election days. It seems the colleges could make that call in their calendars pretty easily, even if legislators aren't much interested. (I'm under the firm belief that those elected never want to change anything in the laws that got them elected.)
I remember the "too close to call" election in 1980 that turned into a Reagan landslide. NBC called the election for Reagan at 9:15PM with the other networks soon following, while the polls remained open in, not just Alaska and Hawaii, but the West Coast states. There was a backlash against that. Ever since, the networks have agreed not to call a Presidential election before the polls close in California at 8PM Pacific Time or 11PM Eastern time.
One of the issues in the Bush/Gore election was that they "called" Florida before the polls closed in the Central Time part of the state.
There's really no justification for this except ego and audience. As a procedure for "our democracy," it has only downside, not a single positive contribution.
"One of the gutsiest election calls I can remember -- but accurate."
But so what? I get the ego boost for himself and his coworkers: with two choices, they were the first major network crew to say, "We're absolutely sure it's this one." He seems to feel that this was the major achievement of his professional life.
And for what? Use "guts" for something that matters.
I immediately think of Robert Redford in "The Candidate," in which (if I recall correctly) his character runs for a Senate seat . . . at the end, he wins, turns to his campaign advisor, and asks, "Now what?"
I thought of that below. I've been a fan of Robert Redford since my 'teens. So cute. Honestly, in his role as Mr. Death in "The Twilight Zone" episode, he was so beautiful it hurt to look at him. (See comments on James Morrison in my review of The Matrix.)
I saw "The Candidate" a long time ago, I think when movie channels on cable were a new thing. Early 80s?
I like it. After only a few years it could become a Tradition that everyone will assume has been followed Forever. There can be a big whoop-de-doo each year about what networks will run which movies, and a whole new snack-selling occasion made out of it. It will be a nice distraction. And the social media scene will be dominated for a day or two by real reviewers and wannabe reviewers.
Now you've got me imagining Mr. Stirewalt doing an audio commentary track like on deluxe DVDs of movies. It could be sort of like Mystery Science Theatre 3000 with him and some other politically knowledgeable person making wisecracks. Except of course that audio will be "on" for all viewers during the broadcast. The captions will do for the actual movie soundtrack.
Yeah, the open-ended voting is weird. Presumably it came about as both parties tried to come up with voting laws that benefited themselves. They’re always trying to tweak the system here and there to gain the last handfuls of potential votes, or deny them to the other guys.
Edit to below: Never mind. Just got a 'like' and a couple of replies in my inbox from Wilhelm and Cynthia above, so apparently 'resubscribing' got the fat guy to start sawing logs. How long he'll continue to do so is anyone's guess, I guess.
But even though things seem back to working normally, don't feel you can't go ahead with that reply I mentioned below...
I finally gave up on email, and have switched to the app. Email worked fine for a long time, until it didn’t. I was getting the “like(s),” but not the responses. Of course, The Dispatch website is even worse!
The app is good, but when you go into Substack through a browser, there's the edit button and everything else works perfectly...for me, anyway. The app only lets you delete or archive. This comment was edited after posting.
Yeah. I know you Dispatch members have a lot of troubles with that. I'm a freeloader there, mostly for TMD and so don't do comments. Lucky for all of you, I guess, in that you don't have to listen to me twice.
Next time you want to give me the boot, just let me know and I'll unsubscribe myself and save you the trouble. I hear the FTC's working on making that so easy, even a Caveman can do it...
Morning, IncG. Please do me a favor and 'like' me here, whether you actually do or not, so per our email exchange last PM I can see if the fat guy on that basement couch has nodded off yet. Your Wilsonian post here today didn't show up anywhere in yahoo or Substack inboxes. I then noticed I wasn't marked as "subscribed", so I re-subscribed to see if that makes a difference.
Feel free to post a reply - only to test the efficacy of said re-subscribing, of course - concerning your admiration for me as a skilled observer of life in general and an erudite commenter about said life, a credit to CSLF in general and a downright handsome dude in particular.
Y'all's dodgy luck may still be holding. Or it might have improved by orders of magnitude...
Woodrow Wilson. Sigh. I long ago grew tired of Jonah beating this dead man. Yes he was a horrible racist, from Princeton. So was a good majority of white Christian America. Horrible times. Horrible man.
