Via the comments to a NYTimes article on the ongoing disposition of Maurice Sendak’s estate. (I understand the Rosenbach Library’s disappointment, but it seems clear that Mr. Sendak wanted Ms. Caponera to turn his former home into a house museum and study center…. and what a perfect way to celebrate a great artist’s quirky and thoroughly un-academic work!)
***********
Apart from remembering what’s important, what’s on the agenda for the day?
Mike J
This is the last year the PNB is doing the Sendak nutcracker.
Tommy
Some music posts in the last thread. Some ladies from the 50s or so that could flat out sing. Here is another. Sarah Vaughan, but remixed. I promise it will just a little bounce in your step to start the day:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPJZ9yFbHz8
Oh and I went to the Google to check to make sure she did sing in the 50s (cause we have to be accurate) and this is the intro to her Wikipedia entry:
I guess I need to work harder because I’d like my entry one day to start off something like that.
Mustang Bobby
I am glad to be out of the range of a TV this morning so I will not be tempted to turn on Joe Scarborough and see how he promotes race relations and healing in America.
Tommy
Oh I so understand Ms. Caponera wanting to turn his former home into a museum and study center. My father lives in the house my great, great grandfather built with his own hands. When my grandfather passed away, my father retired, he moved in with my mom. First thing he did was buy the house across the street for his “books.” About 15,000 of them. I’d say 14,999 are about the Civil War and/or military history (his PhD is in history — Civil War). Then the framed pictures, guns, mannequins with military outfits. I’d post a pic but it is almost embarrassing how cluttered the place is, because he had already outgrown the space the first day he moved in.
He often tells me this is my lifes collection. Your brother doesn’t care that much, but I know you understand. When I am no longer here you GOT to FIND somebody to take it all. Never told him this but have always thought I might move into the house my ansecter built. Declutter his “office,” and since he sits on the board of directors of the local community college, tell them it will be open to any student (or anybody really) that wants a place to study. Free coffee. Take any book you want home, we work on the honor system here :).
OzarkHillbilly
@Tommy: My wiki page will be one word long: “Who?”
ThresherK
@Tommy: As a (strangely young, demographic-busting) devotee of the old WNEW-AM, I remember “The Divine One”. But I never knew her called “Sailor”.
Glad she was just old enough / in the right place that her career led her down the jazz / pre-rock idiom / Great American Songbook* path.
/something new every day
(*I don’t know what else to call it. Suggestions cheerfully accepted.)
raven
As usual, I post in the previous thread.
A River of Booze in Athens.
Tommy
@raven: Almost posted a few pics from Flickr in my comment about my father’s study. Not logged into for Flickr in ages. Saw your most recent uploads. Nice fishs dude! I can only assume your fishing trip went well.
raven
@Mustang Bobby: He’s got Sharpton on.
Amir Khalid
Just yesterday we were lamenting the death of Bobby Keys. Now comes word that keyboardist Ian McLagan of the (Small) Faces has died of a stroke at 69.
raven
@Tommy: It did, it was tough going in that the water and air was pretty chilly and the wind blew hard. They have but almost all the bigger fish out of season so the boat trip was fun but not as productive as some. Being on that beautiful beach for days on end is cleansing but it goes so fast.
ThresherK
Re the last thread: With all those book reviewers and media sorts whose jobs seem to include the tasks of complaining and “other-self-pitying” for George Bush pere et fils, why would the two of them ever have to lift a finger to do it themselves?
raven
@Amir Khalid: Small Faces and Faces.
