Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

All your base are belong to Tunch.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Peak wingnut was a lie.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Eh, that’s media spin. biden’s health is fine and he’s doing a good job.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Excellent Links / Tuesday Evening Open Thread: WIN the Mindshare!!!

Tuesday Evening Open Thread: WIN the Mindshare!!!

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Why I {heart} Alex Pareene:

Monday was an exciting day for professional haters of Politico, the famous website and newspaper. There is a new memo! Politico memos are their own little literary genre. Usually composed by Politico’s co-founding editors, John Harris and Jim VandeHei, these internal (but always leaked) communications are heavy on obnoxious management buzzwords, ridiculously unjustified boasting, and occasional slightly psychotic-sounding exhortations to WIN. They are generally light on self-awareness, and directives to produce quality journalism…

This new memo is from Jim VandeHei, formerly the executive editor and now the CEO of the entire company. It is about “the culture of Politico,” and in it VandeHei attempts to explain what makes Politico great and instruct his employees on how to make it even better. Nothing in VandeHei’s memo speaks to the actual work Politico is supposedly engaged in, which is reporting. It could be a memo from the CEO of a company that makes iPhone games, or complex financial products. “We work for a hot brand doing important work with some of the smartest people in the world.” “People who thrive here are highly talented, self-motivated doers who are brimming with passion and a desire to win.”…

While he will remain a grossly overpaid fount of meaningless clichés, and indeed he will likely now be an even more overpaid one, VandeHei’s abandoning the editorial side to take charge of the business side is, in a way, good news. It is perhaps bad news for people who actually have to work at Politico, what with the enforced relentless positivity and constant “blunt,” “candid” written and in-person reviews, but it could be good news for the country, because it is VandeHei’s editorial sensibilities that have led to much of what is broadly “wrong” with Politico…

***********
Apart from pondering the perils of ‘mindshare’, what’s on the agenda for the evening?

Reader Interactions

64Comments

  1. 1.

    ? Martin

    People who thrive here are highly talented, self-motivated doers who are brimming with passion and a desire to win.

    I’ve never heard prostitutes described that way, but whatev.

  5. 5.

    Baud

    People who thrive here are highly talented, self-motivated doers who are brimming with passion and a desire to win.

    To win what exactly?

  6. 6.

    Sad_Dem

    This afternoon I’ll be synergistically interfacing with a new media delivery vector to enhance my responsiveness to changing conditions. And after I’ve played Tetris on my phone…

  9. 9.

    Anoniminous

    They don’t ally agile product development synergistic with Six Sigma quality management so they are not in pursuit of excellence.

    I haz a sad.

  11. 11.

    hedgehog the occasional commenter

    Dinner with the spousal unit (25th anniversary is today). Next week we are off to someplace warm and sunny, with rum.

  13. 13.

    lamh36

    I attempted to follow that the thread on the “demise of the netroots”, but seeing as I wasn’t much around during the inception, I pretty much zoned out. Plus, the BJ commentariat, as much as I love em, are way too snarky for a novice like me to try learn to interpret while I was on my lunch break. So I’m catching up on my blogroll and came across these post from Booman Tribune and I would love to hear what others here at BJ who have been around since the “beginning” think of Booman’s analysis. He wrote two very interesting post about the subject.

    The Netroots Did Not Fail
    by BooMan

    Better, But Still Wrong
    by BooMan

  14. 14.

    kindness

    Reason to celebrate.

    If Vandehei’s level of competence in being a business manager as on par with his competence of being and Editor, Politico will be a dead web site soon enough. We’ll be able to buy the name from some outfit (GoDaddy?) and print our own Onion of the day’s news and the people that shape it.

    Sadly that isn’t far removed from what Politico does now.

  16. 16.

    different-church-lady

    OMG, now it’s obvious why Politico is so awful: to the guy running the place, political porn is just another “product” to be hawked through the exact same corporate framework that every consumer product company uses to hawk toasters or smart phones or 50 gallon drums of polyurethane. It’s off-the-rack corporate management, and it’s not just killing Politico, it’s killing all of corporate America.

  17. 17.

    LanceThruster

    from The Business “DoubleSpeak” Generator

    —–

    I haven’t divulged this to the general public yet, but I’m in the initial stages of exploring various possibilities of interest as a regenerative move while demand for increasing services enables continued success factorability.