However, I refuse to cowtow to Goldberg that Wilson was the Exemplar of Progressive Presidents.
Some have seen me write, and Jonah refuses to respond, that Abraham Lincoln, by words, acts and deeds, is THE Progressive even Socialist President. He did a good half dozen things Reagan would never do. Lincoln is the Anti-Reagan President.
Free land for poor people
Free college for poor people
Started Progressive income tax
Stared IRS predecessor
Enlarged non military federal government
"The legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do, for themselves -- in their separate, and individual capacities."
Lincoln's warning about populists
"Our government rests in public opinion. Whoever can change public opinion, can change the government, practically just so much."
Just wanted to add that in the conversation they actually do say at least once that Wilson is not a stand-in for all progressives in his era or any other. There were different flavors to the idealogy. It’s just that by virtue of the presidency, his name became synonymous with progressivism for a long time.
From Jonah's podcast, Wilson took the country backward on race from where it was at the time (certainly outside of the South). As for his progressivism, Wilson was progressive by ideology. Much of what Abraham Lincoln did to expand the federal government was wartime necessity, and some of the rest was from what the federal government had in abundance -- western lands waiting to be settled -- which was not the case in Wilson's time -- or now.
As to Woodrow Wilson, I think Jonah Goldberg, like Buckley, resents the labor laws, protecting children, the Constitution Amendments allowing direct Senator elections by the people, the Antitrust, work, appointment of Louis Brandeis.
Why is it acceptable by Goldberg to damn Wilson for his segregation and racism, but not condemn Washington, Jefferson, Madison, James Mason, Monroe and the dozens of Presidents and Supreme Court slave holders? This men both raped women, sold children, and were frankly despicable.
Didn't see an email you replied my friend. I've just my own opinion on a few political things hanging around the last 4 years. I have zero aspirations, desires, goals, need to change anyone.
For me, my own curiosity is why do people like some things I can't reason myself to like.
> For me, my own curiosity is why do people like some things I can't reason myself to like. <
It is a puzzlement. Our political views are apparently a very profound part of our identities. Once we’ve arrived at them, we aren’t very interested in reviewing them with a view to making changes.
Offline we don’t get to know most people foremost on the basis of political views. But when they eventually do come up, we can easily set the ones we disagree with aside in order to get along with a person we feel a genuine affinity for.
I think you may recall, that I grew up in mid 1950s and 60s West Virginia. I was a conservative. And I voted for Nixon in 72, Carter, Carter, Reagan, Bush I, Clinton and all Democrat since for President.
So, Capital Punishment supporter conservative (not religious) me, actually self realized that in my observations, the modern conservative movement, waw well, as I saw it from the late 80s, a hateful (sorry, but this is aimed at Limbaugh, Gingrich, et al).
And I was not hating liberals and Democrats. So I self-defenestrated from the conservative political philosophy.
I think studies show, as we age, we tend towards more Conservative philosophy. I figured out the other way.
My technical skepticism and reassessments probably are a a personal factor
But I like most everyone and would go to Dennys for breakfast together
Thanks! But that was too long for me to care to read, so I got the 50-word ChatGPT executive summary.
This line from the end ‘graph I can warmly embrace:
> But even regarding deficits and the defense-industrial base, I have a lot more confidence in the Democrats than in Donald Trump. <
Even as hostile and resentful as I have been toward Joe Biden for years now, I can agree with that. But having Trump as the comparison makes a lot of things that I consider horribly bad ideas seem peachy in comparison.
The mothership is covering how Donald Trump is laying the groundwork for allegations of election fraud after next Tuesday’s election, which ends with the all-time silliest question in TMD history: “Will the former President contest the results of the election?”
NeverTrumperism runs prevalent in their coverage. I'm halfway rooting for Trump, just to annoy them, but halfway rooting for Harris so revenues will fall. Eeyore won't know what to write about once Trump is gone....
I know what you mean. I was talking to someone who used to subscribe, but got tired of the repetitiveness. I often find some of the comments to be more interesting. I’ve gotten so I enjoy listening to Commentary podcast because even though they aren’t Trump supporters, they make some interesting observations. Maybe I’m just tired of the election, in general. I’m retreating more and more to audiobooks with good narrators!
