I know a lot of guys who can fall asleep on a dime, and in any position...not so much any women...my boss can fall asleep in his chair ( which has no arms for Pete's sake) unless I am very sick, and can't lay down, I have to be laying down to fall asleep...and I have several male friends who can do the same thing, I am exhausted right now, and I still can't fall asleep..I never suffered from this until I hit 60...must be an age thing...I could always fall asleep ( if not in any position and I didn't have this waking up, but can't go back to sleep thing either)
JVL is right... sounds like a T-shirt! I mean my issue with honestly Sarah and Tim and Charlie and really most of the Bulwark is that they really believe that Trump and the Republicans are a major threat, but they do a what aboutism saying the far left is so crazy and radical. This is nuts... this is crazy... Joe Biden has done nothing that the far left has wanted him to. I mean no child tax credit, no reduction on healthcare costs for the elderly, no action on climate change, no reduced drug costs, no protection on voting rights, and no elimination of student loans. I mean to suggest that Joe Biden has not governed as President as a Middle of the road Democrat is simply not true. Who cares what he says, what has he actually done and prioritized? That will show you what people really care about. I mean Republicans talk about the poor aggrieved working white rural voter and how big tech and corporations are "woke" and then don't pass anything that helps white rural voters and instead pass tax credits that continue to enrich big tech and "woke" corporations so who do they really value? Also, would love for Sarah or really again, anyone at the Bulwark to tell me why it is bad that "progressive" Dems want the same things for American Citizens that they would get in Canada... or England.... or France.,. or every other Western Ally that we have. Why does America not have money to spend on these things yet other countries can find a way and not be labeled as some crazy socialist country. This is beyond infuriating... why is it ok for our citizens to go bankrupt from being sick? Why are we ok with massive poverty rates that are brought on by flattening wages after Ron Reagan took a torch to guard rails on Wall Street.... Since 1978 the CEO pay has risen 1300% while average worker pay has risen 18%. This is ridiculous yet somehow Republicans whether they are Never Trump or not seem to believe this is ok.. this is just the free market... this is just Capitalism baby, what can you do... it's a grift that is being performed at the highest level where elected officials actually don't do much if anything to help their voters and instead have the interest of their top donors very much in mind with bills that are passed and tax breaks that are sent through. Instead, these politicians use Social and cultural issues to stoke their voting base and to obscure the fact that they really don't care about them and their well-being. I mean George Carlin talked about this in 2005 and it hasn't changed...
As a Maryland resident, I've voted for Larry Hogan twice and would vote for him again if he weren't term-limited. But even if we were still in the pre-Trump era, I have trouble seeing how he could win the Republican nomination for president. Why would anyone expect Larry Hogan to be more successful than John Kasich was?
Still, I think there is a reason for him to run. We need a major candidate to run against Trump (or DeSantis or whomever MAGA settles on). I think Liz Cheney would be a better candidate, but we don't know that she will run, so it's good to have Hogan as a backup. We need a candidate who will run right at Trump and do as much damage as possible. Shred him in the debates - and if he won't debate, suggest that he lacks testicles and that he is relying on the establishment to rig the nomination for him. The goal is not to win, but to discredit Trump, Trumpism, and MAGA. This is the sort of thing that only a Republican can do - a Republican who has not flirted publicly with becoming a Democrat.
JVL's strategy would concede the GOP nomination to MAGA. I don't see how forfeiting the nomination without a fight would help Biden in the general election. Better to damage Trump in the primary, hitting him from the Reagan right and exposing him as a fake conservative - and making him deplete his war chest. That could help Biden in November - and it couldn't hurt him.
I also agree with Sarah on Biden's being captive to his party's left wing. In 2020 I was actually thinking about joining the Democratic Party in the hope that Biden would expand the party rightwards to capture the center. But the progressives have made it clear they would fight a civil war to keep that from happening. Biden is a uniter, but to him that means first and foremost uniting the Democratic Party, not the country.
