Charlie - I think Ionesco's "Rhinoceros" play was a very apt description of the GOP today. Very depressing analogy. (I read the Wikipedia article just now - I haven't seen it yet.)
Is that Lil' Marco, captain of his South Miami High debate team circa 1988? Or is that just some g.d. cheap pol planning his presidential election victory speech?
The NYT has already called it for the Orange Snake. 2nd place is still up. If Nikki had any ounce of courage, she'd drop out and say she's voting for Biden. Well, I can dream.
Please stop talking about Iowa like it was important, it isn't. You have exactly one candidate running to win the GOP nomination. No one is going to get particularly excited about someone running for second. Tell us the percentages in two sentences and move on. If the candidates don't care why should we.
Marco was always an empty suit, and subject to whatever the prevailing sentiment of the voters were that day. Unfortunately, we’re finding out that almost every single one of his colleagues are as well. It’s obvious that there’s no way we could trust any of them to truly stand up for America. Any foreign leader could threaten to tweet about them, or send a few angry people after them, and they would fold in a heartbeat. It will take a generation or more to rebuild the Republican Party.
In the 1950s the late great historian Daniel Boorstin wrote a short book entitled, if my aging memory served me accurately, THE IMAGE. In it he posited the idea of the “pseudo event,” an otherwise meaningless event made significant by the media.
As i recall his example was the Miss America contest. If he were alive to revise it I suspect he would use both the Iowa Caucus and the New Hampshire primary as his examples.
Who in their right mind can view
either of these as anything other then an insignificant black swan sitting on the back of an ersatz unicorn.
This is why we need to get rid of the insanity of the state by state primaries. We need a national approach run in August. Rank choice voting to select the candidates for every party. Once they are selected, then on to November. Do it all in 90 days so that we don't have to put up with this stupid BS every month.
With my approach, wouldn't you give them a better platform by not having them have to travel to every state to make that name? Everything is online today. Seems to me that it would be a lot easier to get into the fray without all that cost.
Online campaigns support and expand in-person campaigns. For the most part I think the candidates still have to get out there, and the less-known they are the more they have to get out. Funding an in-person campaign in a few smaller states is a completely different proposition than competing for the big voter/delegate piles right out of the gate. The lesser-known candidate hopes that a strong showing in an early state brings the media and the money required to ramp up to a campaign in big states.
The structural problems with our primaries are the favoritism toward the same few early states (not that they're not "representative," just that they're the same); and, the favoritism toward first-place finishers in multi-candidate fields. Ranked or scored ballots would help with the latter.
Can we please…please….please stop wishcasting that the MAGA Republicans aren’t going to vote for Trump even if convicted ? Stop trying to gaslight us into even considering that a conviction is the redline in the sand. Anyone who is willing to pull any lever for Trump at this point is going to follow him to the bottom. What’s scary is there are 70+ million of our fellow Americans willing and able to destroy our country for this man.
There's a principle in medicine that practitioners should not be in healing business if they themselves are not whole. It applies to other endeavors, as well. Joe Biden's favorability number is now 33%. Even fewer, 28%, believe he is mentally and physically up to the job of president. He's not well liked and never has been. He stumbled into the '20 nomination only with the help of Jim Clyburn and SC Blacks. Had Clyburn not pulled that rabbit out of the hat, Biden's '20 campaign would have ended in ashes like his two others. He was elected only because he was running against Donald Trump. Joe Biden wants to lead the nation for another four years, but he is badly diminished himself and has little hope of prevailing. If Dems don't come to their senses and find a younger, more able nominee, he is going to take us down right along with him.
Ain't gonna happen. And I'm starting to see polls in headlines that have Biden ahead. If ANYONE was seriously considering taking on Biden for the presidency, they should have made themselves known back in 2021 to the party. It's pretty clear that nobody was interested when the Orange Snake made it known that he would be running. As for diminished, the most successful president in years is seen only as diminished by the media who live by clicks and those who really don't care about what the man's accomplished. I, for one supported Biden, from the moment he ran.
One, he's so white he's downright pasty. And two, feeds into his ego about a tanned masculine man. He's probably tanning his balls as Tucker advocates.
Maybe there's something I'm missing, but I read the NBC poll (61% of caucus-goers say it doesn't matter if he's convicted of a crime) as potentially very hopeful. Typically nothing, up to and including the botching of a global crisis, has moved his support more than a handful of points. There's no Dem caucus to speak of, so isn't this basically all Republicans? Isn't it huge that 39% said it Would matter? Isn't he quite boned if he loses even a fraction of that 39%?
I'll never understand MAGA's belief that Trump is the apotheosis of manliness. Maybe it's me, but I fail to see how they look at a 77-year old draft dodger buried under three pounds of makeup and think "now there's a man's man."
Charlie - I think Ionesco's "Rhinoceros" play was a very apt description of the GOP today. Very depressing analogy. (I read the Wikipedia article just now - I haven't seen it yet.)
Is that Lil' Marco, captain of his South Miami High debate team circa 1988? Or is that just some g.d. cheap pol planning his presidential election victory speech?