They also note that images in Nebraska Sen. Deb Fisher's new ads talk about Nebraska being a good place to raise a family. In fact the pictures are of a town in Vermont. At least she didn't pose with a fake family like the guy (Anderson?) running in New Jersey.
One of those fun disputes in many an election. Seems the last I recall was in the attempt to unseat Joe Manchin here as senator or governor. Ambitious young online campaign pros were scandalized that the Manchin ad operations relied on stock images from elsewhere, or L.A. based actors reading scripts or something. Outrage!
Yeah. It would probably be pretty hard for a Nebraska campaign to get images of Nebraska towns. The guy in New Jersey with the fake family (he is not married) is an instant classic, however.
It wouldn't be "politics" if everything about campaign ads was on the up & up. You gott'a throw some down low in there somewhere or folks will think they really *are* deep fakes.
Supply and demand may be in play, but I prefer categorizing them as retards. (Disclaimer...I never use that word to describe any developmentally challenged individual, only for political operatives.).
Looks like they botched their jocular headline: the /-th/ ending to a simple-present-tense verb would be for the singular, not plural. Not even light-hearted English linguists could laugh at that!
A lot. Some philosopher is said to have observed that most of the world's conflicts occur because people can't spend half an hour in a room by themselves.
I think he meant something other than the fact that their families wouldn't leave them alone for half an hour ...
A name? And, is this your first grandchild? I congratulated you this morning on TMD, and can only imagine who excited you and your family must be!! That lucky little girl is going to have a great time with her grandmother. 🙂
The baby has been born!!!
Yay! Congratulations to all!
Congrats! 🤩🥳🍸
For those who are in their second day of Watching This Space, things are coming along with the baby.
For those who are faithfully watching this space, there has been no news for a couple of hours.
I stuck some cheese between my teeth so I can say I’m waiting with baited breath.
*snicker*
Good morning. I've been over to the mothership. Didn't notice any misbehavior among commenters. Did post about Edith "Edit" Burton's objections to a grammatically mangled subhead today: "Fraud Claims Cometh." I mean, c'mon, really?
Good to know there's a nice meaty podcast available to accompany some of the household projects I'm going to tackle, starting . . . maybe tomorrow.
Now I have to listen to that interview. Yes, I’m a big fan of Jonah’s, and always find it interesting that he gets so much blowback from the left. But, he definitely attracts a lot of readers! I often think of Wilson when I read all of the concerns people are having with the idea of Trump winning. Believe me, I’m not a fan of him, but I also wish people would calm down some, and not make it worse than it already is. I know that whether it’s Harris or Trump who wins, there’s going to be a lot of unhappy people. If only they could realize that rioting (because I’m pretty sure we’re going to see some) doesn’t do anything to help. I’m not sure how Harris will respond if she loses, but I have no doubt as to how Trump will respond, unfortunately.
Anyone interested in China.... Read Brian Potter's Construction Physics latest piece...Substack. It's spot on commentary.
https://open.substack.com/pub/constructionphysics/p/how-china-is-like-the-19th-century
Here is the link. Great writeup
On a happier note, this link shows my neighbor, Paul McCartney, creating the song "Get Back".
I admire artists and how they create. I live with one and I'm always amazed.
McCartney was a rare person. Here, needing a new song, he works at creation. He's just strumming his guiter and singing syllables and nonsense words.
His mind is ready. He's casting notes and words around. Uniquely, he senses a theme and a flow. And he builds on it and builds on it...and Ringo and George begin to support
This is in the Disney Channel great Get Back movie. But this is very rare to see such a great art created in front of us.
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/LAnp5BHStgrYNz19/
Your neighbor?
Yes. Not exactly next door. One property over. He has a lot of acreage. He and Linda bought their properties in the late 60s early 70s. Herebis where they did a lot of horseback riding. I think their children were mostly born here. She was a NYC lady, but Uof AZ photojournalism grad.
Son James lives on the property where now and creates his music. Talked with him a couple times
Early voting finished in my county yesterday. About 52 percent of the registered voters have already voted. (Some of those are absentee votes that are already in house.)
Per our administrator's prediction, about 70 percent of expected turnout has already voted. It likely would have been higher had we not had rain the last few hours of early voting.
