Thursday, January 23, 2025
Morning
Wednesday, January 22, 2025
Wanker of the Day
Our Safe Space
During a weekly meeting with House Democratic chiefs of staff on Tuesday, an aide for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries played a recent clip of the New York Democrat being asked on NBC’s “Meet the Press” whether he’d support funding Trump’s mass deportation plans.He was proud of that!
Jeffries responded by saying Democrats want to focus on bringing down the cost of living and hit Republicans for their lack of an agenda on that issue. In a follow-up question about Trump’s deportation plans, Jeffries said, “The administration needs to focus on the removal of violent felons.”
US Attorney Scandal
One reason we're here is that everybody mostly pretended not to notice the extreme corruption of the Bush administration - they were good, heroic, chaps, just trying to keep us safe - and then of course we had to look forward, not backward.
The US Attorney Scandal under Bush was Watergate level shit, the complete corruption of the Justice Department, as we are seeing once again. Its revelation made most of the press corps very uncomfortable, for reasons they make obvious regularly.
Access Journalism
Do we think these people are there to get scoops? That there is any point to beat sweeteners other than the next beat sweetener? That they prioritize anything other than their fun and careers? That they would try to print anything that would make their experience in the briefing room less enjoyable for them, personally?
"Access journalism" is nothing more than proving you will do free PR for the people you are supposed to cover, so that you are the first one to get the press release. SCOOP EXCLUSIVE!
I have spent 23 years writing about how they are vapid, gossip-obsessed, preening idiots who would burn the country down for a photo op with The Preznit and they just tweeted it out!
Winter Fundraiser Day 2
I Am Uncomfortable When We Are Not About Me
“I think it’s important for people to understand the context, that we’re coming out of four years of Biden and things haven’t been great,” one White House print reporter told CJR. “There’ve been fewer eyeballs on the press briefings and less attention than under Trump, so people just don’t understand some of the very frustrating things that we’ve dealt with and that we hope are going to be rolled back.”Among those frustrations: the Biden press office largely kept reporters at a remove from the president, who—as Cameron Joseph noted here last year—had agreed to far fewer formal interviews than any president before him. Instead, White House reporters say, the Biden team preferred to offer background quotes from in-house experts whose job it was to speak to the press; when the president did meet with a large number of outlets, like during his pre-election rounds of interviews on Black radio stations, it was through highly orchestrated conversations, sometimes including preapproved lists of questions. Inside the briefing room, reporters who didn’t hold coveted front-row seats felt they got much less opportunity to ask questions.“For a lot of people, what was the point in even going?” said a veteran White House reporter.Trump, on the other hand, adores the attention of the media, even as he frequently maligns the reporters themselves. During his first term, he regularly chatted with White House reporters during strolls to Marine One, and held a number of high-profile, if occasionally ill-conceived, televised sit-downs, with everyone from Axios’s Jonathan Swan to Barstool Sports’ Dave Portnoy. (On his first night back, Trump spent forty-five minutes casually answering media questions in the Oval Office, while he signed executive orders.)“Despite his sometimes strident and sometimes even violent rhetoric about the press, he loves talking to us,” the print reporter said. “And his team—they like talking to us, and they know that they’re going to have a huge audience.”
Tuesday, January 21, 2025
Marks
The problem with this impulse is that inherent in the hope of working with this guy is the accompanying understanding that you must not try as hard as you can to smash the guy at the same time. You can’t say “Donald Trump is a loathsome fascist” and then say in the next breath “We look forward to crafting a worker-friendly trade policy with you, sir.” Yet, hey, guess who the people are who, collectively, are nurturing all of these disparate hopes of winning on their pet issues? They are the opposition. We are entering an age of gangster style fascism. We are going to need all of the opposition that we can get. If most of the opposition is busy flattering itself that they can soften Trump on this or that, they are not doing their most important work: Trying to destroy his entire political project. That political project is, I remind you, one of destroying the rest of us. An opposition that can’t dedicate itself to being the opposition is a weak opposition, indeed. And Trump has always enjoyed a weak opposition.