Sarah. I think it was me who compared your view of kids' sports to womens' sports, and I stand by everything I said. To somewhat quote you (more accurately than you quoted me, but whatevs) the last time the trans sports issue was discussed you said 'if we treat these people as women, why not let them compete (as women)?'. I consider this to be prima facie evidence of my case. I could find the specific episode if you would like? I just thought that you might remember some of the things you have said. It was when the Lia Thomas issue was at its peak, so it was only a few months back.
Unfortunately the obvious answer is 'because it is obviously grossly unfair, and it dissolves womens' ability to achieve anything as a group'. You seem to have never considered this argument, which is why I said that you don't care if sports are fair. Because fairness was not a consideration to you. You didn't mention it, even to dismiss it. And you recorded and released this in podcast form, we don't have to rely on my word.
If I am wrong, then this is all on tape. All you have to do is go back to the Lia Thomas discussion and come up with ANY mention of the issues facing the female swimmers, from the coerced public response, to the humiliation or loss of dignity, or possibly just the unfair competitive situation they have found themselves in.
So bring the receipts! If I am wrong I will issue an apology when you play the tape. If not then I stand by everything I said, and I could go much further.
Liz Cheney tweeted a good game calling out McCarthy et. al. for supporting white supremacy and domestic terrorism. And then first chance she got she joined every God damn republican, except Kinzinger, to vote against the domestic terrorism bill.
Other than J6 what has she really done to protect democracy from Trumpism? Nothing.
I have Thoughts about the coaching dilemma--JVL supplied a vitally important detail today when he talked about the kid on first base who didn't listen to the coach. Here's a solution to the dilemma--a kid who doesn't listen gets pulled from the game and benched immediately. Coach explains to him exactly what got him benched and what he has to do to earn back a spot on the field. I don't think it does kids any favors to make sure they have "equal" playing time--why work hard when there isn't any payoff? These kids are old enough that if they aren't interested in getting better, they should quit and find something else to do that they enjoy more.
Play the strongest players and then give the hardest workers a chance to play an inning or two in every game. Hard work, listening, practicing on your own--those things should lead to improvement--I know not every kid is a great athlete, but even the weakest players will improve if they practice catching in the back yard every night. The kids who don't put forth their best effort, who don't listen, or who are bad sports---bench.
I'd tell the kids that is the program going forward--the kids who hustle will get playing time. That strikes a balance between including as many kids as possible, teaching a valuable life lesson (which is the point of youth sports), and giving kids the positive experience of playing on a team that is competitive.
My one concern with this is that there's a big difference between an 8th grader who doesn't listen and a 5th grader who doesn't listen. The 5th graders really are little kids. Them not listening isn't a mark of them not trying--just different levels of executive functioning that are developmentally appropriate.
Sarah did a solid impersonation of JVL in this episode. #respect
Pretty sure this and the The Focus Group are tied for #1 spot of best Bulwark+ pods.
I do think Sarah has a good point regarding the need for less- or non-crazy (R)'s to try to run against the MAGA crowd. (D)'s won't ever accept them into the party, and we can't just let MAGA run without showing there's some sanity and integrity left.
The PA results are disconcerting when you tally up the MAGA (R) percentages, but PA (FWIW Scranton is my home town; even graduated from Univ of Scranton; but, haven't been back in ages) has always been a bit oddball.