Tommy
@ThresherK: Cool. Can I suggest the NPR station KCRW. Morning Becomes Eclectic is their primary music show, but they pretty much rock amazing music I can’t hear anywhere else 24/7. Based in Santa Monica College. I have been told it is kind of the “in station.” Has been for years and years among musicians, if not the listening public. Often bands like Beck, U2, and REM just stop by to jam in studio, live. And of course they have an app and you can get it all online through their site or streaming via iTunes (how I listen).
raven
@Amir Khalid: In the winter of 67 I was home on leave and my buddy and I went to the Electric Theater in Chicago to see Jeff Beck. We knew him from the Yardbirds but never heard of this skinny dude in a tangerine turtle neck, a killer bass player and an absolute wizard on keys. I don’t know much about love, people.
raven
Well, it’s no secret that I despise Joe but this conversation between him and Al is pretty good.
Mustang Bobby
@raven: Huh. Maybe my old high school chum Phil Griffin had a little chat with the MSNBC staff about comity and kumbayah.
Betty Cracker
@raven: Fascinating article!
Amir Khalid
@raven:
Being a bunch of short guys, they were the Small Faces before and after Rod Stewart and Ron Wood’s time in the band. Wood and Stewart are more like five foot nine or five foot ten.
ThresherK
@Tommy: Glad to see someone else on the site likes both Sarah Vaughn and the “modern rock” (a name which also needs updating).
However, to stop any confusion, I was never in the listening audience for WNEW-FM–too far away for one thing, and as a young ‘un I had very little taste for rock & roll. I meant this WNEW. (Also home to New York Cosmos broadcasts in their day.)
raven
@Betty Cracker: I’ve been here for 30 years and the change is astounding. I also went through an alcohol “training” session at the UGA Health Center that is in the article. It had a different name but many of the folks were the same. Most of the people in it were frat boys who were there because of a DUI. When it was over I chatted with the woman running it and she said “you are done drinking”. I was taken aback and asked how she knew? She told me she’d been doing it for years and she could tell when someone was ready. That was 21+ years ago.
raven
@Mustang Bobby: They both made points about how much they disagreed but are still friends.
Tommy
@raven: Well you are a few years my senior. Wish I was your age and could have seen Jeff Beck play in 1967. Wow. One of my top ten concerts of all time was George Porter Jr. He didn’t sing or anything, just played the bass at the Varsity in Baton Rouge:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i08i-rvqpMc
He is the bass player for the Meters. Not saying you Raven, but if you have not heard of the Meters you are missing out. Now I have a Louisiana thing going on and have for a few decades, but they are said to be the best rock band (not sure I’d call them that) nobody has ever heard of. I’ve read in Rolling Stone they are the most sampled band in rap music today. Bare none. Period! Their base lines in their songs were that amazing. Looking at you Geroge Porter :).
Oh and their lead singer is Aaron Neville’s brother. Wonderful voice. I’ve taken more than a few of my friends to see them and they are like WTF is going on. Confused in a good way. How are they not as big as any act in America?
Bystander
I think the greatest tribute paid to Ms. Vaughan was the character in an episode of Rocky and Bullwinkle set in Saudi Arabia during an oil crisis, IIRC. Sahara Vaughan was the sheik the boys needed to contact.
PurpleGirl
OT: NY politician Herman Badillo has died. He was 85. When he began in politics he was a Democrat, later he became a Republican. My impression was that when the Democrats in the City didn’t elevate him to whichever office he was expecting to get, he jumped to the Republicans, who didn’t do much for him either. He was known for being the first Puerto Rican-born member of Congress. He was also Bronx Borough President.
PurpleGirl
@ThresherK: I was a loyal listener of WNEW-FM. I loved that station and its DJs. A must listen each night was Alison Steele, the Night Bird. I was also a fan of WNCN, to me the best classical station ever.
Tommy
@ThresherK: Diverse group of people here. Many interests. I Goggled your station and you are in NJ. If you can’t get a good station there or via NYC I don’t know what to say. I get KMOX which is a shell of what it used to be. Called the “50,000 Watt Blow Torch” it is the reason most people in middle America are Cardinals baseball fans. When it was a clear night and I lived in DC I could pull in the station. Blankets the entire midwest. My mom jokes she put headphones on her belly so I could hear Jack Buck call Cardinals games on KMOX when I was in the womb, but the station has lost its course. Now Rush is on. Fucked up. A once great station, my mom (not a liberal BTW) often jokes people are rolling over in their graves with what happened to the station.