If you think that you are a savvy politician because you got Trump on your side regarding congestion pricing and meanwhile he is stripping thousands of your citizens of their birthright citizenship, you are wrong. If you think that you are a savvy union leader because you got Trump to a little better place on trade and meanwhile he is stripping every woman in your union of her right to abortion, you are wrong. If you think that you are a savvy liberal writer because you cajoled Trump into a little better place on foreign policy and meanwhile he is telling your trans friends that the government will no longer legally recognize their identity, you are wrong. You have made a miscalculation. You have not taken in the full picture of what you are dealing with here. You have been sold a worthless little bauble in exchange for something real. You have not done the math. You are the Greater Fool.
The bad guys are in charge right now. You can’t triangulate your way out of this. All you can do is fight.
What's It For
The problem, Shakir quickly found out, is that DNC members are pretty much given nothing to do.No one can really explain what the DNC does, other than being a conduit for a lot of money, or how as an entity decisions are made. It's both all powerful and powerless. It's kind of odd.
“The way I was asked to participate, they said, ‘Pick two councils to be on,’” Shakir said. “I think I checked rural and labor. You get added to this roster, you go the DNC meeting. I said, ‘Where’s the discourse about the strategy to win? Are there polling presentations? Do we discuss in group settings?’” But as Shakir described it, the councils were mainly social gatherings, a place to hear speeches and rally and chat.
I had a distinct recollection of the one time I got involved as a delegate to the California Democratic Party many years ago. I rapidly learned that the state conventions, the only formal role for delegates, were just sandboxes for relatively meaningless resolutions and late-night parties. It was not just that outside consultants made all the important decisions, though they did. It was that they didn’t think there were really any decisions to make. Taking positions on policy was rare, but more than that, there was no strategic insight into how the party should introduce itself to voters, how it should organize, how it should make use of its resources.
This Is The Way
CHICAGO — Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker launched an attack on President Donald Trump's planned executive order attempting to revoke birthright citizenship.“That’s unconstitutional. We will not follow an unconstitutional order,” Pritzker told reporters at an unrelated event on Monday.
Lunch
I know there are certain CEOs we are not big fans of, so shop elsewhere if you wish but if you are going to shop there anyway...
Chuck Schumer, Naderite
People understandably get mad at the "Naderite Left" [dated but you know what I mean] for arguing there is no difference between the two parties, but does anything contribute to that view more than going on about bipartisanship constantly? In Mitch McConnell's Senate!
WINTER FUNDRAISER DAY 1
or
Thans to all! That people continue to support this very fine blog means a lot!
Your Liberal Media
True at many affiliates, from what I can gather.Wild. Top is the NBC upload, bottom is the one aired as the live feed
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog.lol) January 21, 2025 at 5:45 AM
[image or embed]
There's no point with arguing with right wingers about stuff like this. They love trolling and lying about it. There is some point in yelling at media outlets. Washington Post:
Monday, January 20, 2025
My Many Failures
This time, don't forget what a piece of shit that newspaper, worse now, is.
Everything Everywhere All At Once
A lawsuit claiming billionaire Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” violates federal transparency rules will be filed within minutes of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration Monday, kicking off a legal battle over a key aspect of the incoming administration’s agenda.
In a 30-page complaint obtained by The Washington Post ahead of its filing, the public interest law firm National Security Counselors says that the nongovernmental DOGE panel is breaking a 1972 law that requires advisory committees to the executive branch to follow certain rules on disclosure, hiring and other practices.
Choose Your Fighters
To the extent that what I post here is anything other than a place for me to vent, and you to read my venting and discuss that and other things, it's that I might occasionally influence the influencers. Small domino hitting larger domino.
The people who do have influence are the elected Democrats and the people with much larger platforms than I do. Almost all of those people are self-identified centrists. They all like to imagine they are smol beans overwhelmed by the horde of Woke Leftists who actually run the country, but this just means they are liars or people whose brains have been broken by people who annoy them on the internet.
The Ron Klain era of the Biden administration - and therefore The Democrats - was notable for its openness to The Left, and that was an "error" these people were desperate to correct.