I lean towards JVL's view on Hogan as being more helpful, but I think Sarah's response shows why it will never happen. Even though we all pretty much agree that the GOP is going to end democracy, or at the very least will be very bad for democracy, we all have different prices we're willing to pay to stop that. Sarah's line (and the line of a lot of center right folks) seems to be right around the price tag of a hypothetical BBB and whatever worst case outcome for student debt relief is. Those are the only two 'radical left' things I can think of that Biden has pushed. Afghanistan was a bipartisan screw up (and, if we're keeping score, the 'left' would have had us never going into Afghanistan or Iraq, or at least leaving Afghanistan way earlier, so I'm not sure why that's a black mark in their column)
JVL is right on Larry Hogan, Romney, and others. Sorry Sarah. While usually right, you aren’t looking at the 30000 ft level. After reading Snyder, Applebaum, Dean & Altemeyer, Ghianni, and my reading on Europe in the 1920s through 1940s, attempts to put minor bandaids on the GOP won’t suffice. The GOP must be killed off. The ugly, the dark, and the evil is growing. Yes, each of us has a dark side, but there is about 12-20% of the population who have dangerous personality disorders (check out Duty to Warn, Altemeyer, Stout etc). When civilizations and institutions are stable and strong, people with PD often try to “blend in”, stay hidden (wreak havoc on though around them, but not usually society itself). Trump and his enablers have given those with dangerous personality disorders permission to destroy institutions, hurt, and kill others. To deny this, is to “wish cast”. The Democrats are blowing it on messaging and nimbleness, but we need to support their efforts, and “throttle” them to rise up to the challenge to save our representative democracy. I’m assuming you’ve seen graphics from Oxford and Rotterdam about how the two parties rank in terms of the left/right spectrum in terms of comparing them to Canadian and European countries. The Democratic Party was close to the median. The GOP was so far right that only a couple of parties, one of which was a far right neo-Nazi party in the Netherlands was further right. The graphic and the explanations I saw were from The Financial Times and the NYT in fall 2020. It is clear to me that it has only gotten worse since then. I don’t know how to post the graphic or link to the articles here. They are on my Twitter feed. The Democrats need to step up. However, if we want this 240 year experiment to continue, we need to be clear eyed about what needs to happen to the current GOP
...I'm sorry, but I think JVL has the right of this re: Hogan. It's the same issue I have with the Anti-Trump Right who couldn't bring themselves to vote for Biden or any non-R candidate. Now that 2020 is done, they have for the most part spent way more time talking about how radical and terrible and evil Joe Biden and the Dems are and oh how I can't vote Trump (but I won't vote against him).
I'd accept it even if Hogan didn't go JVL's maximalist "switch party" idea but if his posture was "Listen, Trump and the Trump right are crazy and should not be elected. I am a Republican but in the spirit of bipartisanship I'm going to not go negative. Vote for me because I am the True Republican." I'd even have less of an issue if he sniped at a theoretical D challenger for him in the governor's race. But by going after national Dems, he's signaling that it's okay to elect the Trump Right (or at least "just don't vote Dem. I'll leave to your imagination who to vote for if not Dems"). He'd rather keep his Place in the Party secure than actually make practical steps towards preventing the end of democracy.
It would also make me more comfortable promoting Hogan as a National True Republican Voice instead of just a quirk of MD if he was active in boosting non-Trump candidates and really tried getting non-Trump candidates in. But I mean, who were the last candidates he endorsed? Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue (both big fans of the Big Lie).
To sum up, I'm not asking Hogan to switch teams or to suddenly become a Democrat. I am asking that if he really is that anti-Trump, that he look very closely with clear eyes as to what actions and rhetoric are most likely to bring the Trumpists back to power and what will keep them from power. Or, in short: is he more anti-Trump or anti-Democrat?
Let me preface this by saying I’m a life long couch potato and I’ve never played a team sport. But I’m fascinated by JVL’s story about whether to play all the kids on the team, or go with a possibly more winning strategy of playing the more skilled team members. Have you thought about having an all team conversation about this? Maybe the less skilled kids would rather be on a winning team, then getting to play once or twice? My “thinking out loud” thought :)
Yeah, it gets demoralizing for everybody if the team gets their faces pounded into the dirt every week. I think you can give everybody SOME playing time--for example if they are playing a weak team, or if the team is ahead by several runs you can put the second string in for an inning or two late in the game.
Congrats to Flash on throwing a no hitter.