    Keep this to yourself, but I’m currently leading a group of top-level researchers with the purpose of looking into methods of activating ground floor entry points as a protective measure for the day when high success probability offsets opportunity costs.

    As a lifelong student of business interactions I continue to notice ways of assisting mid-level management as an intermediate step while high success probability stimulates my specific advancement criteria.

    I’m establishing active directions in the area of facilitating executive social networking as a way of stimulating consumer interest until profit scalability substantiates my marketing projections.

    I’ve traveled the globe in search of any and all methods of restructuring vertical and horizontal relationship hierarchies as long as the primary win-win relationship maintains its momentum.

    An often overlooked area, but one I have firmly committed to, is studying the effects of disproportionate access restrictions as an ever-increasing side effect while extensive confirmation of hierarchical component testing stimulates my specific advancement criteria.

    Most CEO’s would scoff at this, but I’m secretly approaching the area of facilitating executive social networking as a protective measure for the day when demand for increasing services perpetuates continued client involvement.

    My ultimate goal in this situation is integrating executive security measures during the time cross sales marketing potential continues onward into the future.

    Apparently, most people, other than myself, have closed their eyes to the possibility of establishing beachheads in customer saturation as an ever-increasing side effect while profit scalability stimulates my specific advancement criteria.

    I welcome arising opportunities for thwarting production facility waste in order to insure that maximum logistical synergy moves to the forefront of the client’s big picture vision.

    As a lifelong student of synergistic interactions, I’m sure you can appreciate the various implications of allocating scarce resource scenarios in anticipation of the day when minimum loss of after-tax revenue perpetuates continued client involvement.

    Most people wouldn’t think of this, but I often dream of assisting mid-level management during the critical time before high success probability maintains its momentum.

  18. 18.

    Violet

    VandeHei wants everyone at Politico to focus on their core competencies to synergistically action the key deliverables for the relevant stakeholders going forward

  19. 19.

    different-church-lady

    @lamh36:

    The Netroots Did Not Fail
    by BooMan

    Good god, THAT. Every single word of it. Matches my memory exactly. (Mind, it’s not like I was a highly active net-rooter, just someone looking for sanity back when the entire country seemed to be eager for an unfocused revenge war.)

  21. 21.

    Violet

    @LanceThruster: That makes my head hurt. I worked with those kinds of people and there is little I detest more than management speak. Corporate MBA-types (and wannabees) hide behind it in hopes people don’t notice.

  22. 22.

    srv

    It’s really rich to criticize this VandeHei fellow on a blog where the overpaid John Cole has a WIN THE MORNING category and has always shirked his editorial responsibilities to the democrat fluffersphere.

  25. 25.

    Lurking Canadian

    @Violet: the people around me have adopted “on a go forward basis”, or sometimes just “on a go forward”, if they’re being succinct.

    How this is different from the humble Anglo-Saxon “from now on” is not clear to the likes of me.

    They also like to prate about something called “best practices”, which appears to be synonymous with “the way I like things done”.

  29. 29.

    different-church-lady

    Commenter Ché Pasa nails it: (note, link chain is below)

    You repeatedly mention “tribalism” as if it’s a bad thing, when it’s simply human nature to assemble in tribal groupings. Those who are fiercest in their denunciations of other people’s “tribalism” typically are as tribal as those they denounce if not more so.

    ‘Baggers and others — including Obama’s team — figured out how to use people’s innate tribalism to their advantage rather than trying to undermine or destroy it. Surprise, surprise, it worked. Denouncing other people’s “tribalism” doesn’t seem to work very well, does it?

    Criticism, negativity and contrarianism have their merits, but how does one build or sustain a movement on them?

    Progressive used to mean something positive — oh, like progress toward building a better future, through social and economic justice, inclusion, participatory democracy, education, science, technology, etc. It didn’t wallow in denunciations or the documentation of the atrocities of the Other. It just went forward to what was arguably a better future (at least for some).

    If the online “Progressive” Movement we’re discussing here were even half as positive as Progressives of the past, it would probably have been much more successful.

    Link chain:
    Booman: “Better but Still Wrong”
    — “Pachacutec”, guest blogging on Ian Welch’s site
    —- quoted passage is a comment to Pachacutec’s essay

  30. 30.