They won! They were eager for the midterm to be a bloodbath for Democrats, and when it wasn't they went on pretending it was.
There's an SBF/crypto money side plot here, but I'll skip that for now. I'll just say that people started saying a lot of weird shit that didn't make any sense until that blew up.
The Jeff Zients era was everything they wanted. Harris's campaign started off well, but you could spot the moment that the centrist ghouls took over and, again, it was everything they wanted. They went ahead and blamed The Left anyway, of course, because nothing is ever their fault.
The pitch of the centrists is that they can win. Fair enough when they do. When they don't...
Sunday, January 19, 2025
Also Is This Clever
❄️❄️❄️ @realdonaldtrump pic.twitter.com/Nvm5hBOkPp
— The Democrats (@TheDemocrats) January 18, 2025
Is This Clever
Karine Jean-Pierre called TikTok’s threat to “go dark” on Sunday, January 19th, a “stunt” and said there is no reason for TikTok to shut itself down before President-elect Donald Trump is sworn in on the 20th.Remember that this was a vital national security issue and now suddenly it's... whatever the fuck this is.
“It is a stunt, and we see no reason for TikTok or other companies to take actions in the next few days before the Trump Administration takes office on Monday,” MSNBC quotes Jean-Pierre as saying. “We have laid out our position clearly and straightforwardly: actions to implement this law will fall to the next administration. So TikTok and other companies should take up any concerns with them.”
They key theme our chosen fighters is "nothing is every our fault, even the things we endorse, sign, and implement."
...and TikTok says it is back.
(I have never used TikTok as I hate the whole "short video" thing but that is me!)
SCOOP!!! MUST CREDIT AXIOS!!!
🚨🚨Scoop: We've learned OpenAI CEO Sam Altman — has scheduled a closed-door briefing for U.S. government officials on Jan. 30 - with people inside and out of gov’t telling us AI insiders believe a big breakthrough on PHD level SuperAgents is coming. https://t.co/0EsHMT2shi
— Jim VandeHei (@JimVandeHei) January 19, 2025
TikTok You Don't Stop
Saturday, January 18, 2025
Our Great Journalistic Institutions
Minor Humiliations
If You're A Star
I remember when Mel Gibson did his holocaust denial and Nooners among others just let it slide.
Friday, January 17, 2025
Fake Contrarianism
Paul is admired by some of her colleagues for her willingness to buck liberal-left conventional wisdom. She has written a defense of J.K. Rowling and scrutinized the MeToo movement for overreach, while a recent column criticized the American Historical Society’s vote to condemn the ongoing “scholasticide” in Gaza.She is admired by her colleagues who all agree with her!
The Norms Defender
Jan 16 (Reuters) - Tom Goldstein, a top U.S. Supreme Court attorney and publisher of the SCOTUSblog news website, was indicted on Thursday in Maryland federal court for allegedly failing to report millions of dollars he won in poker matches and using his former law firm's accounts to pay his gambling debts. Goldstein, who was part of the team that represented former Vice President Al Gore in Supreme Court litigation over the 2000 U.S. presidential election, is facing 22 different charges, including tax evasion, preparing false and fraudulent tax returns, and failing to pay his taxes, according to the indictmentThat 2nd one was a pardon audition, most likely.
THE LAW IS FAKE
“We are not considering deferring enforcement,” the official said. “Statutorily, we don’t believe we have the authority to do that.”Today:
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden won’t enforce a ban on the social media app TikTok that is set to take effect a day before he leaves office on Monday, a U.S. official said Thursday, leaving its fate in the hands of President-elect Donald Trump.This is what they spent time on last year because their granddaughters were watching people say mean things about Netanyahu.
Thursday, January 16, 2025
RIP David Lynch
Also, Too
The slide deck that Ms. Watford presented describes artificial intelligence as a key enabler of The Post’s success, the people said. It describes The Post as “an A.I.-fueled platform for news” that delivers “vital news, ideas and insights for all Americans where, how and when they want it.” It also lays out three pillars of The Post’s overall plan: “great journalism,” “happy customers” and “make money.” The Post lost roughly $77 million in 2023.