I know a lot of guys who can fall asleep on a dime, and in any position...not so much any women...my boss can fall asleep in his chair ( which has no arms for Pete's sake) unless I am very sick, and can't lay down, I have to be laying down to fall asleep...and I have several male friends who can do the same thing, I am exhausted right now, and I still can't fall asleep..I never suffered from this until I hit 60...must be an age thing...I could always fall asleep ( if not in any position and I didn't have this waking up, but can't go back to sleep thing either)
JVL is right... sounds like a T-shirt! I mean my issue with honestly Sarah and Tim and Charlie and really most of the Bulwark is that they really believe that Trump and the Republicans are a major threat, but they do a what aboutism saying the far left is so crazy and radical. This is nuts... this is crazy... Joe Biden has done nothing that the far left has wanted him to. I mean no child tax credit, no reduction on healthcare costs for the elderly, no action on climate change, no reduced drug costs, no protection on voting rights, and no elimination of student loans. I mean to suggest that Joe Biden has not governed as President as a Middle of the road Democrat is simply not true. Who cares what he says, what has he actually done and prioritized? That will show you what people really care about. I mean Republicans talk about the poor aggrieved working white rural voter and how big tech and corporations are "woke" and then don't pass anything that helps white rural voters and instead pass tax credits that continue to enrich big tech and "woke" corporations so who do they really value? Also, would love for Sarah or really again, anyone at the Bulwark to tell me why it is bad that "progressive" Dems want the same things for American Citizens that they would get in Canada... or England.... or France.,. or every other Western Ally that we have. Why does America not have money to spend on these things yet other countries can find a way and not be labeled as some crazy socialist country. This is beyond infuriating... why is it ok for our citizens to go bankrupt from being sick? Why are we ok with massive poverty rates that are brought on by flattening wages after Ron Reagan took a torch to guard rails on Wall Street.... Since 1978 the CEO pay has risen 1300% while average worker pay has risen 18%. This is ridiculous yet somehow Republicans whether they are Never Trump or not seem to believe this is ok.. this is just the free market... this is just Capitalism baby, what can you do... it's a grift that is being performed at the highest level where elected officials actually don't do much if anything to help their voters and instead have the interest of their top donors very much in mind with bills that are passed and tax breaks that are sent through. Instead, these politicians use Social and cultural issues to stoke their voting base and to obscure the fact that they really don't care about them and their well-being. I mean George Carlin talked about this in 2005 and it hasn't changed...
As a Maryland resident, I've voted for Larry Hogan twice and would vote for him again if he weren't term-limited. But even if we were still in the pre-Trump era, I have trouble seeing how he could win the Republican nomination for president. Why would anyone expect Larry Hogan to be more successful than John Kasich was?
Still, I think there is a reason for him to run. We need a major candidate to run against Trump (or DeSantis or whomever MAGA settles on). I think Liz Cheney would be a better candidate, but we don't know that she will run, so it's good to have Hogan as a backup. We need a candidate who will run right at Trump and do as much damage as possible. Shred him in the debates - and if he won't debate, suggest that he lacks testicles and that he is relying on the establishment to rig the nomination for him. The goal is not to win, but to discredit Trump, Trumpism, and MAGA. This is the sort of thing that only a Republican can do - a Republican who has not flirted publicly with becoming a Democrat.
JVL's strategy would concede the GOP nomination to MAGA. I don't see how forfeiting the nomination without a fight would help Biden in the general election. Better to damage Trump in the primary, hitting him from the Reagan right and exposing him as a fake conservative - and making him deplete his war chest. That could help Biden in November - and it couldn't hurt him.
I also agree with Sarah on Biden's being captive to his party's left wing. In 2020 I was actually thinking about joining the Democratic Party in the hope that Biden would expand the party rightwards to capture the center. But the progressives have made it clear they would fight a civil war to keep that from happening. Biden is a uniter, but to him that means first and foremost uniting the Democratic Party, not the country.
Sarah. I think it was me who compared your view of kids' sports to womens' sports, and I stand by everything I said. To somewhat quote you (more accurately than you quoted me, but whatevs) the last time the trans sports issue was discussed you said 'if we treat these people as women, why not let them compete (as women)?'. I consider this to be prima facie evidence of my case. I could find the specific episode if you would like? I just thought that you might remember some of the things you have said. It was when the Lia Thomas issue was at its peak, so it was only a few months back.
