What a Disgrace, But Should Anyone Be Surprised?

by with One Comment FeaturedPolitics

“A hot mess… inside a dumpster fire… inside a train wreck.”

Jake Tapper’s initial response to the debate was about as accurate as you’re going to get in short summary of the shit we witnessed last night.

What we watched last night was a disgrace. A total embarrassment, and probably reason #985 why the rest of the world either laughs or shakes their head when you ask them about “America.”

Trump is a compulsive liar. He tried his best to lure Biden into a dog fight filled with personal insults, name-calling, and bravado only two old privileged White men could display. And Biden took the bait. (Not sure we can blame him.) The moderator Chris Wallace was terrible. Trump walked over him all night, literally all night. There was no decorum. No civil debate or dialogue. No substantive debate on the issues that really matter.

For many, the biggest moment came Trump refused to disavow White Supremacists. Not sure why this would surprise anyone. Nothing about his presidency or life frankly has “disavowed” White Supremacy. In fact, you can say he’s embraced it. Many would say he is one. Whether it’s “good people on both sides,” tax cuts for the wealthy, or just recently his attempt to end racial sensitivity training in federal agencies ‘because it’s racist’, we have to ask ourselves, what have people been paying attention to if that truly surprised them last night? Maybe it was his call for the Proud Boys to “Stand back and stand by.”

Either way, Trump has shown us who he is time and time again. After last night, they should probably cancel the remaining two debates. Our country is at an all-time low. Our democracy is at risk of failing, 200,000+ in the US are dead from a virus that literally every other country has under control, and we’re likely on the verge of a civil war. What a fucking embarrassment.

2016 Is About To Happen Again

by with 2 Comments FeaturedPolitics

I heard over and over from highly educated, liberal professionals after the 2016 election that some mistake had happened. “The election was stolen.”  The electoral college had somehow disrupted our normal process (spoiler: it wasn’t any different)…  “The Trump campaign enlisted Russian government support.” And then afterward we all needed to read Hillbilly Elegy to understand how to kindly condescend to the plight of the misinformed blue-collar rust belt that had erred and turned away from Democrats and sided with President Trump. At the time I was moving back and forth between NYC colleagues who’d secured a seat at Hillary’s victory party in Manhattan and neighbors in new England who’d sold their home early to facilitate their quick nomination through the Senate to take their new place in the administration “with her.” They sat down on election night ready to watch the show, and they were shocked at the show they saw. They never saw it coming.  And it’s happening again… and again they don’t see it coming.

I think they saw a glimmer of it before the COVID-19 crisis locked them all in their homes? But since then, the tone has changed. They’re locked in their homes reading their favorite websites and the articles their phone algorithms say they’ll like- and all of those sources tell them that Donald Trump’s performance through COVID-19… all the polls being conducted… point to a president losing ground heading into election season.

Many in this group don’t understand the monster they’ve created in their media bubble. In 1980 (the year CNN was founded) there were 3 news networks. To be viable, network news needed both liberals and conservatives, and the news was 30 minutes 3 times a day stuck between Brady Bunch reruns and The Jeffersons. You couldn’t serve people what they wanted with the context they wanted- so you gave them straight, complete facts with a straight face and let them apply their own context.  Now media is fragmented to where a 3% market share is huge, and straight shooting is dead. Even the best journalists quit trying to challenge us. They serve us what we want by arranging and selecting facts and applying context to make stories what we wish to see in them, and our tech knows what media will excite us.  Most of what’s “mainstream media” is the slice that serves the prime consumer: 25-40 years old, professional, urban, liberal-leaning, with substantial discretionary income. So now if you’re an educated professional, working for a large company in a white-collar job… these days you log in from home, work on zoom, order from Amazon. It’s annoying, but life is working. And if you look at the media that targets you, the biggest problem out there right now are those that want to reopen too quickly.