Innumeracy
Ms. Watford, who joined The Post in April, also laid out big-picture goals for the company. Among them: reach 200 million paying users, which the slide deck described as a “Big Hairy Audacious Goal,” or “B.H.A.G.”
Continued Humiliations
Clown Show
President Joe Biden’s administration is considering ways to keep TikTok available in the United States if a ban that’s scheduled to go into effect Sunday proceeds, according to three people familiar with the discussions.
“Americans shouldn’t expect to see TikTok suddenly banned on Sunday,” an administration official said, adding that officials are “exploring options” for how to implement the law so TikTok does not go dark Sunday.
“We are not considering deferring enforcement,” the official said. “Statutorily, we don’t believe we have the authority to do that.”You didn't have authority to send arms to Israel either, due to the Leahy Law, but you did that anyway.
Wednesday, January 15, 2025
Ah, Well, Nevertheless
NEWS: More than 400 WashPost journalists - including some of its most distinguished reporters & editors - have sent plea to owner Jeff Bezos to intervene. This petition was sent last night and disclosed by NPR. While not citing CEO Will Lewis by name, it casts a harsh light on his leadership/more
— David Folkenflik (@davidfolkenflik.bsky.social) January 15, 2025 at 5:37 PM
Trip is a longtime NYTer.I like how the limit of his concept of bad leadership is whether he "censored" something.
Why
Maybe they aren't all completely evil, but you generally don't become a billionaire by being nice and generous. Given Amazon's well-documented labor record, for example, this is another manifestation of "well he's mean to other people but I thought he'd be nice to me."The Washington Post was a great, historic newspaper. I thought being bought by a billionaire would protect its solvency and integrity. But billionaires needing to ass-kiss Trump to protect their interests has put an end to that. One of many things to mourn.
— Sheldon Whitehouse (@SenWhitehouse) January 13, 2025
Brain Geniuses
The company plans to close approximately 450 additional stores in 2025, noting that the stores that remain open outperform the ones designated for closure by approximately 250 basis points. Wentworth also acknowledged the ongoing struggle with shrink as a “hand-to-hand combat battle.” After reporting a 52% increase in shrink, or lost inventory, in 2020 and 2021, Walgreens invested in increased security that proved to be “largely ineffective.” And while many drug stores have taken to locking up commonly looted goods, Wentworth admitted, “When you lock things up…you don’t sell as many of them. We’ve kind of proven that pretty conclusively.”It shouldn't take 15 minutes to buy deodorant.
Individual Responsbility
Pedestrians are often advised to wear reflective strips on their clothing so that car drivers can see them, but a new report says that such safety precautions are useless in the eyes of some automatic braking systems.Sure humans will be more likely to see you, but a problem with all automatic safety systems is that drivers get in the habit of relying on them.
The worst systems were on two popular models made by Honda and Mazda.
Tuesday, January 14, 2025
The Ones You Most Suspect
A former high energy Democratic fundraiser, failed congressional candidate and social media influencer is now raising money for President-elect Donald Trump’s inaugural committee.
Lindy Li made the shocking 180 after an extraordinary journey though a crazy year in Democratic politics culminating in Kamala Harris' historic loss to Donald Trump.
Better Late Than Never
WASHINGTON (AP) Biden administration will move to lift #Cuba's state sponsor of terror designation in final days of term, AP sources say
— Matt Lee (@APDiploWriter) January 14, 2025
Trying To Win The Last Battle
To a great degree (not just!) voters are mad about whatever the teevee is telling them to be mad about, or at least are channeling their anger into those issues, and to make that work for the Dems, they need to get out in front of the next issue and make sure that one is on TV.
The Fantasy Democratic Party
But in recent elections Democrats increasingly cast themselves as full-throated defenders of immigrants, regardless of legal status, while Republicans increasingly portrayed even legal immigration as a negative force in American life.Once you get past the 'clowns to the left, jokers to the right' framing, the piece is clearly way to the left of where the Democrats currently are, but self-identifying centrists can never acknowledge such things.
