dagblog - Comments for "Progressives and Berniecrats Push Hard to End or Curtail the Superdelegate System"

Nate Silver in a piece today

artappraiser — Wed, 13 Dec 2017 21:10:24 +0000

Nate Silver in a piece today on the AL results notes that Franken's approval ratings tanked and the link he gives goes back to a Dec. 6 piece with much more explanation, titled "Why Democrats Are Finally Pushing Franken To Resign"

Both Republicans and Democrats will have to deal with other candidates — perhaps dozens of them — who are credibly accused of sexual harassment or sexual assault. Polls suggest that voters care quite a lot about this misconduct — Al Franken’s approval ratings tanked in Minnesota after several allegations of groping and unwanted kissing, for example. Again, there’s risk here to both parties, but because Republicans occupy most of the swing seats in the House — and because a higher percentage of Republican members of Congress are men — they have somewhat more liability.

I'm fortunate enough to live

PeraclesPlease — Tue, 12 Dec 2017 15:18:05 +0000

In reply to P.S. to the above: part of

I'm fortunate enough to live in a quasi-socalist environment that funds the arts and athletics and public transport and health care and a variety of other basic goods and services that provide for an attractive and unpanicked baseline of existence. Yeah, it even funds the more outrageous, though I don't think it really outrages the average person. Perhaps a big difference is a lower seriousness about religion, from which stems the bigger reactions - that and immigrants, which is another kettle of fish. Of course if the state's funding it, that's less money in the private sector, which has the tendency to queer the financial workings for supporting your own thing - you may end up playing the game of seeking the right subsidy from your government patrons rather than building your own structures.

In Amerca to pass those gates it has to be thoroughly anodyne, or old as fuck tradition, or "support the troops", or in some other way pass a litmus test of banality. Even evil has trouble surviving our suburban values.

Whew, that's good to hear, as

PeraclesPlease — Tue, 12 Dec 2017 15:10:21 +0000

In reply to From your link, this is a

Whew, that's good to hear, as we already knew how to get rid of people holding McJobs - it's the ones who had a bit of social popularity and even bucks behind them we weren't sure how to expunge. Problem solved.

Here's that Yale professor team that quit over the outrage of saying maybe wearing whatever you want at Halloween isn't the end of the world. Maybe not the end of the world, but certainly the end of tenure. Vaya con dios, or aloha, or some other adieu from a marginalized culture. Their own damn fault, riding their celebrity and popularity to a privileged career amont the elites. Live by the Nougat Chocolat, die by the Nougat Chocolat. they say (I think). Should be more careful with your audience - easy for les animaux to turn on you.

It does bother me how to get rid of regular bloggers though, as they're often not paid and seem to hang on for no good reason. Oh well, leave that for another day.

P.S. to the above: part of

artappraiser — Tue, 12 Dec 2017 14:47:24 +0000

In reply to Matt Taibbi simply apologized

P.S. to the above: part of the reason this interests me is that the whole thing also synchs with public vs. private funding of avant garde art. I.E., outrage and protest against a publicly funded exhibition with Serrano's Piss Christ in it or some Mapplethorpe homoerotica. It's always been clear to me why artists shouldn't expect public funding of radical avant-garde art that breaches norms to be smooth and easy. Lowest common denominator is going to smack you in the face when you go too far with breaching the norms. Democracy isn't about elitism. Heck, my father gets peeved when he gets the idea that part of his tax dollars might go to symphony orchestras, he feels that if you like that sort of thing, you should pay for it out of your own pocket.

From your link, this is a

artappraiser — Tue, 12 Dec 2017 14:37:57 +0000

In reply to Matt Taibbi simply apologized

From your link, this is a great point which clarifies for me what some of us are bouncing around here:

How did this happen?

Simply put, for most Americans today, the culture and stereotypes Taibbi and Ames were lampooning are completely foreign and unfamiliar. For that reason, eXile does not really connect, or perhaps hold up as well as a show like “South Park,” which also delights in vulgar satire but deals in stereotypes widely understood by American audiences.

Traversing societal/cultural behavior norms at any one point in time requires understanding of certain cues that can be quite sophisticated. I'm talking about behavior that is considered bad but is not clearly defined by law or case law as a crime or a tort. That doesn't mean the audience is always a tiny niche one, a big audience can get quite sophisticated. (Hence sayings like "what, were you born in a barn?" or "didn't your mother teach you anything?" i.e. everyone not living a closeted life should be able to get this is not the way to act.) It gets harder to do when norms are in the process of changing, but that still doesn't preclude a large popular audience understanding, and "South Park" is an excellent example.