If you’re a small business owner, a self-employed tradesman, a wage earner or any sort of gig worker (ie the people Biden needs to win back from the president to win this time), three months of this has been hell. If you had savings, it’s gone. You can’t work, your children are home with you complicating work even more. Stress is elevated; money is scarce, and even if the $600 a month in federal assistance works for now, the uncertainty of what’s to come is crushing. Even as the signs are there, the articles pushed back to the mainstream consumer talk about elevated levels in “black and brown communities” that need “understanding and voice.” That’s true – but what those also are are the communities of people that still need to head out in the world every day to work. They are still getting sick because they’re still out there, and having been out in it since the start, they’re not nearly as scared of the virus as they are of losing their livelihood. Further, having not been scared by the world they continue to toil in all day, they continue to visit their friends and family more, and quietly dismiss you when you try to shame them. They’re over it. And they’re turning on Democrats again, and on the rare occasions when they speak up, they’re again facing condescension (here’s looking at you, Governor Whitmer). Those aren’t all MAGAs out there; it’s also your blue-collar swings.

Also, polls now aren’t really polls. For years, exit polls have needed rebasing because Republicans are less likely to respond – a fact that was exacerbated in the 2016 election when Trump voters began to feel that announcing loudly that you expect to vote for Donald Trump could cause indignation from someone around them and began to not state (or misstate) their intentions. With tensions running high in 2016 the weight-adjusted polls turned out to be not weight adjusted enough. Tensions are higher now. Also, currently most polls being completed are online polls by your favorite news sources. You can’t walk down the street, get in someone’s space and get a good poll sample in-person anymore. With online being the only way that works, it turns out (as an example), that most people that respond to a Huffington Post poll are still voting for Biden (although less than you might expect).

And once again, there’s a candidate who isn’t exactly rising to the occasion.  Biden has emerged twice since being named the presumed party nominee- once for a late and horribly jumbled explanation of Tara Reade’s accusations, and another botched interview with Charlamagne Tha God – both of which were designed and curated by campaign aides to be well-choreographed softballs and neither of which won him a voter he hadn’t had already. Conversely, if either interview had any effect at all, it decreased voter excitement which (according to Charlamagne Tha God himself) is likely to depress voter roles. Trump raised $212MM this quarter – a clip he’s been maintaining steadily since he started his re-election fund the day of his swearing in.  Biden raised only $60MM in hard money in April – despite his new status as the Democrats’ ordained winner. The president has a motivated base, is organized, and has a turnout plan that was tested in dry runs during the early primaries (and generated unprecedented primary turnouts for an incumbent presidential primary). Sitting in his basement without a formal role in the government, Biden needs to create viral moments that will excite women, minorities and wage earners, and so far his performance seems likely to depress turnouts for all three.

And it’s happening again. This time… just don’t be so surprised.

Similar Read: Mainstream Media or “Fake News”?

Don Lemon… Domestic Terrorism and Revisionist History

by with No Comment CultureFeatured

A few weeks ago, CNN Host Don Lemmon inflamed the nation when he said, “The biggest threat in this country is White men.”  Well, he didn’t inflame the nation, mainly just Conservative White men, including President Trump.

Side note, writing President Trump still shocks me. It’s like early in the New Year when you haven’t gotten used to writing January yet. 

Anyway. 

The same people Don Lemmon inflamed with his comment are literally the same people who often say don’t talk about race, don’t talk about slavery, so no surprise there. The comment was NOT a comment against White men, it was against the White men who have been the chief architects for most of the recent domestic terror in this nation. While so many people dwelled on his comment, I think it’s important to note that White men have largely been responsible for the gross atrocities in our nation… specifically the genocide and damn near decimation of Native Americans, and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. As much as some people might not want to hear it or dispute it… that’s history. 

The surprise for me is the repeated attempts to push revisionist history and narratives that are completely false. Notions such as “the Civil War was over states rights,” or that slavery does not have deep roots in the minds of extremists. Extremists that have used their boisterous ways and power to influence others. In fact, not only have they minimized the wrongs of this nation, in many cases, they’ve attempted to suggest that said wrongs never occurred.

