Remember Bill Clinton? “It’s the economy, stupid.”
Well, this time around, it’s the media, stupid.
Why do 45% of those polled believe that black is white, the economy sucks, and Biden is too old to run for president?
BECAUSE THE MEDIA TELLS THEM THAT, ALL DAY, EVERY DAY.
With the traditional media in the bag for the right, I think the only way to pierce the lies that the media supports is for people to experience something for themselves.
- My student loan was forgiven.
- The cost of my prescriptions was capped this year so I saved a lot of money on medication.
- I can afford my insulin now! (other options: my mom, my dad, my sister, my cousin, that nice guy I work with…)
- No one is going to inspect my kid’s private parts in order for her to play sports.
- Someone I am close to died when she miscarried.
- They fixed the scary bridge I have to drive across to get to work.
- What do you mean that I can’t decide whether I want to have a child or not?
The trick is to get the word out that those good things are brought to you by Dems, and that virtually all the things that are limiting are brought to you by Republicans.
How do we do that? I think it’s up to us, because the traditional media isn’t going to do it.
If we had an actual 4th estate doing their job, they would be all over the Supreme Court corruption instead of one new media outfit doing all the investigating.
Open thread.
Raoul Paste
There was a time when 2/3 of the country thought that Saddam Hussein was involved in 9/11
Yes we have a big problem
raven
Bill Richardson died.
tobie
The media treated inflation exclusively as a domestic story. Part of this is understandable. People are still feeling the pinch, especially at the supermarket. But I don’t recall ever seeing a report on TV on global inflation. Inflation sucks…and the US did better keeping it in check than just about every advanced economy save Canada.
I try to remind people of that as well as the rebound of US manufacturing and the reversal of the trade deficit when I talk to people sitting on the fence.
sab
@raven: Yikes. And so young.
Quinerly
Love our Pres Biden!
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/09/02/statement-from-president-joe-biden-on-the-passing-of-jimmy-buffett/
gene108
@tobie:
I think the withdrawal from Afghanistan due to the rapid collapse of the Afghan military and government, in 2021, really really pisses the MSM off beyond anything rational.
They’ve been relentlessly negative on Biden ever since.
zhena gogolia
@gene108: They don’t give a s–t about Afghanistan.
Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)
The American political press really does need to burned right down to the ground. I don’t think there’s any way to save it, it’s corrupt and corrupted beyond redemption, like American policing. Sad to say though, I also don’t know how we can burn it down and bring about something new to take its place. Maybe there is a way, but it’ll be up to people smarter than I am to find it.
Chetan Murthy
@gene108:
HAHA, FTFY. But seriously, they’ll never forgive him for that, will they? It’s their version of “Ni Shagu Nazad!”
Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)
@Quinerly: I do, too. We’re lucky beyond words to have him. I think he’s going down to be one of the top ten presidents ever, maybe top five. He’s done wonders for this country, and all with this tiny little majority.
Chetan Murthy
@Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.): I thought I was blessed to live in the Presidency of Barack Obama, who would be the best President of my lifetime (Obamacare!) but NOoooooo, perhaps history has conspired to give us an *even better* President in Granpa Joe. It’s an enormous surprise, and really, we are so, so, so fortunate.
sab
@Quinerly: How sweet and tasteful.
Nelle
A conversation report: This morning, I had a lengthy conversation with a 23 y.o. woman who works the desk at the collision repair division at a big car dealership. We had a wait, so plenty of time to talk.
Such an interesting story. Her parents can’t vote because they are both felons (father 3xs). She grew up mostly in foster care but had significant time with grandparents, who always watched the 9:00 news. They died so now she watches that newscast and thinks of them. Her friends think she is weird to know so much about the news, but she is registered to vote and will do so. She can’t get them to care. We brainstormed a bit and came up with a party on election night (maybe a potluck) that you can come to if you voted and have an “I voted” sticker. She was enthused.
The message that most strongly seemed to resonate with her was “you mind your business and I’ll mind mine.” She was incensed about breaking the wall between church and state.
(This is my project of talking to people I don’t know who are young 18ish to 25ish). I begin by asking what policies they would want to see changed, how they get news, etc. Mostly, I’m interested in talking to young people who are in service sort of jobs and not in a high career trajectory. Baristas, beauticians, receptionist, wait staff. I often get a warm response, including twice, “No one has ever asked me what I thought before.”