    Gin & Tonic

    Speaking of whores, just when did Markos fall in love with the “liberal” McAuliffe? I’ll accede to the notion that Mac is better than Cooch, but to make him out as some lefty hero? The mind reels.

  31. 31.

    kindness

    @srv: There really is no need to prove to us what an incredible asshole you are. We agree with you, you are an incredible asshole.

  33. 33.

    Baud

    @Gin & Tonic:

    I noticed that the other day. I don’t mind the rhetoric, but it’s totally inconsistent with how other Democrats — particularly Obama — have been viewed.

  34. 34.

    Sly

    This kind of shit is mostly geared towards pushing regular staff to fear middle-management and revere the CEO, but it only ends up making everyone hate their job. If any business wants to develop any kind of handbook or memorandum designed to foster a positive workplace culture and acclimate employees to it, they should just copy the entirety of Valve’s Handbook for New Employees.

  35. 35.

    ? Martin

    @different-church-lady:

    Progressive used to mean something positive — oh, like progress toward building a better future, through social and economic justice, inclusion, participatory democracy, education, science, technology, etc. It didn’t wallow in denunciations or the documentation of the atrocities of the Other. It just went forward to what was arguably a better future (at least for some).

    This has always been my interpretation of progressivism. It’s less about ideology and ‘winning’ and more about making things better, often incrementally and disappointingly small, but always making that kind of iterative change.

  37. 37.

    Trollhattan

    Pierce will have to add a new version of his standby: Things inabout Politico that make me want to guzzle antifreeze, part the infinity”

  39. 39.

    LanceThruster

    @Violet:

    Occasionally, there’s elements that might have some nuggets of wisdom, but then you’re left to realize that the bloviations are meant to camouflage everything in bafflegab.

  41. 41.

    JoyfulA

    When POLITICO was starting out, I read in comments somewhere that the VanDerHeis were selling their home and were having an open house. The intrepid commenter dashed over for a view and reported a small room devoted entirely to Bush II memorabilia.

    I guess management-speak comes easily to those who idolize our first MBA president.

  43. 43.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @JoyfulA:

    a small room devoted entirely to Bush II memorabilia.

    In a non-ironic, non-dart-throwing, admiring way? Why would someone do that?

  49. 49.

    Ahh says fywp

    Best practices is meaningful if youre stuck in some not invented here syndrome, but I prefer industry practices bc the word best is just an excuse for paralysis.

  52. 52.

    geg6

    @lamh36:

    Booman, who I don’t always agree with, is totally and absolutely spot on. It was the run up to the Iraq War that caused me, furious and outraged, to finally turn to the Internet to try to find someone, anyone, who was as distraught as I was and had been ever since December 2000. I found it in Kos and Digby and Duncan and FDL and Steve and TPM. And eventually, I found John Cole. I got there because I wanted to stop and then end the war, halt the continual GOP framing of every issue, stand up and say fucking enough already. I wanted some liberal policies enacted and more liberals in our courts. I got everything I wanted, if not exactly the way I wanted it. And I guess I’m old enough and have been active in politics long enough to have never been under the illusion that I had all the exact same goals and tactical preferences as everyone I’d fought to achieve the mains goals of the left with. I always knew there would come a point where our paths would diverge on some things. And I’ve certainly never done anything so disgusting as to hang out with Grover or the Kochs or Gary fucking Johnson, like so many of my “progressive” betters.

  55. 55.

    rikyrah

    Georgia insurance commissioner: I hope Obamacare implodes

    FORSYTH, Ga. — Georgia’s insurance commissioner lashed out at the new federal health insurance program and its troubled website on Monday.

    State Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens told Channel 2’s Lori Geary, “I hope this whole thing implodes,” when questioned about the health care plan rollout.

    Hudgens had not spoken publicly about the Affordable Health Care Act since the nationwide rollout of insurance exchanges on Oct. 1. Geary drove to Monroe County to interview the commissioner.

    http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local/georgia-insurance-commissioner-insurance-commissio/nbbQ7/

  56. 56.

    rikyrah

    Bernie Sanders Exposes Ted Cruz and Explains Why He is a Koch Fueled Threat to Democracy

    By: Jason Easley
    Monday, October 28th, 2013, 7:44 pm

    Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) connected the dots and explained that by blocking Tom Wheeler’s FCC nomination, Ted Cruz revealed himself to be a Koch fueled threat to democracy.

    http://youtu.be/FG0MCmny-ko

    Ed Schultz asked Sen. Sanders about Ted Cruz blocking the nomination of Tom Wheeler to be the chairman of the FCC.