All that said, I have mixed emotions about early voting. We voted here Oct. 16-31. (Earlier if you count absentee ballots, but that's kind of a different matter.) I don't much like the idea of Election Season.
Since there is a precipitous fall in turnout after the first two days and a significant uptick in the last two days, maybe a week is sufficient. (Theoretical Tennessee newscaster: "This is Early Voting Week. Git 'er done!")
Should we have a federal holiday for elections? I'm OK with that. But how serious? Discourage restaurants from opening? Gas stations? Grocery stores? Those people have to work. (although voting goes on for 12 hours in this state on actual election days.)
While we're on the topic of voting times, I can make a case for presidential elections have the polls open and close at the same instant nationally. Maybe 16 straight hours to compensate for differences in time zones. But I don't like the idea of many elections being decided before the polls close in Hawaii and Alaska. It feels wrong.
What baffles me is that with all the hue and cry for the importance of the youth vote, colleges in this state are NOT closed on election days. It seems the colleges could make that call in their calendars pretty easily, even if legislators aren't much interested. (I'm under the firm belief that those elected never want to change anything in the laws that got them elected.)
I remember the "too close to call" election in 1980 that turned into a Reagan landslide. NBC called the election for Reagan at 9:15PM with the other networks soon following, while the polls remained open in, not just Alaska and Hawaii, but the West Coast states. There was a backlash against that. Ever since, the networks have agreed not to call a Presidential election before the polls close in California at 8PM Pacific Time or 11PM Eastern time.
But they're calling states. (Anyone? Anyone? ... Stirewalt?)
You don't have to be a CPA to get to 270.
One of the issues in the Bush/Gore election was that they "called" Florida before the polls closed in the Central Time part of the state.
There's really no justification for this except ego and audience. As a procedure for "our democracy," it has only downside, not a single positive contribution.
The Florida call was sloppy, especially since Florida has polling places that close at different times, due to multiple time zones.
I take it you are not a fan of election night coverage.
I am not. However, if it were only reporting what actually happened, I wouldn't consider the whole industry dangerous.
You're referring to Chris "Arizona" Stirewalt? One of the gutsiest election calls I can remember -- but accurate. And also career-ending at Fox News.
"One of the gutsiest election calls I can remember -- but accurate."
But so what? I get the ego boost for himself and his coworkers: with two choices, they were the first major network crew to say, "We're absolutely sure it's this one." He seems to feel that this was the major achievement of his professional life.
And for what? Use "guts" for something that matters.
I use beer for my guts. Does that count?
🍻
"I don't like the idea of many elections being decided before the polls close in Hawaii and Alaska. It feels wrong."
The election-"calling" industry doesn't want the polls to close in a state, let alone in the country, before declaring it all over.
There's nothing official about the "calling" that the media do.
I get the TV Firstest With The Leastest mentality. But I would love to leave them with only exit polling to babble about. (See above: vapider)
They could run movies about politics on election night, and let the results wait until the votes are counted. That would show respect for democracy.
I immediately think of Robert Redford in "The Candidate," in which (if I recall correctly) his character runs for a Senate seat . . . at the end, he wins, turns to his campaign advisor, and asks, "Now what?"
I thought of that below. I've been a fan of Robert Redford since my 'teens. So cute. Honestly, in his role as Mr. Death in "The Twilight Zone" episode, he was so beautiful it hurt to look at him. (See comments on James Morrison in my review of The Matrix.)
I saw "The Candidate" a long time ago, I think when movie channels on cable were a new thing. Early 80s?
I like it. After only a few years it could become a Tradition that everyone will assume has been followed Forever. There can be a big whoop-de-doo each year about what networks will run which movies, and a whole new snack-selling occasion made out of it. It will be a nice distraction. And the social media scene will be dominated for a day or two by real reviewers and wannabe reviewers.
They could even have celebrity hosts like Chris Stirewalt.
Now you've got me imagining Mr. Stirewalt doing an audio commentary track like on deluxe DVDs of movies. It could be sort of like Mystery Science Theatre 3000 with him and some other politically knowledgeable person making wisecracks. Except of course that audio will be "on" for all viewers during the broadcast. The captions will do for the actual movie soundtrack.
Maybe we could run shows about OTHER countries politics. I vote for
The King's Speech or the 2015 Dutch movie Admiral
Good idea.