The NYT has already called it for the Orange Snake. 2nd place is still up. If Nikki had any ounce of courage, she'd drop out and say she's voting for Biden. Well, I can dream.
Please stop talking about Iowa like it was important, it isn't. You have exactly one candidate running to win the GOP nomination. No one is going to get particularly excited about someone running for second. Tell us the percentages in two sentences and move on. If the candidates don't care why should we.
Yay Packers and Lions!
Marco was always an empty suit, and subject to whatever the prevailing sentiment of the voters were that day. Unfortunately, we’re finding out that almost every single one of his colleagues are as well. It’s obvious that there’s no way we could trust any of them to truly stand up for America. Any foreign leader could threaten to tweet about them, or send a few angry people after them, and they would fold in a heartbeat. It will take a generation or more to rebuild the Republican Party.
The only happy thing in the whole newsletter is that the Packers thumped the Cowboys. Thanks for that, from a Wisconsin girl!
In the 1950s the late great historian Daniel Boorstin wrote a short book entitled, if my aging memory served me accurately, THE IMAGE. In it he posited the idea of the “pseudo event,” an otherwise meaningless event made significant by the media.
As i recall his example was the Miss America contest. If he were alive to revise it I suspect he would use both the Iowa Caucus and the New Hampshire primary as his examples.
Who in their right mind can view
either of these as anything other then an insignificant black swan sitting on the back of an ersatz unicorn.
This is why we need to get rid of the insanity of the state by state primaries. We need a national approach run in August. Rank choice voting to select the candidates for every party. Once they are selected, then on to November. Do it all in 90 days so that we don't have to put up with this stupid BS every month.
Without state-by-state primaries, you shut out candidates who don't have a national profile to start with.
With my approach, wouldn't you give them a better platform by not having them have to travel to every state to make that name? Everything is online today. Seems to me that it would be a lot easier to get into the fray without all that cost.
Online campaigns support and expand in-person campaigns. For the most part I think the candidates still have to get out there, and the less-known they are the more they have to get out. Funding an in-person campaign in a few smaller states is a completely different proposition than competing for the big voter/delegate piles right out of the gate. The lesser-known candidate hopes that a strong showing in an early state brings the media and the money required to ramp up to a campaign in big states.
The structural problems with our primaries are the favoritism toward the same few early states (not that they're not "representative," just that they're the same); and, the favoritism toward first-place finishers in multi-candidate fields. Ranked or scored ballots would help with the latter.
Can we please…please….please stop wishcasting that the MAGA Republicans aren’t going to vote for Trump even if convicted ? Stop trying to gaslight us into even considering that a conviction is the redline in the sand. Anyone who is willing to pull any lever for Trump at this point is going to follow him to the bottom. What’s scary is there are 70+ million of our fellow Americans willing and able to destroy our country for this man.
There's a principle in medicine that practitioners should not be in healing business if they themselves are not whole. It applies to other endeavors, as well. Joe Biden's favorability number is now 33%. Even fewer, 28%, believe he is mentally and physically up to the job of president. He's not well liked and never has been. He stumbled into the '20 nomination only with the help of Jim Clyburn and SC Blacks. Had Clyburn not pulled that rabbit out of the hat, Biden's '20 campaign would have ended in ashes like his two others. He was elected only because he was running against Donald Trump. Joe Biden wants to lead the nation for another four years, but he is badly diminished himself and has little hope of prevailing. If Dems don't come to their senses and find a younger, more able nominee, he is going to take us down right along with him.
Ain't gonna happen. And I'm starting to see polls in headlines that have Biden ahead. If ANYONE was seriously considering taking on Biden for the presidency, they should have made themselves known back in 2021 to the party. It's pretty clear that nobody was interested when the Orange Snake made it known that he would be running. As for diminished, the most successful president in years is seen only as diminished by the media who live by clicks and those who really don't care about what the man's accomplished. I, for one supported Biden, from the moment he ran.
Vox populi, vox insani!
I still find it so odd that Donald Trump applies makeup to his face every day. Why?
You really want to see him when he first wakes up in the morning? Methinks he can use a bit more bronzer, truth be told.
I am more curious about what motivates him to apply the makeup each day.
One, he's so white he's downright pasty. And two, feeds into his ego about a tanned masculine man. He's probably tanning his balls as Tucker advocates.
Even though debunked, it is distressing that the students were eager to follow the professor's instructions to be cruel.
"However, others claimed that the original advertisement attracted people who were predisposed to authoritarianism."
Stanford students are "predisposed to authoritarianism"? Say it ain't so!!!
Maybe there's something I'm missing, but I read the NBC poll (61% of caucus-goers say it doesn't matter if he's convicted of a crime) as potentially very hopeful. Typically nothing, up to and including the botching of a global crisis, has moved his support more than a handful of points. There's no Dem caucus to speak of, so isn't this basically all Republicans? Isn't it huge that 39% said it Would matter? Isn't he quite boned if he loses even a fraction of that 39%?
I'll never understand MAGA's belief that Trump is the apotheosis of manliness. Maybe it's me, but I fail to see how they look at a 77-year old draft dodger buried under three pounds of makeup and think "now there's a man's man."