Tonight: A different take on recent polls. Then Anita Finlay and Annabelle join in to give their perspectives on the latest news from the campaign trail and beyond. Click here at 6pm Pacific.
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Buy This Movie!
On the radio!
Oddly not off topic. Get ready for some goosebumpery:
I might actually go see that one! If I can talk my daughter into it lol.
I do want to see it. I read the book and loved it, except for the Poe porn scene.
Wow. “Blood’s been spilt to afford us this moment.” Lord I pray that this movie is good. The trailer sure is.
And it will most likely be out on November 1st so that our current sometime occupant of the WH, who compares himself to Mr Lincoln, will benefit at the polls once again. I’ll see it only if it comes out AFTER the election
There’s no Poe porn scene.
This film is not Abraham Lincoln : Vampire Hunter, it’s based on Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln.
“it’s based on Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln.”
Oh, that book Dolores Kearnes Goodwin based on someone else’s book?
LOL! And here I was being good for once, not snarking about Doris’ embarrassing plagiarism problem. That nice friendly lady is a cheat and a thief.
Thanks, Zal. I realized my mistake later. I do want to see Vampire Hunter, too, though.
Oh how I love Daniel Day Lewis. Thanks Jay.
the main reason I will go see it is Daniel Day Lewis. He is supposed to be awesome.
Great show! Thanks, John
Definitely enjoyed it. Good stuff. Our convo flew by!
Great show. Ani, insightful as always. Regarding your statement on the conspiracy to place Sir Barksalot in the WH and the fact that otherwise intelligent people joined the bandwagon was right-on. It is very easy, however, to see the power of groupthink and the subtle persuasion to align with those who must be cool take hold. We see it now, only not as blatantly, as you state- I don’t think anyone is as passionately entrenched on either side. However,the pervasive meme continues to be the democrats represent the intellectuals and the repubs the red necks. They don’t want to be viewed as being on the wrong side of the equation.One of the few ways that I could possibly sympathize with those who knew better, but colluded to bring us the One was that some actually though Hillary was unelectable in the general and that obama had the energy and momentum, combined with the nefarious backing, to bring about a victory. What a hollow victory it has become.
lililam, great comment. I agree that nuance is often lost in a radio format – One doesn’t have time to unpack and prod like one does when writing.
I agree that the herding is more subtle this time than last. The fad is over and it’s hard to recreate it so were being subjected to quieter propaganda.
I imagine some might have thought Clinton could not win. They were, however, not smart people. Or at least not people we much imagination. I think most knew she’d win in 08 and THAT was the problem they had.
As far as the media – after years of “following the narrative” to see where I’m being dragged I’m concluding that we must negate the narrative outright – all sides of it – and assert what we intelligently perceive. I’m feeling unwilling to assent to the idiocracy without a fight – odd, after years of commenting on “the game.” Something about the press’s response to Romney’s input on the embassy statement was the final straw. It got through my cynicism.
And it’s not really idiocy- It’s Alinsky. The infection of Alinsky into everything: Scream louder, change the subject, don’t allow any part of another argument in, scream loudly as your walking away. Do it again on the next topic that might be damaging.
This is dangerous for those who are being herded and it’s taking hold as the norm.
Some of us thought Obama would be unelectable in the general, partly because of his race and partly because of his lack of experience. I think he would have been unelectable had the media not been in the bag for him and the financial collapse not made McCain toast (something that would have benefitted Clinton as much as it did Obama).
Agreed on all counts, lililam. So sorry to have missed you!!
Why does the media love Obama and love his ghastly wife even more ? I don’t think it’s ideology, racism and White self hatred is one reason.. Maybe they don’t love him at all, consider the possibility that their corporate bosses are salivating over all those ad dollars..Also the O team are a deeply duplicitous bunch. Does anyone doubt that Valjar and her minions could have threatened them ? We all know what those folks are capable of..don’t we ?
I agree Connor except Romney’s ad dollars are just as good and he has more of them. I don’t think it’s white guilt, a phenomenon that is largely spent, it’s creative class disconnection. The two halves of the nation really do not live in the same world. The media exists in one. Not the other. On some level those protecting Obama really do not “get” that they are in another world.
And I don’t doubt for a second that the Chicago Cabal is willing to do anything to win.