Ok, now jump to the topic of who exactly is losing their jobs over this recent #metoo hysteria about things that have not been proved technically illegal: people whose work value depends upon popularity with a large audience: journalists, entertainers, politicians. So some of us don't have a lot of sympathy for them being treated "unfairly." If Matt Taibbi wants to work as a big star journalist rather than a radical niche market blogger, part of the deal is to be socially acceptable to a wider audience. Whether the audience is re-acting "fairly" or not is not applicable, it's just the way the bigger society is at this point in time. This is also why I have little sympathy for a Matt Lauer or a Senator Franken losing their job over not being able to 'splain things that haven't been tried in a court yet. They went for the bigger job, the bigger audience, the bigger money or power. Play by those rules, you can die by them too: your job basically is being acceptable to your audience.After all, it's not "fair" that you're being paid more or have more power than the average person, either.

Matt Taibbi simply apologized

PeraclesPlease — Tue, 12 Dec 2017 13:29:28 +0000

In reply to Part of the problem is

Matt Taibbi simply apologized to save time and breath explaining, and that seems to have been a wrong move. in today's climate. I personally feel like it's difficult to transcribe a "what'd you do in the war" prior existence with a Christian Bible retreat, especially if you enjoy just making shit up as I do. I never deluded myself into thinking the Democratic Party was stock full of my cultural peers, and long ago resigned myself to only a few understanding what the fuck I was talking about, which isn't really self-praise as much as an admission of being frequently overcomplicated by vocation and sheer perverse enjoyment. And having experienced a bit of the types of worlds Taibbi did, I'm sure there was some thought to "what sells" as well - let's try shuffling American Psycho or Drugstore Cowboy or Breaking the Waves or Dušan Makavajev's "Sweet Movie" into a 2017 hyper-sensitive environment. Danger danger, Will Robinson.

Good points - he's not naive,

PeraclesPlease — Tue, 12 Dec 2017 07:56:00 +0000

In reply to Part of the problem is

Good points - he's not naive, should have known where this was going to go after his book "Lying liars..." on - but I'm not sure if I admire *any* of our politicians. Does Gillibrand think she comes out of this looking better? Kamala Harris? We seem to always be dwarves in abundance without a Snow White.

Sorry to bring it up, but Clinton at least made them sweat trying to defeat her, had some resilience. I don't see too much "belly for a fight" outside of Liz Warren and begrudgingly Bernie Sanders. Where's our party's Johnny Rotten? I mean it, man.

And most ironically, voting in people because they have a uterus suddenly seems trending. What a difference a year makes. Out with one hardfast "principle", in with another 1 or 2. To counter Madeline, I don't think there's a special place in hell - there's plenty of room for all sorts, even ones we haven't thought of yet.

Part of the problem is

artappraiser — Tue, 12 Dec 2017 07:41:19 +0000

In reply to Part of the problem is

Part of the problem is Franken didn't deal with it well.

Is the only problem in my eyes. I don't admire him any more as a politician and not because of the accusations but because how he's handled it. He's not just a grownup but a Senator who helps make our laws. If he can't handle heat such as this, he's not as talented at it as I thought.

Compare Bill Clinton handling the whole Lewinsky thing while running the nation's economy well, chasing Bin Laden et. al., maintaining a high approval rating, being more sleepness about dirty bombs than Ken Starr, dealing with Newt Gingrich on serious issues, etc.

I'll be honest and say I couldn't handle that type of heat and might say screw this job, I'm quitting. But I'm not asking to be a Senator. Don't get me wrong, maybe that what he's thinking is that he doesn't want to do it anymore either, and if he is, that's fine, who I am to judge about life choices. Certainly most people aren't cut out for big time political life, especially at one of the nastiest times in its history.

You should try refuting

NCD — Sun, 10 Dec 2017 22:14:28 +0000

In reply to It is a lot of easier to mock

You should try refuting Republican actions and ideology, your arguments will get nowhere until they lose power.

It is a lot of easier to mock

HSG — Sun, 10 Dec 2017 19:51:30 +0000

In reply to Trump was elected to because

It is a lot of easier to mock arguments that I don't make.