We could all go out and listen more. I think stores and schools should have a Grandparent Bench, where geezers like me sit and people who need somebody to just listen, could go.)
p.a.
How much of it is mirroring their corporate paymasters’ ideology vs how much is just lying to even the playing field between the 2 parties? Doesn’t fucking matter when it comes down to preserving our admittedly imperfect democracy, does it?
Solution? IDK. Tumbrel?
tobie
@gene108: Why was that the trigger? Was it that TV talking heads had befriended the military analysts who frequently appear on their shows and who generally opposed the withdrawal? Was it that they smelled blood in the water? Was it the bursting of the myth of US victorious exits from conflicts? Withdrawals are always messy. I don’t recall the same scorn being heaped on Reagan when he withdrew the US from Lebanon after we lost nearly 250 military personnel in the Beirut bombing.
nickdag
I agree wholeheartedly that the media is the root cause in this situation. Whenever I think about it, I think about the Broad Street Pump and the role it played in the cholera outbreak. It wasn’t until John Snow hypothesized the pump as the source of infection that the outbreak came under control.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1854_Broad_Street_cholera_outbreak
If we don’t find a way to counteract or improve our media, we’ll never be able to get ahead of the societal infection it causes.
Quinerly
@Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.):
I’m crying….
tobie
@Chetan Murthy: So true. I never expected Biden to be the most consequential President of my lifetime — and I am older than you! — but he is. Reestablishing US global leadership, strengthening NATO, reviving US manufacturing, reversing the trade deficit, tackling student loan debt, negotiating prescription drug prices, investing in infrastructure and, yes, ending America’s longest war in Afghanistan…these are all remarkable accomplishments for which any other administration would be rewarded.
realbtl
22 years ago when I moved to Montana “you mind your business and I’ll mind mine” was the operative understanding. Hell we even elected Democrats (I know Tester is still there). I don’t know if its the influx of rich assholes (likely) but the recent hard turn to the right is unsettling al lot of folks.
Another Scott
Made me look… Google.com liberal media sites:
I think I see the problem…
[ sigh ]
It’s still very early.
Democrats need to do well in the Virginia elections this fall (early voting starts in 20 days). I’m optimistic, but I know it won’t be easy.
Most people aren’t paying attention to the 2024 races yet. But we need to keep pounding away at the RWNJs every chance we get. If we let up, they will crank up the Red Wave nonsense yet again…
Eyes on the prizes.
Cheers,
Scott.
Chetan Murthy
@p.a.: I’m reminded of what many people pointed out about (In)Justice Clarence Thomas: lots of Republican SCOTUS justices moved leftward after being appointed, b/c …. not having to worry about money can change people’s moral compass. And so, Leonard Leo and his henchmen found a way to change that dynamic, by finding a way to keep GrOPer Justices hooked on the money, and hence, under control.
I think that a similar dynamic holds with these reporters and editors: you know that your pay depends on your toeing the line: so you do it. At first, you do it somewhat unwillingly, but over time, you invent justifications for yourself, b/c nobody likes to live a lie, after all. So you invent reasons why you’re not lying to yourself.
Or as Harry Franfurt said, “in the end, sincerity is bullshit”. It is the price hypocrisy pays to avarice.
A (slightly) related thing: Over the summer I had to get 3 teeth extracted. Eventually, I’ll get implants. $8k/tooth. [ouch!] But really, I guess there’s no choice. I am very, very aware that most middle-class Americans can ill afford such dental bills (and the poor simply cannot). So I was pleasantly surprised to learn that in France, the standard health insurance covers implants.
Imagine a world where reporters could pretty much count on a decent standard of living, no matter what. They wouldn’t have such strong incentives to kowtow to the money men. Also, in that world, I get a pony.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@tobie: Blobbist moralism. Afghanistan was The Good (Bush) War. They not just Very Serious People, but Very Virtuous People for lamenting the failure of a twenty year old policy that was lost after about twenty months
Also in ways I kind of understand (our electorate has a goldfish memory, the absurd flamboyance of trump and trumpism), the scope of the disaster that was the Bush administration has been allowed to fade.
sab
@Nelle: I am so impressed. Maybe I should go out more and let husband stay home. He gets super excited about politics and shrieks at those who disagree. I grew up in a household of decent Republicans (they did exist) so I can talk to them in a calm voice.