Also, John, it isn’t just a creative class disconnect, it really is the economy. For example, during the entire downturn, the Washington Metropolitan area did just fine- low unemployment, retained real estate values. This was the case to a degree in many of the elite, urban areas of the country, but more dramatically in DC. The economy is a visceral thing, I think, you can feel the quiet desperation. If you and your crowd don’t feel it, it isn’t there.
It’s not white self-hatred. It’s more white self-absorption and arrogance. There is an element of racism, but it’s a racism that they project on to the “lower” white classes and, in their minds, this is something that elevates them and justifies the disconnection and their own elitism.
I have lived in the DC metro area all my life, and while it’s true that we usually weather the storm well, we got hit hard this time too. Property values did go down, though they’ve since bounced back somewhat. And there were a ton of layoffs. Even lawyers were laid off, which is unheard of around these parts. Trust me, I know how lucky I am to live inside this bubble, but we feel it too and that’s why I know it must be hell in the rest of the country.
It’s a cult. The specific tenets of a cult never matter; only the trappings, rituals, lemming-like conformity, and the addictive intensity of fervent conviction. cf. LORD OF THE FLIES.
“It’s not white self-hatred. It’s more white self-absorption and arrogance. ”
Exactly. It’s all about, ‘look how wonderful and evolved and tolerant and ecumenical I am!’
PETER ORSZAG: “YOU KNOW, OBAMACARE IS UNPOPULAR.” VALERIE JARRETT: “YOU’RE DEAD TO ME.”
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/nytimes-columnist-sent-article-draft-white-houses-valerie-jarrett-comments-publishing_652278.html
Valerie Jarrett: pro-gay rights and minority issues, but also O’s attack dog. A former aide is quoted: “The question that is hard to get inside of, the black box, is whether she is really influencing him or merely executing decisions [Obama]’s made. That’s like asking, ‘Is the light on in the refrigerator when the door is closed?’” http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/02/us/politics/valerie-jarrett-is-the-other-power-in-the-west-wing.html
@ fionnchu – I wrote an exhaustive exposé about VJ in 2008 during the Dem primary. Born in Shiraz, Iran, came to Chicago and inherited her Grandfather’s chair at HUD. Was Michelle Obama’s boss when MO met BO, and ‘interviewed’ Barry before MO would get serious with him. Mentored BO during his stint as a community organizer and has remained a close advisor to both MO and BO ever since. He doesn’t make a move without her approval. She was the reason Gibbs, Rahm Emanuel, Daley and others left the staff after she terrorized them. She is also called “the other side of Obama’s brain”, and I suspect is the true power behind the throne. And that’s only in the first breath.
Just wanted to add re: the media, that the old saw “follow the money” seems to be at the core of the media bots’ circle jerk.. I once saw Tamryn Hall say something about Romney ‘leading’, suddenly she looked like she’d seen a ghost, and stammered through a correction of sorts. The woman seemed to be petrified.
“Why does the media love Obama and love his ghastly wife even more ? ”
***********
I keep asking the same question. The news presenters and talking heads may have political agenda but “corporate” ultimately calls the shots for their own agenda. What is the corporate agenda? Haven’t a clue. The “left wing” media was pretty supportive of Bush until the Katrina fiasco. I still remember the Bushbots waving copies of the NYT on the Sunday talk shows with front page, above the fold stories about, “aluminum tubes”, Iraqi WMD, etc. (Last time I ever bought a Sunday NYT)
“re: the media, that the old saw “follow the money”
*******
That is the truth but it isn’t always easy to follow the trail. I remember when Bush was pushing “No Child Left Behind” which was projected to a big money maker for testing/tutoring “eduction” companies., etc. The WaPo was quite supportive and I though that was odd for a “lefty” newspaper, until I saw that Kaplan Educational Services was the, IIRC, a $300 million/year cash cow for WaPo, Inc.
I just noticed the Yogi Berra quote- he certainly had a way with words! Wonderful!
lilam,,,you are absolutely correct. One of my daughters lives inside the Beltway and that is absolutely the case.. I keep asking her if the Depression has arrived yet, she always says ‘no’.
Yet it is very obvious to her, every time she leaves the area..
Obviously, I know how to spell ‘absolutely’..how cool is that ?