The lesson for Democrats is there's no point in "moving to the right" as they'll never get any "credit" for it anyway. Even from the New York Times!
Heroes And Villains
I was admittedly swept up in Liz as an authentic and sympathetic person. She’s gentle and charismatic, in a quiet way. My editor laughed at me when I shared these impressions, telling me (and I quote), “Amy Chozick, you got rolled!” I vigorously disagreed! You don’t know her like I do! But then, something very strange happened. I worked my way through a list of Ms. Holmes’s friends, family and longtime supporters, whom she and Mr. Evans suggested I speak to. One of these friends said Ms. Holmes had genuine intentions at Theranos and didn’t deserve a lengthy prison sentence. Then, this person requested anonymity to caution me not to believe everything Ms. Holmes says.This warning stuck with me, and it got at something that had been gnawing on me since I first met Ms. Holmes. How do you have an honest conversation with a person whose fraud trial has played out so publicly? I tried to ask Ms. Holmes this directly. How do I believe you when you’ve been convicted of (basically) lying? But how could I ask someone who was nursing her 11-day-old baby on a white sofa two feet away if she was actually conning me?
There's no way I - a seasoned political reporter, completely entranced by Rudy Giuliani and Andrew Cuomo - could be conned!
The Politics Show
Chozick was one of the star political reporters for years. You can see her view of politics and political coverage: it is a grand epic requiring politicians well-suited to be cast in the role of hero, where performance is everything.
Rudy being filmed walking the streets on 9/11, or Cuomo being on cable news confidently saying things, represents both the apogee and the limit of politics. That is what politics is for. There is little need to ask why Rudy was on the streets instead of in his command center, or what Cuomo was doing when he wasn't performing. Only dorks would care about that stuff.
Most importantly, in The Politics Show, it is the stars of that show who are the protagonists, not the voters. We exist merely to watch, the politicians to perform, and the press to craft the narrative around that. What they actually do, what their policies do, is irrelevant.
I actually think political coverage is less like this now (it has other flaws), but it was journalism from 2000 to 2016
Monday, January 13, 2025
Mister We Could Use A Man Like Andrew Cuomo Again
...
People keep saying the scenes out of Los Angeles look like something from a movie. Except they don’t, not really. Movies need a protagonist. Every on-screen apocalypse has a leader. So where is ours?
...
I would love a deus ex machina to change this story line or for the real-estate developer and would-be mayor Rick Caruso to divert the dancing fountain at his mall, the Grove. For now, I’d settle for some reassurance that there is a plan. That it’s going to be horrific, but that we will get through this. Los Angeles will endure and rebuild. Together. For someone to, you know, lead.
...
I can’t keep up with Rudy Giuliani’s criminal indictments, but after Sept. 11, America’s mayor stood at ground zero and assured a broken city that the terrorist attacks would only make us stronger. Will someone — anyone? — stand in the detritus of the Pacific Palisades or Pasadena and say the same about Los Angeles?
...
In those dark early Covid months, Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York didn’t deliver niceties. (I’m not sure he’d know how.) But his daily briefings became essential.
Who is this person in the Times pining away for Rudy and Andrew? Who wants someone to go on teevee and pretend to do stuff, even if that stuff is catastrophic? Who just wants the tragedy to be a fun little story on TV, like her other fun stories on TV, like The Politics Show?
Chozick began writing about Clinton in 2007, while working for The Wall Street Journal.[4] In 2008, she was a member of the traveling press of both Clinton and Barack Obama.[3] That year, Chozick wrote an article in The Wall Street Journal questioning whether Obama was too thin to be elected president, given the average weight of Americans; commentator Timothy Noah wrote that this was a racist dog-whistle that invited white people to focus on his appearance and consequently "dwell on…his dark skin."[5]
After writing for the Journal for eight years, she joined the Times in 2011 to write about corporate media.[6] In 2013, she was promoted to the Times' political team, with a focus on Hillary Clinton and the Clinton family.[7] In 2016, she said that as a result of her reporting on Clinton, specifically on her clinching the Democratic nomination for president in June of that year, that she had received death threats from supporters of Clinton's rival in this campaign, Bernie Sanders.[8]
She is the author of Chasing Hillary, a memoir about covering Clinton. With Julie Plec, Chozick adapted the book as a television series called The Girls on the Bus.[9]
In 2023, Chozick wrote a story extolling the putative transformation of Elizabeth Holmes, who was convicted for fraud in her role with Theranos, into a harmless suburban housewife. The piece was accompanied by glamorous photos of Holmes, including holding her two babies with a backdrop of the Pacific Ocean. Some media criticized Chozick for whitewashing a white collar criminal,[10][11] but others said the profile succeeded in capturing Holmes in the act of fooling the journalist assigned to profile her.[12]
Another Victory
...adding, the other case about the Supreme Court justice specifically is not over.