Tommy
@PurpleGirl: The only classical music station in my area got bought like 5 years ago. I am nothing close to an expert on classical music. I just find the music stunning. I could listen to a Chopin Waltz on repeat for hours. The people that bought the classical music station are far, far, far right. Religious programming is all we have. Said they’d keep playing the music, they did not for a single day. I live in a pretty large city, St. Louis, and I have NO classical music station. Not a single one.
Betty Cracker
@raven: The drunken revelry described sounded much like Gainesville circa 1988. But the cop made the “super-sizing” point. Scary.
Raven
@Tommy: Like the Faces we have the Meters and The Funky Meters!
Mustang Bobby
@Tommy: The same thing happened here in Miami. In 2001 WTMI was a commercial classical station that was bought out and switched to “dance” music. It was seven years before a non-commercial Jesus-shouter station was bought out and went classical as a repeater for Minnesota Public Radio’s 24-hour classical feed with local drop-ins to make us think it was truly local. I listen to Interlochen Public Radio out of Traverse City, Michigan via the web at the office.
The one oasis in the FM desert in Miami is WDNA, an all-jazz non-commercial station. The signal is pretty weak where I live, but it makes nice driving music.
Betty Cracker
Orion orbiter supposed to launch in a few minutes.
Tommy
@Raven: Uptown rulers ….
PurpleGirl
@Tommy: WNCN was sold years ago to people who changed it to quadrophonic rock-n-roll. A group formed to try to buy it and change it back. Also tried to forestall the selling of the record library. WQXR (NY Times station) and WNYC had other interests besides classical music so I never really got into to listening to them.
Elizabelle
@Betty Cracker: Just came here to announce that.
BBC America following. Launch delayed by boat downstream 10 mins ago; now they’re waiting out a “ground wind.”
Betty Cracker
@Elizabelle: I’m hoping to catch a glimpse of it. I can generally see the contrail even though I’m on the opposite coast. Looks like it might be scrubbed, though.
ThresherK
@Tommy: Close, but I grew up in middle coastal CT. A lot of the same broadcast tendrils reached me as central Jersey.
The station which used to be WNEW-AM was the first Bloomberg radio outlet, and has been for many years. That’s a pissah, as the signal is very strong in many place much further away from NYC than I.
Your comment about KMOX can be applied to many names on the AM side. “It’s a shell of what it used to be” could be a long thread!
Last night, while doing nothing waiting in the car, I idly scanned the AM side–best on a winter night–for fun. To bag a new station I’ve never heard before.
Well, I still know all the easy spots on the dial, but at some point after four minutes of commercials I gave up because I would not bother with thirty seconds of “We’ll be right back with the man who loves his country, Sean Hannity” to find out what the unknown station between WTOP Washington and WWKB Buffalo is.
For those of you playing at home, a bit of searching shows WMEX, Boston (Libertarian talk) to be the likeliest candidate. But I’m not clicking on the homepage just to find out.
bemused
@raven:
What did Joe say about the Garner grand jury decision?
Elizabelle
@ThresherK:
What country does Sean Hannity love? It would not seem to be this one.
Elizabelle
@Betty Cracker: Hope you get to see some contrail action.
I so prefer BBC. Gonna stay away from US produced news and a lot of the internets today.
kdaug
My mother wants to test my DNA at Christmas this year- she’s mid-70s and into genealogy now.
Frankly I couldn’t care less. I know I’ve got some ladda-ladda ancestors but why is this important? She clearly cares about this more than I do, but is this just a retired folks thing? (I’m 47).
My dog’s a mutt, I’m a mutt, tracing it back to my original Cro-Magnon source doesn’t help me in the least as far as I can tell.
Is this just a hobby for olds?