I cannot talk to my RWNJ brother calmly because I know how he was raised and it wasn’t to be like this.
One of my grandfather’s sisters spent twenty years as a missionary in southern Sudan. She wasn’t missionizing. She was teaching girls. She only came home because Hitler made Africa too dangerous for Americans.
She was a lifelong Republican. Party of Lincoln. Absolutely not a racist.
ETA She wanted to get off the dairy farm in PA and see the world. My guess is her students felt the same.
Tony Jay
There’s an article in TFTF Guardian today from a journalist who tried to get stories out there detailing child abuse at various children’s homes, only to see them blocked, trashed, binned and/or downplayed by a senior editor who, it turns out, is a humongous paedophile currently charged with possession of the kinds of videos and pictures I don’t need to describe to you.
The article has a tone of “I feel so betrayed, why didn’t I fight harder?” running through it, which is fair enough as far as it goes. But the first things that tumbled through my mind were –
1) This one editor was able to shut-down exposés and spend decades spearheading a wide-ranging operation to smear and silence victims, all on his own? Just this one guy? Everyone else, his bosses to his underlings, were all helpless to challenge his slant on the issue? For thirty years? Pull the other one, it’s got Jimmy Saville’s bells on it.
2) So much for the constant ‘Oh, there’s no media conspiracy to slant the news, if there were it would have been exposed long ago’ tripe we’re force fed by the mouthpieces of status-quo Uber alles. If one single editor could orchestrate this kind of industry-wide gaslighting without being questioned or sidelined…
3) And it’s just abuse in children’s homes by well connected pillars of the Establishment weee not being told about? Only victims of these particular crimes with the guts to tell the truth who are silenced and presented as lying fantasists?
Or is it that this singular case of one deeply vile individual using his position as editor to protect people like him from being judged by their victims is a snapshot of a much wider problem with our News Media that the turds running TFTF Guardian have no more interest in seeing discussed than the paedophile editor they’re just now comfortable talking about.
BruceFromOhio
In the last two elections, three things were most apparent to me with respect to communication:
– Postcards WORK. You reach THE PERSON with a personal touch.
– There is not substitute for one-on-one or small group discussion.
– Smaller non-mainstream media outlets like the small-town paper or Pro-Publica can (and do) have impact, perhaps not as much as the cult programming or traditional news outlets, but it is more than zero, and deserve support and engagement if there is to be any viable alternative.
And on a personal note, being clear and confident in my positions allow me to engage with others that may not share my views. Not to be nasty, or get in arguments – if the other party is going to just spew cult programming, I just don’t engage. But with anyone else, being clear-eyed and succinct has shown me where I had allies I didn’t know, or at least made it clear what my values are.
Love that list, WG. Right on!
WaterGirl
@Quinerly: Sobbing.
gene108
@tobie:
They smelled blood in the water. Nothing stuck to Biden until the Afghanistan withdrawal. His approval rating was above 50%.
His popularity, per polling, has never recovered.
WaterGirl
@Nelle: Thank you for that! All of it.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@sab: I always think the devolution of the Republican Party is nicely represented by the Romneys. I have no memory of Old George and I’m sure there are some skeletons in his closet, by from every thing I’ve read he was a decent, liberal-leaning Republican. Mitt’s an arrogant MBA toff and was a shape-shifting opportunist in his campaigns, but he marched in a BLM protest and voted to convict trump twice. I think in some ways losing the presidency freed him, but the loneliness of his attempts at being principled show how weak and pandering he would’ve been in office courting the wing nuts , like Poppy Bush. Ronna notRomney McDaniel is two clicks away from changing her name to trump and buying a plot in the Bedminster cemetery.
bbleh
Re the media, we’re talking about the political media, which is heavily DC-centric and imo reflexively moderately conservative — very Establishment, overwhelmingly white and male, generally well-educated and well-off (though not wealthy), etc. — and hence I think have a soft spot for Republicans-as-they-should-be (in their opinion): Lowell Weicker, Charlie Baker, Mitt Romney, John McCain in his sane moments, et al., the kind that are pretty near extinction. And conversely, I think they look down on the MAGAtariat, don’t take it really seriously, and expect it to just kind of wither and blow away at some point. And on top of that, the Republicans have “worked the refs” so effectively for so many years that they’ve become somewhat gun-shy: if they criticize a Republican, they get a shitstorm of criticism back, from right-wing influence operations, from wingnut crazies, and even from their owners and their social circles, while to criticize a Democrat — especially a sitting President — is de rigeur, a sign of their toughness and diligence, and gets them as much praise (largely from the same sources) as they get grief if they criticize Republicans. In a word, they’ve been conditioned, at least to some extent. And as if that weren’t enough, the Republican media operations are coordinated, work in lockstep (as befits Fascists), and relentless, and their visibility to the DC political media looms larger than the reality. IOW, by nature and training, I think that, as a group, the political media are easier on the Republicans and harder on the Democrats than they should be, and that’s not gonna change, at least for a long while.