Release It
Judge Aileen Cannon said on Monday that she would not block the release of special counsel Jack Smith’s report on his investigation into Donald Trump and efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
However, Cannon has scheduled a court hearing later this week regarding the part of Smith’s report dealing with the classified documents probe.
Ongoing Tragedy
Is That Good
Over the last four years, web traffic has cratered. According to internal data shared with Semafor in recent weeks, the Post’s daily traffic last year reached a nadir of just a quarter of what it was at its peak in January 2021. That month, the Post had around 22.5 million daily active users. But by the middle of 2024, its daily users hovered around 2.5-3 million daily users.Especially true with billionaire owners.
Suckers
Everybody else just did free work for Amazon, ignoring other issues.
The City of Philadelphia and its transit agency were completely wrapped up in providing its basketball team a bargaining chip for two years, distracting them from other priorities.
I was against the Center City arena because it was clear to me, from the various submitted plans, that they didn't have any idea what they were doing, that they weren't even bothering to try to figure out the logistical issues.
I thought this was because they were dumbasses. I was wrong! It was because they really weren't trying too hard because they never expected to build it!
Sunday, January 12, 2025
LOL
The 76ers are going to stay in South Philly after all, according to multiple City Council members.I'm only surprised they backed out before they knocked down a few blocks and fucked up the train system.
The team has struck a deal with Comcast Spectacor to remain in the South Philadelphia sports stadium district, after more than two years of heated debate over a potential new arena on East Market Street.
Housekeeping
Priorities
Big municipality cops realized the less they do, the more money people will give them. Hell of an incentive structure!
Again, the point is not that $50 million one way or another in a particular annual budget would have made a huge difference, it's that politicians have been spending tax money on tanks to run over homeless people instead of anything which might possibly be useful. The politics show "demanded" it, but everyone forgot about the side gig of governing.
Popularism!
Saturday, January 11, 2025
Goals
Referencing Johnson’s strict 1,950 calorie per day diet that consists of a veggie bowls and nutty pudding (a mix of nuts, his company’s Blueprint cocoa, fruits, and pomegranate juice), all consumed within a five-hour window, the visitor asks, “Are you ever hungry?”
“I’m pretty hungry,” Johnson admits in the film. “The saddest part of my day is the last bite.”
And yet, despite ravenous feelings, Johnson says it’s all worth it.
Isn't This Where We Came In
And I can't influence Donald Trump or Mitch McConnell. Maybe, just maybe (probably not), I can occasionally influence the people who have largely appointed themselves (people elected them, but they don't have to be ranking committee members, for example) as the leaders of the "resistance," along with occasionally correcting bad media coverage.
Post-9/11 capitulation was somewhat understandable. I don't know what the fuck they are doing now.
Friday, January 10, 2025
Plus ça Change
Pizzagate
Interesting conclusion to this story.
The Salisbury man who died Monday after he was shot by two Kannapolis police officers over the weekend was the ‘Pizzagate’ gunman arrested in Washington, D.C., in 2016 after he terrified people with a loaded AR-15 inside a restaurant.
Property AND Income Rich
Rest In Pie, Anita Bryant
Thursday, January 09, 2025
Going Backwards
Does It Matter
.@LATimes live fire coverage is non-paywalled. Support local journalism https://t.co/5xdHgkSGSN
— Ryan Faughnder (@RFaughnder) January 8, 2025
Governing
Many politicians get caught up in the politics show and largely forget their side gig of governing.