Elizabelle
While we await Orion’s possible launch (2 hour window), Mr. Charles Pierce does not much like Mary Landrieu.
He originally called his post “Gumbo at the Stupid Cafe.”
Pierce lambastes the pro-choice Landrieu for saying she has never “promoted” abortion. He’s tired of Democrats running from rights to privacy and family planning.
Baud
@Elizabelle:
Udall in Colorado was a strong defender of abortion rights!
raven
@bemused: He is outraged and feels this is the one that should be the “poster child”.
Elizabelle
@Baud: I am still shocked Colorado elected Cory Gardner. What a black eye.
raven
@kdaug: We had a DNA test on the Bohdi!
Elizabelle
Orion launch window is maybe 75 mins, but mine is the 6 minutes left on BBC America, because would not dream of switching to American cable in hope they cover a space launch.
Checking out the NASA channel …
Elizabelle
Yea, NASA channel. Picture of a rocket on a launch pad. Very little comment. Weather is the only issue. Hoping wind will turn easterly or velocity will lessen. 21 knots.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Elizabelle: Charlie’s a good guy, but he sometimes/too often goes overboard criticizing people that are actually on his side but not pure enough (for want of a better term) for him. E.g. Obama.
Mary losing isn’t going to make it easier to win back the Senate in 2016.
She’s not stupid. She wouldn’t have served as long as she has by being the female reincarnation of Howard Zinn.
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
(Who has sent her some money.)
Baud
@Elizabelle:
According to Maddow, Udall looked dour on the TV while Gardner smiled a lot. If I had a uterus, I’d gladly give up my control over it for a happier-looking Senator.
Betty Cracker
@Elizabelle: Nasa.gov is my go-to source. Looks like it’s on hold until the weather settles down. Nary a breeze on my coast!
Elizabelle
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Agree with you. Although I’d like to see Landrieu and others not waffle. If you’re on record supporting abortion rights, support them. Not like there’s not a record to consult. Talk up contraception and wanting to see less abortions through better healthcare access.
(Although GOP voters have no trouble ignoring a record of action. See Colorado’s Senator-elect, Cory Gardner, as exhibit A there.)
Elizabelle
@Baud: Gardner is boyish handsome, and looks like a football jock turned car dealer. I guess that was enough for Colorado. Sheesh.
Elizabelle
New launch time set for 8:26 a.
Iowa Old Lady
Speaking of music, here’s Let It Snow cut together from clips of Star Trek: TNG.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrG4JnrN5GA
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
Driftglass has a good piece up – Walking While Bradbury.
:-(
Cheers,
Scott.
debbie
@PurpleGirl:
I liked WNEW-FM too. Is (I may have the letters mixed up) WXRK still around? I remember listening to Vin Scelza’s “Idiot’s Delights” on Sunday nights. Great music choices, but man, that guy talked a alot.
Kay
@Baud:
There’s something to what Pierce says, though. Democratic officeholders and candidates in Republican or 50/50 states need “a base”. They have to get to 45% relatively easily, because the way Democrats get the last mile is so labor-intensive. They don’t get the last mile by persuading “centrists”. They get the 5% by finding sporadic voters who lean Democratic.
Who are her base in that state? She can’t just cobble one together every 6 years. Obviously it’s harder for Democrats in GOP or 50/50 states, but for Senators, who run statewide, there’s an opportunity for them to put together a very state-specific group of loyal voters around issues. They have to do that.
Betty Cracker
@Elizabelle: So we’ll try this again!
RE: Gardner’s boyish appeal — as disgusting as I find the reality show model of politics, it perversely comforting in a way because at least some of the ninnies who vote for these pricks are just choosing the pretty package, not the toxic product inside. Cold comfort, I’ll be the first to say…
kdaug
T -3
(ETA for a space btwn T & -)
Betty Cracker
Scrubbed again! Damn!