So we gotta do it. We gotta push on them, but we also gotta go around them: local organizing, social media, and donations to candidates and Dem-aligned interest groups. All those are more effective now than they almost ever have been (and the MSM much less powerful than they used to be), so it’s not by any means impossible or even unduly difficult. After all, we won in 2020 at several levels, we vastly outperformed in 2022, and we’ve generally been romping in special and off-year elections. So yeah, they’re a little biased, but … fk ’em.
sab
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yes so much. But also the Republican party is much smaller than it used to be. Too bad they get to pick one of the presidential contenders, because currently they are less than a third of the population.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@gene108:
Afghanistan is a tragedy. When the Taliban fell we were literally (yes, literally) welcomed with flowers, music, dancing in the streets of Kabul.
I know there is some skepticism of Sarah Chayes, but I can attest to her good will and clear-eyed reporting of her experiences in Afghanistan. She spoke Pashto, lived there along side Mullah Omar’s cow, and wrote regretfully of the failures of our policy there.
Others have pointed out that no withdrawal of forces is ever completely smooth. Could it have been better? I cannot judge. I can only say that the seeds of the failure were sown by the GWB administration.
tobie
@Tony Jay: How horrifying that one senior editor could keep a lid on this story, while haranguing survivors of abuse and committing his own sexual abuses. Yuck.
I’d really like to understand what kind of editorial discretion an editor in chief or executive editor have. Who determines what runs on the front page and what headline is attached to it? Who decides what investigative angles should be pursued or dropped? It really could be a handful of people in a few major dailies…and that is frightening as hell.
Other MJS
Journalism fails miserably at explaining what is really happening to America
Suzanne
So all summer, my neighborhood streets have been torn up, and lead water pipes replaced. As part of the effort, all the private supply lines were tested, and if they were also lead, the homeowners were offered free replacement and testing (and a mini Brita pitcher). All of this was funded by the infrastructure bill. So I went on my neighborhood Facebook page and posted about it, including a statement about how great it is to see good governance making a difference in the community!
We got a new supply line and we got the results of the testing this week. Prior to replacement, we had 2 parts per billion. The day after replacement, it was 14 parts per billion. Two days after replacement, it was 1 part per billion. (Acceptable level is 15 parts per billion.) And we always filter drinking water anyway.
And I took a selfie on the road roller that was parked outside, too.
sab
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I have memories of old George and might have voted for him if he’d run when I could first vote.
My parents and I were always in different parties but politically not too far apart. We all drifted leftward. Fox caught my dad, but that was dementia not dad.
wjca
Am I the only one noticing this? The criticism here of the MSM, while much of it is warranted, sounds eerily similar to the Fox/RWNJ’s criticism of political bias in the MSM.
Scout211
RIP Governor Richardson.
Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson dies at 75
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mr. Bemused Senior: I don’t pretend to be an expert, but from my recollection the only real difference Biden could have made was expediting the visas and other processes necessary to getting out Afghan allies and support staff out. The fall of Kabul resulted from local and regional forces, warlords, who were telling the gov’t, Afg and US, that they would hold against the Taliban when they either had no intention of doing so, or quickly decided it wasn’t in their interests.
Barry McCaffrey, as people like Richard Engel and Andrea Mitchell were rending their garments about betrayal, would just repeat with his granite face that the only way to stay in Afghanistan was to violate the trump-negotiated Doha accord and send at least 50K troops back in country, and he didn’t think this country wanted that. I agreed with him.
laura
The Infrastruction and Reinvestment Act is saving me 25K per year on healthcare premiums. My freeways are under construction, I may eventually get some form of student loan relief, I’m seeing really good contracts being negotiated in the private and public sectors, the USPS is actively recruiting for Postal Workers. None of that happened during the prior administration. Happy to do my part in getting the reelect message out between now and next November.