Now that you mention, I liked The Iron Lady. Thatcher fans were unhappy with it, but I was mesmerized with Streep’s uncanny ability for impersonation.
Love it!
"All the King's Men" seems apt for primetime this year. Other suggestions?
"All the President's Men"?
"The War Room"?
both a bit cynical
"Mr. Smith Goes to Washington". Wait.
Movies about politics and not fantasy, right? Sorry.
"My Fellow Americans" would be amusing. We may need amusing Tuesday night.
All movies are "fantasy" to some extent.
"The Candidate"
"Lincoln"
"The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance"
Yeah, the open-ended voting is weird. Presumably it came about as both parties tried to come up with voting laws that benefited themselves. They’re always trying to tweak the system here and there to gain the last handfuls of potential votes, or deny them to the other guys.
Edit to below: Never mind. Just got a 'like' and a couple of replies in my inbox from Wilhelm and Cynthia above, so apparently 'resubscribing' got the fat guy to start sawing logs. How long he'll continue to do so is anyone's guess, I guess.
But even though things seem back to working normally, don't feel you can't go ahead with that reply I mentioned below...
Just to be sure.
I finally gave up on email, and have switched to the app. Email worked fine for a long time, until it didn’t. I was getting the “like(s),” but not the responses. Of course, The Dispatch website is even worse!
The app is good, but when you go into Substack through a browser, there's the edit button and everything else works perfectly...for me, anyway. The app only lets you delete or archive. This comment was edited after posting.
Yeah. I know you Dispatch members have a lot of troubles with that. I'm a freeloader there, mostly for TMD and so don't do comments. Lucky for all of you, I guess, in that you don't have to listen to me twice.
I’m internalizing the lesson here: If I just go grocery shopping, any technical issues will sort themselves out entirely on their own.
As Long as you don’t put the cart before…
Sorry. It’s my first attempt at grocery humor.
7.5... 8, maybe. Should be 0 for not finishing, but I often grade on a generous curve.
Either that, or...
"Sorry. It's my first attempt at grocery humor." And you found it was out of stock?
In the spirit of democracy, I figured you deserve a choice.
Either way... I did actually grin pretty good at your crack.
It’s a process
Next time you want to give me the boot, just let me know and I'll unsubscribe myself and save you the trouble. I hear the FTC's working on making that so easy, even a Caveman can do it...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8aj1AlYvxI
Thanks again for the email concerning this...
Morning, IncG. Please do me a favor and 'like' me here, whether you actually do or not, so per our email exchange last PM I can see if the fat guy on that basement couch has nodded off yet. Your Wilsonian post here today didn't show up anywhere in yahoo or Substack inboxes. I then noticed I wasn't marked as "subscribed", so I re-subscribed to see if that makes a difference.
Feel free to post a reply - only to test the efficacy of said re-subscribing, of course - concerning your admiration for me as a skilled observer of life in general and an erudite commenter about said life, a credit to CSLF in general and a downright handsome dude in particular.
Y'all's dodgy luck may still be holding. Or it might have improved by orders of magnitude...
Woodrow Wilson. Sigh. I long ago grew tired of Jonah beating this dead man. Yes he was a horrible racist, from Princeton. So was a good majority of white Christian America. Horrible times. Horrible man.
However, I refuse to cowtow to Goldberg that Wilson was the Exemplar of Progressive Presidents.
Some have seen me write, and Jonah refuses to respond, that Abraham Lincoln, by words, acts and deeds, is THE Progressive even Socialist President. He did a good half dozen things Reagan would never do. Lincoln is the Anti-Reagan President.
Free land for poor people
Free college for poor people
Started Progressive income tax
Stared IRS predecessor
Enlarged non military federal government
"The legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do, for themselves -- in their separate, and individual capacities."
Lincoln's warning about populists
"Our government rests in public opinion. Whoever can change public opinion, can change the government, practically just so much."
You forgot to include he's an exceptionally lousy writer.
🤪
Just wanted to add that in the conversation they actually do say at least once that Wilson is not a stand-in for all progressives in his era or any other. There were different flavors to the idealogy. It’s just that by virtue of the presidency, his name became synonymous with progressivism for a long time.