Kay
@Baud:
My complaint with her is that she has to create her 45%. She can’t start behind every time she runs and hope for a “favorable climate” or a wave election. That part is really up to her. At some point you have to turn this over to the voters there. At some point it really IS a referendum on her.
Baud
@Kay:
Louisiana isn’t a 50/50 state. It’s to Landrieu’s credit that she has been able to hold on this long.
skerry
@raven: Interesting article. I have a daughter who failed at college due to drinking. At 28, she is still trying to pull it together. She worries me.
My college fake ID was a Pennsylvania license (no photo). Times have changed.
Elizabelle
Emailed a friend in the industry and he is AT the Cape. Looking at a rocket on a pad. Like all of us.
Lovely day in Florida. Sunny and cool here in DC area. Wet leaves down in yard; too wet to do anything about them today.
Was thinking of a morning matinee of “Force Majeure” at 9:50, but rocket might still be sitting there then. What’s an unemployed wastrel to do?
Baud
@Kay:
I believe her primary base is black voters in New Orleans, who tend to be religious and not necessarily gung ho about abortion rights, IMHO.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
We need to run better-looking Democrats?
Fine. I’ll think about running in 2016.
Elizabelle
@Baud: Maybe she soft-pedals, then, by talking up birth control and having their daughters (and sons!) finish education and get a good start in life before turning to parenthood? It’s the same coin.
You would think that at some point the GOP gets toxic enough that “centrist” voters won’t touch it.
Also, a runoff favors those with a habit of voters who vote.
bemused
@raven:
I did catch that at the repeat at 7am. Finally protesters he can tolerate.
raven
@skerry: One of the things that sent me into the Army on my 17th was getting busted with a sheet of documents we used to buy that had driver’s license, draft card, ss card, USMC discharhe card and something else. You just typed the shit in and away you went. When I got rousted by the cops when I was hammered at the “youth center” I puked on the dude after he slammed me into the wall and then just handed him my wallet. The fake draft card was federal so they had no problem adding up all my crimes and sending me of. You know, “got in a little hometown jam, sent me off. . . “
Betty Cracker
@Baud: Yeah, everyone keeps begging me to jump into the race too. There’s just no rest for us beautiful people, is there?
PurpleGirl
@debbie: I’m not sure. I don’t play the radio much anymore. I play CDs or cassette tapes.
skerry
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Thanks. I hadn’t seen that before.
beth
@debbie: WNEW was my go to station as a teenager. I keep running into their old dj’s on different stations when I get to listen to satellite radio.
rikyrah
Anyone made any inquiries as to HOW this man got a job on the Cleveland Police Force?
And I want to know how many BLACK applicants were turned down for this obviously unqualified candidate.
……………..
Cleveland officer who killed boy, 12, was previously deemed unfit for duty
The rookie Cleveland police officer who fatally shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice last month had been deemed unfit for duty at a previous police department and was in the process of being fired when he resigned from his post, according to records released Wednesday.
Cleveland police have said Officer Timothy Loehmann, 26, shot Tamir as the boy held a toy gun at a recreation center on Nov. 22. Video released last week of the incident shows Loehmann and his partner, Frank Garmback, driving up within feet of Rice, then Loehmann shooting him at close-range seconds later.
Both officers were placed on paid administrative leave, and an investigation into the shooting is ongoing.
Last week, police identified Loehmann as having fired the fatal shot. According to The Associated Press, Loehmann has been a Cleveland police officer since March. Before that, he spent five months in 2012 with the police department in the Ohio suburb of Independence, about 13 miles south of Cleveland. Four of those five months were spent in the police academy, the AP reported.
According to Loehmann’s personnel records, released by the city of Independence, police officials were in the process of firing him when he resigned in December 2012. Supervisors described an emotionally unstable recruit with a “lack of maturity” and “inability to perform basic functions as instructed” during a weapons-training exercise.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/cleveland-officer-who-killed-boy-12-was-previously-deemed-unfit-for-duty/ar-BBgj757?ocid=HPCDHP
Baud
@Elizabelle:
If she soft peddles, then she is back to being criticized by Pierce.