Unfortunately the obvious answer is 'because it is obviously grossly unfair, and it dissolves womens' ability to achieve anything as a group'. You seem to have never considered this argument, which is why I said that you don't care if sports are fair. Because fairness was not a consideration to you. You didn't mention it, even to dismiss it. And you recorded and released this in podcast form, we don't have to rely on my word.
If I am wrong, then this is all on tape. All you have to do is go back to the Lia Thomas discussion and come up with ANY mention of the issues facing the female swimmers, from the coerced public response, to the humiliation or loss of dignity, or possibly just the unfair competitive situation they have found themselves in.
So bring the receipts! If I am wrong I will issue an apology when you play the tape. If not then I stand by everything I said, and I could go much further.
I agree with Sarah on everything (almost). I am with JVL on being able to fall asleep quickly.
I don’t know how this impacts JVL’s dark night of the soul, but maybe this could be something he has his team incorporate: https://twitter.com/SheaSerrano/status/1528037679534702593
Liz Cheney tweeted a good game calling out McCarthy et. al. for supporting white supremacy and domestic terrorism. And then first chance she got she joined every God damn republican, except Kinzinger, to vote against the domestic terrorism bill.
Other than J6 what has she really done to protect democracy from Trumpism? Nothing.
She's MAGA without the Big Lie.
I have Thoughts about the coaching dilemma--JVL supplied a vitally important detail today when he talked about the kid on first base who didn't listen to the coach. Here's a solution to the dilemma--a kid who doesn't listen gets pulled from the game and benched immediately. Coach explains to him exactly what got him benched and what he has to do to earn back a spot on the field. I don't think it does kids any favors to make sure they have "equal" playing time--why work hard when there isn't any payoff? These kids are old enough that if they aren't interested in getting better, they should quit and find something else to do that they enjoy more.
Play the strongest players and then give the hardest workers a chance to play an inning or two in every game. Hard work, listening, practicing on your own--those things should lead to improvement--I know not every kid is a great athlete, but even the weakest players will improve if they practice catching in the back yard every night. The kids who don't put forth their best effort, who don't listen, or who are bad sports---bench.
I'd tell the kids that is the program going forward--the kids who hustle will get playing time. That strikes a balance between including as many kids as possible, teaching a valuable life lesson (which is the point of youth sports), and giving kids the positive experience of playing on a team that is competitive.
My one concern with this is that there's a big difference between an 8th grader who doesn't listen and a 5th grader who doesn't listen. The 5th graders really are little kids. Them not listening isn't a mark of them not trying--just different levels of executive functioning that are developmentally appropriate.
Sarah did a solid impersonation of JVL in this episode. #respect
Pretty sure this and the The Focus Group are tied for #1 spot of best Bulwark+ pods.
I do think Sarah has a good point regarding the need for less- or non-crazy (R)'s to try to run against the MAGA crowd. (D)'s won't ever accept them into the party, and we can't just let MAGA run without showing there's some sanity and integrity left.
The PA results are disconcerting when you tally up the MAGA (R) percentages, but PA (FWIW Scranton is my home town; even graduated from Univ of Scranton; but, haven't been back in ages) has always been a bit oddball.
As ever, JVL is right.