    Sanders answered,

    What Sen. Cruz is talking about is an issue of huge huge consequence. At the end of the day, these guys have gotten Citizens United, and that means that the Koch brothers, Sheldon Adelson, and all of these guys can spend hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars on political campaigns often without any disclosure. They want to go further. What they want to do is they want to make sure that individuals will be able to spend as much money as they want on campaigns, giving money to individuals without any disclosure whatsoever.

    http://www.politicususa.com/2013/10/28/bernie-sanders-exposes-ted-cruz-explains-koch-fueled-threat-democracy.html

  57. 57.

    rikyrah

    Senate advances Obama’s NLRB counsel nominee
    By Ramsey Cox – 10/29/13 03:05 PM ET

    Eight Republicans joined Democrats in advancing President Obama’s nomination of Richard Griffin to serve as general counsel to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

    On Tuesday, the Senate voted 62-37 on a motion to end debate on Griffin’s nominations — 60 votes were needed to overcome a Republican filibuster.

    Some Republicans criticized Griffin for being a labor advocate rather than an “umpire” while briefly serving on the NLRB, which settles major disputes between employers and employees.

    Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/331259-senate-advances-obamas-nlrb-counsel-nominee#ixzz2j9qS8mhI
    Follow us: @thehill on Twitter | TheHill on Facebook

  58. 58.

    PsiFighter37

    @rikyrah: Wake me up when we blow up the filibuster over the DC Court of Appeals. The temerity the fuckers have to say that it’s court-packing…someone needs to hand them a history book and remind them what that means.

    I guarantee that if one of the GOP-leaning justices croaks or retires in the next couple of years, they will claim that SCOTUS doesn’t have enough work to merit have 9 justices. If the old rules no longer work, change the rules. Republican political strategy = Calvinball at this point.

  59. 59.

    handsmile

    @PsiFighter37:

    That’s entirely possible and, in my view, probable if there are any vacancies on the Supreme Court within the next two years. With Neo-Confederates like Cruz, Paul, and Lee, I don’t see how Obama will get a nomination to the Court through the Senate. Not unless it’s John Yoo or Janice Rogers Brown.

    FAQ, from the Supreme Court’s own website:

    “Who decides how many Justices are on the Court? Have there always been nine?
    The Constitution places the power to determine the number of Justices in the hands of Congress. The first Judiciary Act, passed in 1789, set the number of Justices at six, one Chief Justice and five Associates. Over the years Congress has passed various acts to change this number, fluctuating from a low of five to a high of ten. The Judiciary Act of 1869 fixed the number of Justices at nine and no subsequent change to the number of Justices has occurred.”

    Yet one more reason, as if any more were necessary, why the 2014 midterms are so absolutely critical.

  61. 61.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    Because OpenThread: Kevin Drum has a good article that our friend Irony Abounds may want to check out:

    It’s true that there are some people who are going to end up paying more for coverage under Obamacare than they’re paying now. But Waldman is right: there’s something very fishy about these letters. Over the past three years, insurance companies have swapped their plans around so fast and so often that virtually no one today has a plan more than a couple of years old—something that seems an awful lot like a deliberate effort to evade Obamacare’s original intent that most individual policies would be grandfathered and therefore remain available to existing customers who wanted to keep them. Now, having engineered a situation where most current policies aren’t grandfathered, millions of people are getting letters canceling their existing plans and being told that the replacement is far more expensive.

    I’m not sure what’s going on here, but there’s at least one lesson in this for the press: never take these letters at face value. If you find someone who’s going to end up paying more thanks to Obamacare, fair enough. Run with the story. But first, you’d better perform the due diligence to find out what a comparable plan really costs. That means getting income and coverage details from the subject of your story and then doing a detailed search of the local exchange to find out what’s on offer. We’re not seeing enough of that.

    Check it, and Paul Waldman’s article at The American Prospect, out.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  63. 63.

    mainmati

    @cmorenc: Except that the brilliant Turboencabulator was a decades long satire that ended up in that video whereas Politico is a totally unselfaware, pomposity. Same rhetoric but a far different result.

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