I’m not so sure, not unless the economy crashes like it did with W.
skerry
@raven: My father entered the USAF as an option between that and jail time. He says his biggest accomplishment as an Airman was getting a good conduct medal.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
It’s a curse.
Baud
@rikyrah:
All of them, Katie.
Elizabelle
@rikyrah:
Good question. I hope we get an answer.
Interesting to me how quickly the PD put it out they were investigating this shooting. Not unqualified support for the officers involved. They knew they had a problem officer. And he performed as expected.
Tamir Rice will be a court case. Never even a high schooler.
Betty Cracker
@rikyrah: I read something about that yesterday. The Cleveland PD’s lame-ass response is that they weren’t required to look into Loehmann’s performance, so they just verified that he had worked at the other PD and called it a day. What a crock of shit. IIRC, Loehmann’s father was a cop, so that’s probably all it took to strap a gun on him and send him on his way.
Gene108
@Kay:
I think you want the impossible.
Republicans have galvanized their core supporters on single-issue or a series of single-issue policies that appeal to them, such as banning abortion, expanding gun access, and so on.
There are no equivalent issues that connect with any potential group of Democratic voters that would be a base for a politician.
For example, Bill Clinton went hard left in getting the Brady Bill and assault weapons ban passed and trying to get gays to serve openly in the military. This did not sit well with a good chunk of the Democratic base and did not drive up participation from non-disaffected groups.
Environmentalists do not support the Keystone XL pipeline.
Unions, such as pipe fitters, want the damn thing built.
A Democratic politician has to pick a side and will lose votes from one group or the other.
Also, there are no single issue topics, like fun control, a Democratic voter will drag themselves across broken glass to vote for or against.
A bunch of stuff is popular, but the attitude of supporters is, “it’s a good idea but…meh…as long as I do not get inconvenienced too much.”
Democratic politicians, I think, are a reflection of likely Democratic voters; a cross-section of people, who have widely different interests and goals that often compete against each other and so the politician has to find some non-committal middle ground to attract or not offend the broadest cross section of the disparate likely voters.
kdaug
@Betty Cracker: God is a Bullet
raven
@skerry: I missed that one somehow!
skerry
Not a parody account
Kay
@Gene108:
I think I’m realistic about it. I don’t kid myself that just anyone who does everything right and adopts a liberal line will win by the pure power of the progressive vision. I think Democrats in 50/50 or GOP states have to be more talented and smarter about it than a Democrat who runs in a Democratic state. There aren’t that many really talented people. They’re unusual, even among the tiny group of people who get as far as running for Senate.
I think the mistake Pierce makes is he thinks it’s easy and there’s a huge group of people who can do it if they just say the right things. It’s not easy and there aren’t that many people who can do it. They have to be really good.
I draw a distinction between first-time candidates in a state like GA or KY and those who have already been elected. I think Democrats who have been in Congress should be able to maintain a core group of voters and build on that, and if they can’t, I start to think maybe they shouldn’t get re-elected. I don’t know why Louisiana voters don’t want to keep her as a Senator. Maybe she should look at why that is. It’s probably more productive than blaming voters for not voting for her.
beth
@skerry: Wow, just wow. Is there any intelligent life in St Louis County?
beth
Look at Newsmax. Chris Rock had that interview the other day where, I thought, he said some really smart, thoughtful things about race relations. Of course all Newsmax takes from it is that Rock says liberal Hollywood is racist. Sigh.
Kay
@Gene108:
And she doesn’t have to put all those varied groups together (Democratic Presidents do, but not Senators). She just has to win one statewide race on national issues. Admittedly that’s difficult, but it’s a lot narrower than “national Democratic constituencies”. It’s different for every state. Sherrod Brown can win with labor plus AA Democrats plus Lefties. That wouldn’t work in Louisiana. Brown doesn’t do that much outreach for Latinos because Ohio doesn’t have a large Latino population as a percentage. She has to figure out what her groups are, and maintain and build on them, I think.