The storyline is simple… White Conservative/Republican men refuse to acknowledge that the lion share of mass shootings and serial killings in this country are carried out by hate groups and civil militias comprised of White men, or as some media outlets truthfully refer to them, White Supremacists. (Fact.) 

Revisionist history… really bad revisionist history… so bad, it reminds me of an episode on Martin in which Martin and Gina tell very different stories of how they first met. Each told their version of the story with extreme bias. The real truth of how they first met had to be told by a neutral party to avoid bias and blatant lies. It’s a very funny episode because it’s TV… not real life minimized to talking points by the extreme right regarding issues of humanity in this nation. 

It’s Deeper Than “I like Mike!”

by with One Comment Featured

Last week, LeBron James opened his I Promise School in his hometown Akron, Ohio. The $8 million public school focuses on at-risk youth and their families. The kids get free uniforms, free bicycles and helmets, free breakfast, lunch, AND snacks… their families get food pantries, their parents get GED and job placement services, and if or when the kids graduate, they get to attend the University of Akron for free. That’s a dream come true for 240 kids and their families, and a hell of a good deed for a man who could easily be worried about his transition to LA or his multiple business ventures. Instead, he decided to give back in the most significant way possible.

Regardless of your political views, where you’re from or where you work, it’s hard not to feel good about such a story that will have a positive impact on hundreds of kids and their families from day 1. Right?

Wrong… Trump couldn’t help himself. LeBron did an exclusive interview with CNN’s Don Lemon about the school shortly after it opened. In the interview LeBron was candid about how he believed Trump has successfully used sports to divide us. In typical Trump fashion, he attacked LeBron and Don Lemon on twitter.

And if that wasn’t petty enough, he added “I like Mike!”, which on the surface just looks like a jab in the on-going and never-ending debate of who’s better, MJ or LeBron.

But when you dig a little deeper and read between the lines, you should recognize the legitimate criticism Jordan has received over the years for his apolitical positions and lack of support and charity for communities of color. Considering many of the kids in these communities have struggled, fought, and in some cases died wearing his Air Jordan sneakers, you quickly realize Donald Trump liking Mike over LeBron has nothing to do with their game on the court. One could easily insinuate that he prefers the rich, quiet, passive Black athlete who’s happy with his money and status, like Jordan, instead of the rich, vocal, and extremely active Black athlete who is intent on pushing the conversation and having an impact on his community, like LeBron.

You got all that from “I like Mike!”? Yes, we did. But you be the judge.

Don Lemon being the dumbest man on TV and LeBron not being smart are just the latest dog whistle tweets and remarks in a long history of Trump attacking the intellect of Black people. More and more Republicans are starting to push back on Trump and his rhetoric… they push back on Russia and his odd obsession with Putin, they push back on his trade policies… but never on race, never when he takes an uncalled for shot at a person of color.

Will any prominent Republican’s denounce his tweets on LeBron? Probably not. In a country where minorities will soon be the majority, Republican’s might want to think about to trying to appeal to all American’s. Letting sexist, racist, xenophobic comments and remarks go unchecked, even if it is from the leader of the free world, will catch up to their party sooner than later.

Questions From Helsinki

by with No Comment FeaturedPolitics

President Trump’s enormous misstep in Helsinki, heaping praise onto Putin was a strange misstep that casts doubt on what had seemed like a brilliant few months of politicking.  While the President has been repeatedly vilified in the news, his string of accomplishments had been growing, and it seemed in many cases that he was almost goading many of his opponents into vilifying him while positive results continued to stack up.

Tax reform has produced the lowest unemployment in the history of unemployment tracking.  His general style of creating chaos merely to create a trading chit has proved largely effective as a bargaining chip, while serving to simultaneously rally his base.  The trade war with China may yet yield results, and the short-term negative economic effects are largely offsetting (and probably keeping inflation in check while the market absorbs the cash influx of reduced tax burdens).  While they continue to look (unsuccessfully) for opportunities to create chaos and flexibility, North Korea is moving faster and harder than they ever have toward denuclearization having already dismantled several sites.