Has anyone read the Team of Rivals book?
I watched the trailer for Lincoln this morning and am excited to see what Daniel Day Lewis does with the part, it seems to have that typical Spielberg overwroughtness though.
I know that Daniel Day Lewis is notorious for staying in character for the entire duration of production, I wonder how that went… I like that his Lincoln has more of a twangy southern accent, I read somewhere that historical accounts said that Lincoln had a shrill, tenorous speaking voice and wasn’t really a great orator.
OK enough taking up valuable space, I agree with John on the herd mentality aspect to elections, also the snobbery of the folks who are desperate to sit at the cool kids’ table, as expressed last night. But the polls today are disturbing, even handicapping Romney with a plus 5, I don’t understand these new polls. Has the smoke from the fires in the Mideast not reached our shores yet ? What about the 25% or so of our adult population that cannot afford to live indoors without help from the gov’t or family ? I have begun to wonder if there is a secret list, given only to pollsters that contains the names of registered voters deemed Clueless ?
Now we have Bernake personally rolling out dollar bills from his toy printing set.. how are they any different from counterfeit dollars, except in legal terms? They will both be equally valueless in the near future.. As long as they will buy an equally valueless newspaper, at least until after the election, Ben’s prayers will be answered.
I can only conclude that the bilge coming from our make-believe reporters is having an effect. This is a deeply saddening
As a footnote: the Mideast seems to have armies of young men wearing relatively clean clothes, watches and shoes, they do not look starved. One has to assume they are jobless, rioting being so time consuming and everything…. Who supports them ?
I don’t know conner – Rasmussen has Romeny back in the lead. Yesterday by 1, today by 4. Whatever one thinks of them – they are a solid polling outfit with a track record comparable to Gallup. I don’t know what to believe but at some point one has to assume that the polling out fits need credibility to survive and at least some of them are telling the truth.
Valerie Jarrett’s Twitter handle — @vj44 — says it all, doesn’t it? WTF with the 44! (An obvious reference to the 44th president.) I predict she’ll be responsible for a Nixonian-scale scandal if O’s re-elected.
fwit…pretty good ad attacking O
Great ad. Given the pro-O polls recently, I’m about to give up on over 50% of the electorate. It seems everyone is either irrational or illiterate.
one more thing…the irony…Hillary is about to get thrown under the bus…and Bill is on every damn commercial praising O…if you haven;t seen the ad, once Bill gets down pimping O, O suddenly comes out trying to look cool as he struts at the WH…the whole thing is going to backfire on Bill…
The Media and Obama are missing a golder opportunity. They should be framing the protests in the ME as protests against Romney. Photoshop a few OFA T-Shirts of the guys burning American flags with Mittens image on them.
S-Angel, why do you say Hillary’s about to get thrown under the bus? Did I miss something? Is she being blamed for the lack of security at the embassies/consulates?
Health care on the Dow Jones. Nice reform, Obama.
For the life of me, I do not understand why there has not been a private or public-private partnership at any state or at the federal level for a modern CCC approch to unemployment and training. There may be one exception but as far as I know, there is not a single program that seeks to retrain the physical, emotional, intellectual, family, and financial skills of the entire family. From tough-love schooling for the family minors to tough-love retraining for the adults, with housing, food, entertainment and debt restructuring with 0% (if it’s good enough for banks and investment banks……). I have and will continue to advocate for helping those who are willing to push the reset button. Current skills for current needs and then placement beyond the borders of one’s local community; which leads to the next point. Homeownership inhibits growth. One must at times moves to where the jobs are. Homeownership is a luxury for those who have a profession that is geographical based and/or financially able to absorbe the gyrations of real estate and significant acquisition and dispositon of a high maintenance cost possession. The wagon trains of days gone by should be remembered today and the fact that those who walked from coast-to-coast need to be pretty fit from head-to-toe and inside-and-out. Sometimes though no fault of anyone, the supply-and-demand of the world changes and with technoilogy, we’ve seen profesions that were highly profitable and in massive demand turn to mush. It’s okay that ice comes from a fridge in your kitched, but for my mother’s father who drove a team of horses that delivered ice, eggs, butter and milk around Detroit, well, those damn ice makers made his stocking of the outdoor iceboxes a thing of the past….again, that damn technology. This is my ongoing basis for economics on a macro or mico level: Keep it Simple (Occam’s Razor), the powr of a Long-Term Time Horizon, Interference with the Natural order of Supply and Demand usually doesn’t work and often results in Unintended Consequences, Indiviudual Responsibility and Individualism coupled with Equality for All, Mutual Tolerance, Freedom of Association and Compassion for those who are Unable but Willing but seem to have nothing but repeated Bad Luck. Bare and blunt truth hurts but as Rodney and Ronnie said (King and Reagan) “Can’t we all just get along…and if not us, who?” Excuse the thumb typing and I trust this doesn’t get the underwear of some too much in a bind as i tried to keep it fairly loose, logical and carefree.