Alison Rose
@wjca: But the difference is their criticisms are blatantly and painfully bullshit. Look at how often headlines at NYT and elsewhere are intentionally crafted to go for the DEMS IN DISARRAY or BIDEN IS FAILING or whatever angle, even if the article barely supports such a notion. Or they’ll insist there’s all this PUSHBACK against something and they quote like two random people with little power or influence. Whereas the right acts like every mainstream media source is basically tonguebathing Biden and the Dems all the time and is lying because they say climate change is real and they won’t call abortion murder.
These are not two sides of the same coin. They aren’t even the same currency.
Ruckus
Always remember – There is MONEY to be made by deception. Or lying, whichever floats your boat.
And money owns the TV networks, and we, all of us are the suckers, the people that purchase the product.
It’s no different than when the wagon pulled into town and the lying sack of shit stood up in front of the crowd selling the magic elixir, that would grow hair on bald men (It doesn’t work, believe me) or it would end disease, illness or death (It didn’t work – either). There is as most of us know, no magic elixir. None, zero, nada. But it’s humanity.
There will always be magic elixir
sales peoplepushers. Because there will always be believers. It is after all humanity. They don’t need to capture all of us, and they won’t, they just need a significant percentage for it to pay off. They’ve got that. It works in hair growing BS, it works selling anything – including politics, just not to everybody or even a majority. But it works on those that want it to work.And I doubt that we will ever be rid of bullshit, bullshit peddlers, bullshit ideals. It is humanity.
sab
@laura: Government sucks///
My RWNJ never been married brother does not want to pay taxes.
gene108
@Mr. Bemused Senior:
Can you elaborate on what these “seeds” were?
WaterGirl
I have a question totally unrelated to the media.
My godmother’s oldest son got brain cancer this year and died within a matter of months, and she has been struggling. She is quite religious which I think is holding her together, but still it’s a struggle.
They had shared a condo, so money has been really tight, which I wasn’t aware of until just last week when she mentioned having given up some of her premium channels – including her beloved baseball.
She is an avid reader, and we got to talking about books. I think books (fiction) are great escapism and also a way to process emotions as you read about what various characters are going through.
So I would like to get her Kindle gift-something so she can read what she likes without worrying about cost.
I have no idea how much most kindle books cost (that’s mostly how she reads these days) or how far $125 would go. II’m hoping for enough for 3-6 months of Kindle books, but not so much that she will be uncomfortable with the gift.
So I have 2 questions. Is $125 a good amount?
Also, I googled, but I can’t find how to purchase that. I want a Kindle certificate not an Amazon gift certificate that would be good for anything on Amazon.
Also, I would like it to just be in her Kindle account so it’s not complicated. And I would like to be able to convey it via email, not a physical card.
I don’t do Kindle and I am totally clueless on this. Can anybody help me out?
JaySinWA
The Seattle Times has had a longish R editorial slant that seems to be softening lately. They will [grudgingly, I think] endorse D candidates lately when the R candidate is obviously unfit. They haven’t quite gone down the “Seattle is dying” line, but BLM coverage was largely pro-cop with uncritical quotes from Seattle and Portland police departments.
The Spokesman Review (Spokane, WA) has done some good work in investigating the radical right (Matt Shea & co) and giving Idaho politics the stink eye.
Sinclair Broadcasting has purchased a couple of broadcast TV outlets here (ABC and FOX affiliates) and has some negative influence in the news and opinion coverage.
It’s a mixed bag here in the PNW.
Denali5
Part of the media problem is that they are mostly owned by the billionaires who value their tax breaks above all else. Another part is that the media loves a real horse race, and they know that TIFG really would not stand a chance were it not for being constantly featured in the news. It is a real problem for our democracy.
sab
@laura: We did some highway reconstruction and discovered there were abandoned coal mines under most of our roads. Made reconstruction and repair astronomically expensive. But there was the IRA, saving the day.
We put off all these repairs for two generations. This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.
I hope there is a Hell and that Reagan is in it.
JaySinWA
@WaterGirl: You might look at gifting a Kindle Unlimited membership.
ETA I see unlimited is still limited, and it doesn’t give long term “ownership”.