Means Testing
My understanding (i think, some reporting is less than clear) of the current system is that poor enough districts currently have universal meals, while poor kids in richer districts qualify individually.New: Sources say @GovKathyHochul will announce Friday her support to fund universal school meals in the next budget as part of her State of the State.
— Kate Lisa (@KaitlynnLisa) January 8, 2025
It’s estimated to cost ~$250M for universal coverage for all districts
About $145M covers free meals in low-income districts now
Wednesday, January 08, 2025
These Fucking People
🚨Scoop: The State Department briefed the Trump transition team there could be a humanitarian "catastrophe" in Gaza when a new Israeli law barring contact with UNRWA takes effect at the end of the month, three U.S. officials told me. My story on @axios https://t.co/XRXMhWhHCP
— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) January 8, 2025
Now Is The Time
Of course it is rarely as simple as "if only the firefighters had more money this year," but if 1/5 of the LA cop budget was transferred to people who might occasionally do something useful over the long term...
The Future Of The Democratic Party
Federal prosecutors allege they have uncovered “additional criminal conduct” by New York Mayor Eric Adams ahead of his scheduled trial in April.Excellent job, everybody.
Adams, 64, was charged in September with five criminal counts, including bribery, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and solicitation of a contribution by a foreign national.
Has he pleased Trump enough for a pardon? Hilariously corrupt times.
Imperial Thirst
I'm pretty sure much of history - as well as how it tends to be taught - can only be easily explained if there are a bunch of people who just love the idea of sending other people out to conquer stuff, and feeling some momentary thrill as the lines on the map move.
Sure others have some simpler to understand if no less gross motivations - "everybody" gets rich! - but history's "Fox news hosts" who weren't necessarily profiting directly still love this shit.
Policy Failures
Watching the coverage of the fires, and one obvious policy failure is that an evacuation plan that involves hundreds of thousands of people getting in private cars simultaneously isn't an evacuation plan.
Oh No Did You Hear What He Said Now
Fire
Tuesday, January 07, 2025
And The Other Way
Not as if he is going to get an actual sentence anyway.
A New York appeals judge has denied President-elect Donald Trump's request to delay the Jan. 10 sentencing in his criminal hush money case.
The Question Remains
Cannon can't order Garland around on this any more than a Philly Traffic Court judge can sentence her to life in prison. It is not adhering to norms to submit to corruption.
...The Institutionalist!
The issue below isn't just about the content of the report, it is also the final possible test of just what Garland thinks his job is (was).
Monday, January 06, 2025
Congestion Pricing
If it succeeds in speeding the car commutes of people through the Lincoln Tunnel, for example, then it is a success.
Almost everybody who drives in/into Manhattan is wealthy. One can always find an example of a poorer person negatively impacted by such things, but for some reason they don't spend much time talking to poor people when bus fares (for example) go up.
It's worked well in London for years.
THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT, READERS
Some of you canceled your subscriptions to the Washington Post, and now Jeff Bezos can't afford to pay people anymore.
Dozens of employees are expected to be laid off at the Washington Post in the coming week in what is another of several tumultuous episodes in recent months for the storied title, according to a report by the media reporter Oliver Darcy.
Bye Justin
Trudeau is resigning as party leader (and eventually PM).
I really don't have any knowledge of Canadian politics and won't pretend otherwise.
Does Kamala Harris Have The Courage
If you believe the latter, then I recommend getting a new hobby!
This guy - of all people - had the right idea.
Whoopsie Doodle
To be fair you can get a cab driver like this sometimes.
Los Angeles man said he recently missed his flight home after getting trapped on his way to the airport in a Waymo that wouldn’t stop making circles in a parking lot.
Sunday, January 05, 2025
Genocide
I don’t like engaging with distractionary pedantry, which is especially grotesque given the current context, but I will say that "Bosnian genocide" was not an especially controversial expression for anyone except its perpetrators.