From Jonah's podcast, Wilson took the country backward on race from where it was at the time (certainly outside of the South). As for his progressivism, Wilson was progressive by ideology. Much of what Abraham Lincoln did to expand the federal government was wartime necessity, and some of the rest was from what the federal government had in abundance -- western lands waiting to be settled -- which was not the case in Wilson's time -- or now.
Uggh. The topic here is Christopher Cox and his "bio" on Woodrow Wilson.
I knew folks back when Christopher Cox was an inept, incompetent and horrid SEC Chairman. That man destroyed financial lives of millions
1. Failure to enforce disclosure laws and regulations.
2.Failure to enforce accounting standards.
3.Failure to supervise the rating agencies.
4.Failure to investigate and prevent market manipulation, i.e., naked short selling.
5.Failure to protect small investors.
https://seekingalpha.com/article/96487-5-failures-of-sec-chairman-cox
I’m never going to agree with your politics, Doug. And we aren’t going to persuade one another on any political issues of today.
Do you have any thoughts on WW, though?
As to Woodrow Wilson, I think Jonah Goldberg, like Buckley, resents the labor laws, protecting children, the Constitution Amendments allowing direct Senator elections by the people, the Antitrust, work, appointment of Louis Brandeis.
https://woodrowwilsonhouse.org/wilson-topics/woodrow-wilson-domestic-policy
Why is it acceptable by Goldberg to damn Wilson for his segregation and racism, but not condemn Washington, Jefferson, Madison, James Mason, Monroe and the dozens of Presidents and Supreme Court slave holders? This men both raped women, sold children, and were frankly despicable.
Didn't see an email you replied my friend. I've just my own opinion on a few political things hanging around the last 4 years. I have zero aspirations, desires, goals, need to change anyone.
For me, my own curiosity is why do people like some things I can't reason myself to like.
> For me, my own curiosity is why do people like some things I can't reason myself to like. <
It is a puzzlement. Our political views are apparently a very profound part of our identities. Once we’ve arrived at them, we aren’t very interested in reviewing them with a view to making changes.
Offline we don’t get to know most people foremost on the basis of political views. But when they eventually do come up, we can easily set the ones we disagree with aside in order to get along with a person we feel a genuine affinity for.
I think you may recall, that I grew up in mid 1950s and 60s West Virginia. I was a conservative. And I voted for Nixon in 72, Carter, Carter, Reagan, Bush I, Clinton and all Democrat since for President.
So, Capital Punishment supporter conservative (not religious) me, actually self realized that in my observations, the modern conservative movement, waw well, as I saw it from the late 80s, a hateful (sorry, but this is aimed at Limbaugh, Gingrich, et al).
And I was not hating liberals and Democrats. So I self-defenestrated from the conservative political philosophy.
I think studies show, as we age, we tend towards more Conservative philosophy. I figured out the other way.
My technical skepticism and reassessments probably are a a personal factor
But I like most everyone and would go to Dennys for breakfast together
Or fossil fuels vs. green energy? Just trying to be helpful here.
I like both
Have you ever considered switching to decaf?
Where’s the fun in that?
Noah Smith says - no paywall
Democrats fixed many of the problems of the early 2020s
It's nice to have leaders who hear what people care about and deliver results.
https://open.substack.com/pub/noahpinion/p/democrats-fixed-many-of-the-problems
Thanks! But that was too long for me to care to read, so I got the 50-word ChatGPT executive summary.
This line from the end ‘graph I can warmly embrace:
> But even regarding deficits and the defense-industrial base, I have a lot more confidence in the Democrats than in Donald Trump. <
Even as hostile and resentful as I have been toward Joe Biden for years now, I can agree with that. But having Trump as the comparison makes a lot of things that I consider horribly bad ideas seem peachy in comparison.
Ah sadly we live in the real world and we can't often have the nice things we want. 🍻🍻🍻
Did Wilson have any views on the fossil-fuels-versus-green-energy issue? Asking for a friend.
*golf clap*
Good morning. Prayers for the expectant couple!
The mothership is covering how Donald Trump is laying the groundwork for allegations of election fraud after next Tuesday’s election, which ends with the all-time silliest question in TMD history: “Will the former President contest the results of the election?”
Sometimes I wonder if they’re just too tired to come up with a better “LUK” or is it laziness?