Matt McIrvin
@gene108: I think it’s interesting that the Afghanistan withdrawal did such permanent damage to Biden’s public reputation even though if you asked people what they don’t like about him now, I’m sure for most of them Afghanistan would not even make the list–it’s not a thing people are even talking about. These things reinforce themselves and become detached from whatever sparked them.
Chetan Murthy
@gene108: I’ll be interested to learn what @Mr. Bemused Senior: lists. My own is short and sweet: YES we should have gone in and gotten Bin Laden (which we didn’t do, b/c Iraq! Iraq! Iraq!) and once we’d gotten him, we shoulda GTFO, b/c (as a certain presidential candidate said in the 2000 election campaign) we’re not good at nation-building. That was the seed of all our troubles in AFG: the idea that we could do nation-building in a place that most assuredly didn’t want to be a nation.
WaterGirl
@Alison Rose: You mean like the Fuck the Fucking NYT and their headline that was something like this?
Fuck them. They lie every time they write a headline like that. They KNOW people won’t read the story. Such bullshit.
How far they have fallen.
sab
@WaterGirl: I do Nook (Barnes and Noble) but I used to have both Nook and kindle. The books had about the same price. Around $10 more or less per book. I prefer Nook just because of how the device works but kindle has a lot more books available.
ETA We at BJ have had authors I wanted to read but they were only on kindle.
RaflW
@gene108: I think the Afghanistan invasion/occupation is, for the press, kind of like supporting Rump has been for a lot of non-MAGA but still Republican voters.
Ever admitting it was not a particularly great move to start with, executed by a shitty president (Bush Jr. of course) and his awful team of Cheney, Rummy, Rice, etc al, and dragged out by Obama who I think was probably handed crap but unwilling to expend political power really fixing or getting out, and then, well, Rump of course and his fucking sharpie of nonsense (and Pompeo? C’mon. Garbage in terms of leadership). The press/pundit ecosystem can’t admit they misanalyzed and blew it.
But, in all of that, the press masked buyers remorse by making it Biden’s fault that the withdrawal was chaotic and the ridiculously propped up regime collapsed.
IMO we’re still in the shadow of the same press jackasses who cheerleaded Iraq.
m.j.
Grub Street hacks.
Chetan Murthy
Simon Wren-Lewis wrote a post about the UK version of this MSM capture by the monied interests”: https://mainlymacro.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-farage-coutts-affair-exemplifies.html
WaterGirl
@JaySinWA: Where would I find that?
I googled yesterday how to do this stuff, but none of the directions were Kindle-specific. Some links acknowledged that you could get a kindle certificate, but all the instructions were for straight Amazon.
WaterGirl
@JaySinWA: Okay, I googled that, and that sounds pretty good. I would happily spend $12 a month until the end of time so she doesn’t have to think about $$ related to reading.
But I don’t see anything about how to gift Kindle Unlimited
Mike in NC
Dubya (remember him?) and his crew were against ‘nation-building’ until suddenly there weren’t. Hence the failed invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq which few people bothered to question for 20 years because it didn’t affect them personally. Something the lazy Beltway media couldn’t be bothered to cover.
The media also for many years relentlessly promoted a sleazy, inept NYC businessman and they were only too happy to paint him as a “billionaire playboy” when nothing could have been further from the truth. They even promoted a TV show where he gleefully fired people. Such is our shitty media, who would rather act as stenographers for the GOP than ask real questions.
In five years we’ll be told that the COVID pandemic was mostly an over-reaction and we just need to trust strongmen like Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis who know much more than the rest of us. We’re so glad we never had kids.
realbtl
I’m thinking this all boils down to demographics. Who consumes the so called MSM. My guess is old farts and rural America which is unfortunately a demographic that votes. How many younger (and politically in tune older) folks watch?
Bill Arnold
@gene108:
No.
The withdrawal from Afghanistan was because the Trump administration negotiated a surrender, scheduled for May 2021, in return for no (or almost no) Taliban attacks on US forces in Afghanistan in the run-up to the 2020 election. There’s no smoking gun that I know of that it was a fo
rmal quid-pro-quo deal, but that was the nature of the deal. (Formally, it was until the withdrawal, but the Trump administration was focused on its own continuation.)
The actual withdrawal was a bit chaotic but overall very well executed. The media lies, constantly.
Brachiator
@raven:
This little detail in a CNN article about Richardson caught my eye.
Not a big deal, thought it was interesting. And then I read this elsewhere.