While education certainly needs improvement, the current unemployment problem is not one of training opportunity. We don’t need new training services, we need new jobs. We have greater access to various kinds of education than ever before, and most adults who aren’t idiots can learn a new job on the job. We used to call those jobs entry level: you get paid while training, the company’s investing in its future employee, then when you’ve learned the job you get a raise commiserate with your performance. Companies are then invested in its employees and employees have a skill that’s worth something to the company. Basic education in school then job training in entry level positions. Old fashioned maybe but citizens and industry investing in each other is a better work force model than the whole family being in therapy, er training (without salary) for a new lifestyle that may or may not result in a job.
We need jobs. And not only jobs in financial services.
A huge chunk of a wide range of jobs are simply gone from America because of technology and the opportunity for cheaper labor that globalization provided for big corporations. Training won’t fix that. For a great many people, the type of jobs that are gone are the type of jobs they need, they’re the jobs they can do and prosper at. You cannot train people to be people they are not. No matter how much tough love or training or zero interest credit she gets, or how much mummy and teacher convinced her she’s a potential Marie Curie, Jane will still be Jane; and for a healthy growing society, citizen’s options cannot be so narrow. What we need is wider based industry with a wider range of jobs available, not training for narrower opportunities.
As for home ownership, you’re basically saying only landed gentry should own homes and property. Great way to put the final nail in the coffin of the middle class. Up until 2008 lots of people owned homes and remained mobile enough to move to where work took them. This was the great American mobility. People bought a house, lived in it and were invested in its maintenance and improvement, wrote off mortgage interest, then sold the house if they wanted a job in another city, and bought another house in the new city. This was a major element of our economy, and its loss is part of the reason our economy isn’t improving for the middle class. We called it the real estate market and it, too, created jobs. Home ownership was a big part of what made the American middle class what it was, and if we let that go without replacing it with something substantive, we’re only solidifying a wider divide between the haves and have nots. Now, I think this great American mobility is not necessarily the best thing that ever happened to a society; it’s created problems like separating families and the natural interaction of younger with older generations, but you’re suggesting more of that, not less. It was the invention of agriculture and investing in where we are that created prosperous civilizations; if a more transient nomadic life is where we’re headed, I suggest that’s not progress. I propose, instead of tough love training and the destabilization of being constantly on the move, we grow wider-based industries in all regions, and once we’re trained to do a job and do it well we do more staying-put and investment in our communities than moving around job-chasing for ever more prestige and money.
Paul, I have wondered about the immobility of so many Americans also. A house you can’t sell is a huge albatross. Some families have elderly relatives nearby, or place great importance on their children not being uprooted from their schools.. All this is understandable, but constraining. I have
known some who uproot everybody, only to have the new job go kaput after they arrive. Creating non location dependent source of income seems to be the way to go. One of my daughters and her husband have managed to do this, they each have their own successful internet businesses.
No one is born an entrepreneur, but it can be learned. The trick is finding a way to eat while you are learning.
Occam’s Razor is a theory that holds that when presented with two hypotheses, the one with the fewest assumptions is the better choice. Ockham was, I dimly recall, a 14 th Century monk..I don’t know why he is given so much credit for stating the obvious, but in practice, I have found it to be a pretty good theory. As you can see this is the problem with a Catholic education, I know about obscure monks and their odd lives, but have no clue how to do much more with a p.c. than post about obscure monks, and create unintended paragraphs, that I don’t know how to fix.