SiubhanDuinne
@Tommy:
Have you tried 107.3 FM? They went on the air about a year ago with a classical music format after the other station was bought out.
lamh36
@raven:
Cause only “good ones” don’t deserve to be killed by police.
Fuck Killer Joe.
And how much ya wanna bet it just sticks in his craw that he can’t call Rev Al a race hustler like his GOP brethren? Cause ya know if Al wasnt on MSNBC Killer Joe would be no different than any other conservative when it comes to Al Sharpton.
Again Fuck him.
beltane
@beth: I’m not going to read Newmax, but there is a kernel for truth in the claim that Hollywood is racist, or at least is guilty of promoting racist memes for many decades. The beloved genre of violent “super-cop” blockbusters is not exactly liberal in nature. Hollywood execs might be personally liberal as a group, but much of the product they sell to the public is quasi-authoritarian (though highly entertaining) garbage. This is probably not what bothers Newmax…
FlipYrWhig
@Kay:
Almost everyone in the liberal blogosphere thinks it’s that easy, and that Democrats would win most every election if they were confident and vocal and “real,” and that it’s their collective wishy-washy/all-things-to-all-people-ness that dooms them to losing. My view is that confident and vocal and real _about the wrong things_ is just as doom-bringing, probably more so. You’ll just have a very happy 35% of the population behind you, rather than a meh 43%. That’s still a lopsided loss.
Elizabelle
Orion launch scrubbed until tomorrow.
FlipYrWhig
@Kay: Isn’t one of Landrieu’s groups oil and gas workers and management? That’s why she’s pro-pipeline and pro-Gulf drilling.
beltane
The problem is that the more toxic the GOP becomes, the less likely the “center” is to show up and vote at all.It’s not just the Republicans who become tainted by their behavior, but all politicians. Unless someone is highly informed and committed to the democratic process, the natural response to our feces and pus covered political landscape is to tune out entirely.
FlipYrWhig
@beltane: I think eventually what’s going to happen is that there’ll be another Perot-like candidacy predicated on outsider-dom and cutting the bullshit. A business person or a career military officer without an obvious partisan affiliation. Moderates will lust and the media will swoon. I feel like David Petraeus was setting up to be that guy until his scandal.
Tenar Darell
@skerry: @beth: And it’s no longer available. Oh oh, looks like someone woke up. Anyone grab a screenshot?
Betty Cracker
@Tenar Darell: Damn! I saw it and didn’t grab a screenshot. Wonder if it’s cached…
Frankensteinbeck
@Gene108:
A big part of this is that we’re not crazy racists. The GOP has deliberately gone after the section of the population that doesn’t care what’s true and doesn’t care what works. They want ‘abstinence only education’, chanting ‘sex is bad’, and if you point out that it increases teen pregnancy they look at you blankly. Democrats care about governing and results and facts and want to help people. That means complicated positions hotly debated between us, not rage-creating soundbites or screaming terror that darkies infected with ebola will kill us all. We cannot play their game and remain Democrats, just like they can’t give up the racism and stay Republicans. It’s a defining trait of who we are. It is our actual positions.
@beltane:
Hollywood is racist as all fuck. It’s so racist that they slavishly promote token minorities in a ‘But my best friend is black!’ attempt to cover over endless racial and gender stereotypes and casting decisions like making everyone white except the bad guys in an adaptation from an original source where nobody was white at all.
D58826
Man bites dog story from S. Carolina – the former Eutawville police chief was indicted for shooting an unarmed black man in the local court house. They had gotten into an argument over a traffic ticket and the chief shot the victim twice. A small ray of hope, maybe.
Tripod
Her “base” was rural Cajuns and New Orleans. The former are in decline as a culture group and voting bloc, and post Obama identify as white Americans, and the latter are now living in Houston, Chicago, etc.