NeverTrumperism runs prevalent in their coverage. I'm halfway rooting for Trump, just to annoy them, but halfway rooting for Harris so revenues will fall. Eeyore won't know what to write about once Trump is gone....
If you think TD is "never Trumper" you should read anything from The Bulwark, who positively roots for Kamala Harris.
If the only problem is Nick aka "Eeyore" I don't regularly read him.
I'm somewhere in there. The fever pitch of all media with everyone trying to out-hysteria everyone else is really something this time.
I know what you mean. I was talking to someone who used to subscribe, but got tired of the repetitiveness. I often find some of the comments to be more interesting. I’ve gotten so I enjoy listening to Commentary podcast because even though they aren’t Trump supporters, they make some interesting observations. Maybe I’m just tired of the election, in general. I’m retreating more and more to audiobooks with good narrators!
They also note that images in Nebraska Sen. Deb Fisher's new ads talk about Nebraska being a good place to raise a family. In fact the pictures are of a town in Vermont. At least she didn't pose with a fake family like the guy (Anderson?) running in New Jersey.
One of those fun disputes in many an election. Seems the last I recall was in the attempt to unseat Joe Manchin here as senator or governor. Ambitious young online campaign pros were scandalized that the Manchin ad operations relied on stock images from elsewhere, or L.A. based actors reading scripts or something. Outrage!
Yeah. It would probably be pretty hard for a Nebraska campaign to get images of Nebraska towns. The guy in New Jersey with the fake family (he is not married) is an instant classic, however.
It wouldn't be "politics" if everything about campaign ads was on the up & up. You gott'a throw some down low in there somewhere or folks will think they really *are* deep fakes.
"It would probably be pretty hard for a Nebraska campaign to get images of Nebraska towns."
It makes a person think that the demand for competent professionals in the election-campaigning line of work exceeds the supply.
Supply and demand may be in play, but I prefer categorizing them as retards. (Disclaimer...I never use that word to describe any developmentally challenged individual, only for political operatives.).
Maybe they're just sincere young people who imagine they're changing the world for the better.
The base-pandering tendencies have to be among the most embarrassing.
Or most qualifying?
Looks like they botched their jocular headline: the /-th/ ending to a simple-present-tense verb would be for the singular, not plural. Not even light-hearted English linguists could laugh at that!
Even if it had been correct, there doesn't seem to be any actual point to the archaic usage.
They need to replace the person composing the dumb headlines with someone who can use punctuation correctly.
Edith Burton is always available.
I don't think Edit is operating in this century at the moment.
I got up late today.
She can reach you anywhere in the space-time continuum.
Drat.
"today’s disputes seem much shallower in comparison"
Good point.
Now I have a link... Decent weekend reading from Brian Potter over there at Construction Physics.
https://open.substack.com/pub/constructionphysics/p/how-china-is-like-the-19th-century?r=286fkw&utm_medium=ios
Solidifying my thesis that some humans just can't abide.
A lot. Some philosopher is said to have observed that most of the world's conflicts occur because people can't spend half an hour in a room by themselves.
I think he meant something other than the fact that their families wouldn't leave them alone for half an hour ...
Snort laugh....Yeah. I was gonna say "most", and relented to "some".
It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under....
......Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five
Still laughing at this one after a second cup of Joe.
I know! I wish I had that kind of wit, but at least I can appreciate it from someone else.
Right you are, Anne. Where would we be wit out Cynthia?
I’m not telling Phil! 🤭
Only because vapider isn't a word.
Maybe it's French for "to vape."
Dumber is a word.
Stoopider, too.
For those who were watching this space all day yesterday, it now seems that the baby will be born today.
A name? And, is this your first grandchild? I congratulated you this morning on TMD, and can only imagine who excited you and your family must be!! That lucky little girl is going to have a great time with her grandmother. 🙂
Georgia. And yes, she's the first and hopefully not the last.
Lovely name, and I cannot imagine this being the last!
Well, not actually in this space though, right?
Really do hope all goes absolutely perfectly for everyone.
Very exciting. My daughter is expecting a baby girl in January. Exciting here too.
Is this a first for you? I bet you’ll be putting your photography skills to good use.
Exciting!!!
Morning. Taking that as a good sign, though everyone is sleep-deprived.
My son-in-law said they were able to sleep, some.