Not everybody can learn it. Nor should they, it leads to an unbalanced society. What you’re saying is what Mitt Romney is saying, and given our current economy and population it’s a recipe for disaster. It’s why so many millions of people are being left behind. All human beings are not alike, we are wired differently and the best kind of work force is a work force that takes advantage of the differences in our wiring, not one that seeks to re-wire everyone the same.
Here’s another personal story, but this one’s not about me. When I built a new barn last year I hired an electrician who I’d heard was great at installing electricity. And he was. The best. And a total pleasure to be with while he did it. He understood it perfectly, had smart ideas for my particular needs all along the way, and seriously he was a joy to work with. In fact he was so good he ended up doing work at my house for nearly a year, wiring not only the new barn and chicken coop and garage, but also other electrical work the property -with buildings new and old going back 230 years- needed. The year he was here happened to coincide with word getting out about how great he was (my fault, in part, I admit), and jobs poured in for him. He hired an assistant, then another. He took a two week vacation and when I asked him how his vacation went he said he’d spent it trying to learn business models from a book. Jobs continued to pour in. He became crankier and cranker as the weeks and months passed. He hired someone to take care of responding to phone calls and emails and to do his billing. One of his assistants hurt a finger and went on disability. He hired a replacement who stole something from a customer’s house. The woman who handled his emails sent out messages promising things he couldn’t deliver. He got crankier. His work suffered. His marriage suffered. On my property he put in a line running from an older barn to the main house wrong, had to rip out out and redo it, costing him time and the cost of replacing materials, and a bruise to his pride of competence. By the time he finished up his job here he was a wreck, anxious, stressed, no longer enjoying the thing he loved to do and was so good at, and in the middle of divorce proceedings. But the work was still pouring in and he was headed for business classes so he could build his business “on a better model,” he said. I told him he should find a partner with skills he doesn’t have, go back to doing electrical work, be good at what he does and enjoy his life, and let a business minded person handle the business.
We cannot all be chiefs. Some people are better at being indians. And a successful society needs more indians than chiefs. What America has become –perhaps as a result of Walt Disney’s perversions and Baby Boomer efforts to make their progeny a Super Race of special snowflakes where everybody can be a Frank Lloyd Wright or Marie Curie– is a top heavy fantasyland where we believe we just can’t be happy without an SUV and granite countertops. Human society can no more sustain this imbalance than a bee hive can sustain an entire population of Queen Bees.
zal,
Your post is interesting and sad. All my daughter and her husband possess are decent educations, the ability to focus, a sterling work ethic, and creativity. Sounds like your electrician had all of the above, without the creativity..Becoming a successful tradesman also requires good training, concentration, and a great work ethic. Both career paths must also include knowing when to say ‘no’.
After your friend achieved so much success, he needed to achieve balance. Failure to establish boundaries has sunk many a ship.
Imo, a self employed tradesman already Is an entrepreneur.
The problem, sophie, is the tipping point when a successful self employed tradesman working alone or with a single assistant has too much work to handle himself. Does he then grow the business or simply take only the work he and his assistant can handle? It’s a big decision and a rough road from there to successful business, it’s an opportunity many people want and Romney assumes we all can make, but successfully navigating those kinds of transitions is very hard (that’s not what Romney did, btw), the truth is everyone who has a talent for plumbing or carpentry or weaving or mechanical repair, or even accounting for that matter, doesn’t necessarily have a talent for owning a business. So, understandably, my electrician (and from what I’ve seen the past several years he’s not unique) wants to take all the work he can get, everybody wants more money and who knows what’ll happen next year, but struggles with how to do that. It’s another element of being an independent contractor or small business that sounds like it just takes a good work ethic but actually takes specific skills that a lot of people simply don’t have. There are a lot of human beings who can thrive as an employee but not as a business owner.
Zal, I just came across your response…I find it amusing that you and I share the same disdains.
Not that I would turn down granite if someone gave it to me, We tried having an SUV, we returned it to the dealer in the first week, dh’s idea of camping is that it sounds like a lot of fun when it starts coming with A/C and room service, until that happens we’ll stick with our old, very serviceable cars.. We call them ‘classics’
I have had Volvos all my driving life, one was actually hit by a Mack truck, thankfully while parked.. a few repairs and I drove for another decade.