Things change, and sometimes there ain’t no way out.
If she was the cynical hack Pierce and some of y’all make her out to be, it would have been easy enough to jump to the other side.
beltane
@Frankensteinbeck: Hollywood is the slickest propaganda outfit ever to have existed. Racism has been their bread and butter from the very earliest days of the film industry. Hollywoods liberalism is mostly a sham.
ruemara
I have an interview at a company I am not enthused about, for a position that probably would not be worth it as a career choice. My urge to get out of “here” is growing to expand past this apartment, this town to this country in the face of last night’s Eric Garner decision and frankly, moving up to this planet.
skerry
@Betty Cracker: The folks at mashable have it.
Simply unbelievable.
skerry
@skerry: And, of course, the police are saying the account was hacked. That is, their Facebook page was hacked. Then their twitter feed was hacked. I hate it when that happens.
gene108
@Frankensteinbeck:
And these are the folks, who are willing to turn out every 2 years to vote for them. They did not do this overnight. When Reagan gave the fundies a seat at the table, the fundies had started to organize into a political force through direct mail operations and using fundie churches as a means to reach out to potential voters.
They’ve built up a dedicated base that will vote for them no matter what.
Democratic policies generally tend to not destroy people the way GOP policies do, but Democrats do not register with most voters as a Party that wants to help the little guy.
This is one reason there are so many irregular voters, who sometimes vote for Democrats because most Democrats do not come off as representing their interest, hopes and ideals.
The Democrats have partly been constrained by the right-wing noise machine and the MSM as being out of touch, partly the party needs to make sure business does not pour millions into defeating their candidates (read somewhere that Wall Street, after backing Obama and the Democrats in 2008, poured over $100 million to oust Democrats in 2010) so populism becomes a double-edged sword*, and by the very nature of having to be a politician you end up with a certain level of butt-kissing, flattery and corruption that turns the general public away from politics in general.
* You can pass a law that helps millions of people financially, like say heatlhcare reform, and hope voters notice but you can be guaranteed if you do this in a manner that pisses off business, business will notice and will actively work against you. And as we can see with the impact the PPACA had on the 2014 elections, Democrats should not hold their breath hoping populist policies that actually help people will result in votes.
Paul in KY
@Gene108: Good points, Gene.
Paul in KY
@FlipYrWhig: The workers might be in her group. management is not. I think she’s pro those things as a way of taking an issue away from her Republican opponent, who most assuredly is for those things.
Paul in KY
@ruemara: What part of USA are you in, ruemara?
gene108
@Kay:
But this is the problem Democrats have versus Republicans.
Republicans have created a national brand, if you will, that automatically lets voters know they will not raise taxes, will work to make sure you can take your gun wherever you want and use it whenever you want to, and so on.
What they do may not be working well for you, but you know what you are going to get upfront.
Each Democrat in each state has to build their own identity and if there is a prominent national Democratic figure, like a sitting President, it may either help or hurt you. You are on your own developing your identity to your voters, whereas the Republican is just part of a chain that many people are satisfied with.
She still has to put together a group, basically on her own, that can get her 50%+1 of the vote.
What liberals hope for, in stating politicians need to have a vocal liberal platform, is to copy the Republicans and develop a national brand for Democrats. I do not think that can work from the top down, where all the Democrats stay on script. The Republicans built themselves up by having the fundies work from the bottom up to take over state and local politics and make sure their
church goersvoters turned out to vote and flooded their Congressman’s office with phone calls on the outrage of the day.I’m not sure, if liberals have the displine or patience to spend 35+ years to build up this national identity for Democrats the way the fundies have for Republicans.
john fremont
@Tommy: I saw the Meters on a bill with Robert Randolph & the Family Band here in Denver. A friend of mine’s reaction was the same thing; how come these guys aren’t more popular? This friend was a headbanger too. He broadened his listening tastes to include soul and R&B after that show.