Reckoning
Vive La Résistance
Saturday, January 04, 2025
The Readers Knew
Friday, January 03, 2025
Rudy 9/11
Rudy Giuliani faces a contempt hearing in Manhattan federal court Friday for failing to satisfy a judge’s orders to cough up assets to the Georgia mother and daughter he was found liable for defaming.The former New York City mayor turned up for the hearing after his legal team tried to get him out of having to appear in person in an 11th-hour request to the judge Thursday, claiming he couldn’t be there in person due to “medical issues with his left knee and breathing problems due to lung issues discovered last year attributable to being at the World Trade Center site on September 11, 2001.”
I Guess They Know Something
There are regular reports of journalists fleeing the Washington Post if they can, which is hilarious because so many journalists (not necessarily the same ones) got Big Mad when people started canceling their subscriptions, arguing that even though Bezos was meddling in the opinion side he of course WOULD NOT meddle in the news side.
My guys he hired one of the worst Brits to run the place. Why do you think he did that? Why do you love yelling at your customer base, who often know more than you do, so much?
Spreading Nonsense
A Little Problem
South Korean investigators left the official residence of impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol after a near-six-hour standoff during which he defied their attempt to detain him. It’s the latest confrontation in a political crisis that has paralyzed South Korean politics and seen two heads of state impeached in under a month.The country’s anti-corruption agency said it withdrew its investigators after the presidential security service blocked them from entering Yoon’s residence for hours due to concerns about their safety. The agency expressed “serious regret about the attitude of the suspect, who did not respond to a process by law.”
Thursday, January 02, 2025
What I Got Wrong
CHAOS RULES
I am sure they will figure it out, but the rakestepping possibilities are amusing to contemplate.
NO, ORANGE MAN GOOD
I don't think Suozzi and his fellow travelers are (we will see!) representative of general elected Dem thinking about Trump, but in this post-election era in which the centrists are busy blaming The Left (people who mostly do not get NYT - or any - mainstream platform to air their grievances) for their messaging failures, I would like to suggest they come for their guys, or at least consider the damage they might be doing.
The message here is that his fellow Democrats only oppose Trump out of misguided and selfish partisanship, and the sensible thing to do is to work with him on all the good things he can do. This stuff is catnip to mainstream outlets, and do we not think this undermines the general "orange man bad" message, let alone any attempt to curb his excesses?
Recall the numerous "lefties are blinded by Bush hatred" views from back in the day.
Which Team Are They On
Wednesday, January 01, 2025
Choose Your Fighters
You see a lot about how The Left is to blame for undermining the Democrats, but the guys who hold office and get to write pieces in the New York Times certainly share some blame for the inconsistency of their message.
By Tom Suozzi
Mr. Suozzi, a Democrat, represents New York’s Third Congressional District. He is a former Nassau County executive and mayor of Glen Cove on Long Island.
President-elect Donald Trump and the Republicans have managed to sell themselves as the party of change. It worked: They will soon control the presidency, Congress and, in essence, the Supreme Court. But to change and fix America requires both parties to work together. As a Democratic member of Congress, I know my party will be tempted to hold fast against Mr. Trump at every turn: uniting against his bills, blocking his nominees and grinding the machinery of the House and the Senate to a halt.
That would be a mistake. Only by working together to find compromise on parts of Mr. Trump’s agenda can we make progress for Americans who are clearly demanding change in the economy, immigration, crime and other top issues.
Punditry
Someone brought this one to my attention. It's UK politics but you do have to marvel at this:
Other PMs who had shaky starts went on to make the cut. So can Starmer. He must make it. But if he has not significantly improved by mid 2025, his own party and the country may conclude that his uncertain start was not an aberration but an indication of chronic unsuitability. Were Britain then to have a seventh prime minister in under 10 years, foreign investors and governments, on whom British prosperity depends, will draw the same conclusion as increasing numbers at home: a new leader is needed.
If the UK replaces its PM, then foreign investors and foreign governments will demand that such instability requires yet another PM.
There is a lot packed into that!!!
Seldon (the author) is one of those guys who imagines he really understands what goes on in the Room Where It Happens, whether or not he does. Apparently some interesting things happen there!