Related: Korean Reunification Will Never Work, And Here’s Why

The political fallout from child separation was neutralized (and perhaps made a political win) when he capitulated, causing Democrats to move the goalposts from “stop separations” to “abolish ICE” – leading to the massive primary upset of Joe Crowley by an incredibly talented (but incredibly socialist) Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, which distracted the party and dragged them horribly out of the mainstream.  His press secretary’s (Sarah Sanders) ejection from a DC area restaurant prompted calls for harassment of his entire administration – shaking America’s confidence in one of the few reprieves they had to offer the American people – an end to all the unsettling chaos of our current political discourse.

SIGN UP TO READ MORE!


 

Subscribe for free to receive similar content. 

Despite Crazy News Cycle… We Should Remain Focused On Mueller

by with 2 Comments FeaturedPolitics

The media buzz around Meuller…

Two weeks ago as the President began to ratchet up his rhetoric against the Russia investigation, the press spent four days trying to drum up a narrative that Mueller was about to be fired, setting off a constitutional crisis. The basis was that the President was frustrated, attacking Mueller directly (which hadn’t happened before) and his past firing of Comey made it at least plausible that he might do something irrational. In supporting the narrative, CNN spent the weekend asking every GOP senator they could find whether they would support firing Mueller. As anyone could imagine, they were not supportive, and their solicited statements served to further whip up urgency that Mueller’s days were numbered. I truly don’t believe that anyone in the media thought that was really on the table; instead, a narrative to fill a slow news cycle on a Sunday.

Far more plausible is that the President ratcheted up his rhetoric because he had been promised by his lawyers the probe was going to wrap up soon. Against the President’s instincts, John Dowd had been promising him that compliance (not bravado) would carry the day. That’s not the President’s natural way, but he relented. The result was a probe that continued, and when his lawyers brought him the news that he was about to be asked to testify, he blew up at both his counsel (who he promptly dismissed), and without trust in their guidance, lashed out again in frustration. While that is petulant, childish and wholly unpresidential, that’s been no different from most of his tweets over the past year. It’s equally likely that a president who never seemed to collude with his Secretary of State, National Security Advisor, OMB chief or House and Senate leaders, also never took the time to collude with anyone on his staff talking to Russia (albeit more out of ADD than any principled stand), and is frustrated that his job is to put out a message, and yet Russia (and Stormy Daniels) have been the message over and over.

If the President didn’t understand with Comey, he understands now that the end of Mueller is the end of his administration. I can’t imagine any responsible person on either side of (or even 50 miles from) the aisle that wants any part of a president who actively colluded with an enemy nation to win his election. If that’s proven, all agree that he’s done. Further, if Mueller is fired before completing his work, the best possible outcome for the White House would be a re-start with a far more difficult prosecutor with far more reason to dig. The president firing Mueller is most likely the dream scenario for those starkly opposed to this president. Far more likely is that it drags on for another year, hangs shade over all of Washington for years to come, further pulls all of America toward the far right and far left, and we all spend the next 3 (to 7?) years reading what Jimmy Kimmel used to call “mean tweets.” These days that seemed like an antiquated characterization… These days, they’re just tweets.

Mainstream Media or “Fake News”?

by with One Comment CultureMediaPolitics

A few weeks ago, Stephen Colbert was up in arms over the President’s dismissal of CBS anchor John Dickerson – whom the President referred to as “Fake News” and then dismissed entirely when Dickerson questioned the president’s source for claims that Obama wiretapped Trump Tower.

To a lot of people on the coasts, this seems laughable and shocking that a president could be so dismissive of mainstream media while making completely unfounded claims of his own.  Nonetheless, it resonates with millions of people throughout most of the Midwest (an area bereft of major broadcast journalists).