I lean towards JVL's view on Hogan as being more helpful, but I think Sarah's response shows why it will never happen. Even though we all pretty much agree that the GOP is going to end democracy, or at the very least will be very bad for democracy, we all have different prices we're willing to pay to stop that. Sarah's line (and the line of a lot of center right folks) seems to be right around the price tag of a hypothetical BBB and whatever worst case outcome for student debt relief is. Those are the only two 'radical left' things I can think of that Biden has pushed. Afghanistan was a bipartisan screw up (and, if we're keeping score, the 'left' would have had us never going into Afghanistan or Iraq, or at least leaving Afghanistan way earlier, so I'm not sure why that's a black mark in their column)
JVL is right on Larry Hogan, Romney, and others. Sorry Sarah. While usually right, you aren’t looking at the 30000 ft level. After reading Snyder, Applebaum, Dean & Altemeyer, Ghianni, and my reading on Europe in the 1920s through 1940s, attempts to put minor bandaids on the GOP won’t suffice. The GOP must be killed off. The ugly, the dark, and the evil is growing. Yes, each of us has a dark side, but there is about 12-20% of the population who have dangerous personality disorders (check out Duty to Warn, Altemeyer, Stout etc). When civilizations and institutions are stable and strong, people with PD often try to “blend in”, stay hidden (wreak havoc on though around them, but not usually society itself). Trump and his enablers have given those with dangerous personality disorders permission to destroy institutions, hurt, and kill others. To deny this, is to “wish cast”. The Democrats are blowing it on messaging and nimbleness, but we need to support their efforts, and “throttle” them to rise up to the challenge to save our representative democracy. I’m assuming you’ve seen graphics from Oxford and Rotterdam about how the two parties rank in terms of the left/right spectrum in terms of comparing them to Canadian and European countries. The Democratic Party was close to the median. The GOP was so far right that only a couple of parties, one of which was a far right neo-Nazi party in the Netherlands was further right. The graphic and the explanations I saw were from The Financial Times and the NYT in fall 2020. It is clear to me that it has only gotten worse since then. I don’t know how to post the graphic or link to the articles here. They are on my Twitter feed. The Democrats need to step up. However, if we want this 240 year experiment to continue, we need to be clear eyed about what needs to happen to the current GOP
Sorry Ghiat, not Gianni. I’m typing on my autocorrect IPad. Ugh
Someone had way way too much coffee.
...I'm sorry, but I think JVL has the right of this re: Hogan. It's the same issue I have with the Anti-Trump Right who couldn't bring themselves to vote for Biden or any non-R candidate. Now that 2020 is done, they have for the most part spent way more time talking about how radical and terrible and evil Joe Biden and the Dems are and oh how I can't vote Trump (but I won't vote against him).
I'd accept it even if Hogan didn't go JVL's maximalist "switch party" idea but if his posture was "Listen, Trump and the Trump right are crazy and should not be elected. I am a Republican but in the spirit of bipartisanship I'm going to not go negative. Vote for me because I am the True Republican." I'd even have less of an issue if he sniped at a theoretical D challenger for him in the governor's race. But by going after national Dems, he's signaling that it's okay to elect the Trump Right (or at least "just don't vote Dem. I'll leave to your imagination who to vote for if not Dems"). He'd rather keep his Place in the Party secure than actually make practical steps towards preventing the end of democracy.
It would also make me more comfortable promoting Hogan as a National True Republican Voice instead of just a quirk of MD if he was active in boosting non-Trump candidates and really tried getting non-Trump candidates in. But I mean, who were the last candidates he endorsed? Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue (both big fans of the Big Lie).
To sum up, I'm not asking Hogan to switch teams or to suddenly become a Democrat. I am asking that if he really is that anti-Trump, that he look very closely with clear eyes as to what actions and rhetoric are most likely to bring the Trumpists back to power and what will keep them from power. Or, in short: is he more anti-Trump or anti-Democrat?
Let me preface this by saying I’m a life long couch potato and I’ve never played a team sport. But I’m fascinated by JVL’s story about whether to play all the kids on the team, or go with a possibly more winning strategy of playing the more skilled team members. Have you thought about having an all team conversation about this? Maybe the less skilled kids would rather be on a winning team, then getting to play once or twice? My “thinking out loud” thought :)
Yeah, it gets demoralizing for everybody if the team gets their faces pounded into the dirt every week. I think you can give everybody SOME playing time--for example if they are playing a weak team, or if the team is ahead by several runs you can put the second string in for an inning or two late in the game.