Donald Trump definitely has made heavy use of “alternative facts”, but the backlash the mainstream media has used to counter (perhaps in defense of their own credibility) has only served to give weight to his assertions.  A look at the CNN homepage for the past two months yields a full transcript of SNL’s best digs on the White House- despite no affiliation between CNN and SNL parent NBC.  I counted three articles a few weekends ago that discussed anecdotal information that various Republican congressmen didn’t know before sending the partial repeal of Obamacare to the Senate this week, and yet there wasn’t an article outlining the bill’s full content in even terms.  The closest two articles to an overview of the bill on CNN as I wrote this were “Pre Existing Conditions: Pregnancy, Sleep Apnea Could Make You Pay More” and “Here’s a (Partial) List of All the Pre-Existing Conditions the GOP Bill May Not Cover”.  There’s no real up front mention of savings, what’s protected, or that this is a starter version of the bill sent to the Senate.  There isn’t much of an overview at all.  I wonder how any independent person could come to any sort of conclusion at all about the healthcare bill from reading CNN, or even understand fully what it is (rather than a few anecdotal things that it isn’t).

One of the largest reasons the President’s “Fake News” message resonated so well as President Elect was the very surprise that he had won the election at all.  For many in the Midwest, talking to their neighbors and friends, it seemed clear Donald Trump was doing well in their own polls of peers.  Many in the Midwest looked around and could see clearly that he was winning in their district weeks ahead of the election despite poll numbers on major news networks showing different outcomes- particularly in states such as Michigan and Wisconsin.  The fact that the polls misrepresented the actual vote gave many people grounds to distrust many of the major news networks as making any effort to present balanced facts – or even facts at all.

That may well have been bad polling.  In any regard, it’s given the President an opportunity to confuse the American people as to where to look for the truth, and it does appear that many of the networks – perhaps through attacking the President in response to criticism aimed at the networks – have played fully into his hands.  

165 days are over, but there are 1,295 more to go.  The public probably would appreciate journalism that starts with facts and overviews.  When everyone is yelling and pointing fingers, everyone is just noise, and if that’s how the next few years go- it’ll be the media and not the White House who will lose this war of words.

Kushner’s Miserable Peace Prospects

by with No Comment FeaturedGen ZPolitics

Last week I saw a headline that read “Kushner’s First Foray into MidEast Peace Reveals Challenges Ahead.” Wow. Breaking News: Trump’s son-In-Law finds out Middle East peace is hard. What a shocker.

It continues to amaze me that Jared Kushner, the real estate-heir whose only real qualifications are being born into the right family and marrying well, has such an immense policy portfolio. In fact, Jared Kushner is responsible for so much of the Trump Administration’s agenda that CNN has jokingly referred to him as “Trump’s Secretary of Everything.” When you consider all the policy areas that Mr. Kushner is probably the least equipped to handle, foreign policy is definitely in the top two (healthcare reform is arguably the other as it increasingly seems that no one in the Trump administration understands or cares how the American healthcare system works). Yet, somehow with no diplomatic experience, no background in the region’s complicated political history, and no evidence that he has a substantive grasp of geopolitics, the 36-year-old is one of the Administration’s defacto lead diplomats and is somehow in charge of brokering Middle East Peace.  (And he’s the subject of the ever-widening federal investigation, but that’s a topic for another piece.)

The headline quoted above might actually be a little generous to Kushner. His trip to the Middle East to meet with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and advisors didn’t just reveal challenges. It seems to have failed miserably. Kushner met with Abbas in Ramallah as part of the Trump Administration’s efforts to jumpstart peace negotiations that have been stalled since the assault on the Gaza Strip in 2014. He then proceeded to accost Abbas for not condemning an attack on Israeli soldiers, and according to Palestinian officials, merely listed Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s demands “and acted like Netanyahu’s advisors instead of a fair arbiter.”

“Greatly disappointed”, “tense”, and “furious” are just some of the buzzwords appearing in Arab and Israeli newspapers regarding the meeting. If the Trump Administration can’t get both sides to see them as a neutral party then peace talks are DOA. Perhaps putting someone with actual experience and knowledge of the conflict might be a step in the right direction.