Anyway, Richardson did a lot of good. May he rest in peace.
Tony Jay
@tobie:
I find it pretty much impossible to believe that this one guy was able to arrange such a disgraceful veto on proper journalistic coverage of multiple child-abuse scandals without a ton of help and the approval of higher ups.
At the very, very least, not one single person in a position of influence ever raised an eyebrow and wondered just why Peter was always the guy saying there was no there there when there so obviously was? No one?
It reminds me of a piece from a quite senior radio journalist I read a while ago where he detailed the many, many times across decades that it was made crystal clear to him that everyone in the BBC knew that Jimmy Saville was a rampant sexual offender that couldn’t be trusted around women or kids, but doing anything about it simply wasn’t going to happen and your career would end if you tried.
Saville was very close to the Police too. A real Establishment figure. I’m also reminded that it was very soon after stories started coming out about (white) members of the Media and political establishments being well known as rapists and abusers of children that the news focus shifted to stories of Asian rape gangs targeting young poor white girls in northern cities. Almost like someone was being thrown under a very big bus to distract away from a bigger scandal.
Basically, I don’t believe them. These things aren’t covered up unless the PTB want them covered up – and they always want them covered up.
sab
Gorgeous weather in NE Ohio. Every window is open and almost every window has a cat looking out
ETA We only have five cats.
Narya
@WaterGirl: I borrow ebooks from the public library, too, if that’s an option. I’m gonna help my mom set up her iPad when I visit to do just that. “Free” is a good price.
sab
@Bill Arnold: Yes. Biden followed a negotiated settlement. Treaties matter even if Trump signed them.
trollhattan
@JaySinWA:
Things sure change. The “Times” was the liberal counterpart to the Hearst conservative “Post-Intelligencer”–the P.M. and A.M. competing papers. Once a city is down to one (or some fraction of one) paper only bad things happen.
Similar was KING broadcasting, the extremely rare woman-owned media corporation who set all sorts of high bars with their broadcast news and quality local-regional programming. She even bought the FM station specifically to broadcast classical music at a time FM was a complete afterthought and the licenses were basically placeholders, to see what might happen.
At times, being geographically isolated has its upsides.
Chetan Murthy
@Narya: I forget which libraries have programs where non-residents can (for a small fee) checkout ebooks ad libitum. But I remember reading that those exist, and for some pretty prominent libraries.
jackmac
In college journalism schools (many of which no longer exist or are folded into ‘communication departments’) we were taught to be fair and make an effort to cover both sides in NEWS stories. It was and remains a solid guiding rule along with don’t plagiarize, don’t misquote and leave opinions to the editorial page.
But for many of today’s elite journalists in the D.C./NYC axis, the principle has eroded into lazy horserace reporting, bothsiderism that starts with an outrageous charge (usually by Republicans) and a weak response by the other along with transactional journalism where one side is granted access or a scoop in exchange for anonymity or a return favor.
Then there is the poisonous partisanship practiced by right wing shills passing as legitimate media and ignored by mainstream journalists.
That last part should be loudly and repeatedly called out. Further, yanking media credentials and limiting access for Fox News, Newsmax and others of that ilk to the White House, Congress and other governmental organizations would be a healthy step.
And that might be a cue for the “mainstream” press to police their own conduct and make a better effort to fairly report actual news and developments. In a time of declining media, taking a stand to honestly and accurately report news might be a winning idea.
laura
@sab: I imagine that his single life in lovely Marin County is oppressive as hell, what with his low property taxes, metric shit-ton of hospitals, fancy grocery markets, amazing mexican food, a world of cheese, a coastline that takes your breath away, efficient roads, smart train and ferry service all leading to the most beautiful bridge in the world.
Sucks to be him.
Ronald Reagan can continue to molder until the stars fall from the sky. Fun fact- my in-laws built a large family home in Mill Valley on Rudy’s salary. He was a geologist and one of three authors of the mineral map of California. His office was in the Ferry Building until Reagan moved all the work to Sacramento. They sold that house in a fire sale and significant loss…..right before a building moratorium. It was the subject that could not be discussed- they never got over it. Spouse’s school bus ride went through Folsom Prison grounds, so that was a thing.
trollhattan
@sab:
Very rare cool Labor Day weekend here, yesterday was 75 and today may not even reach that. Last year, September 2 was 103 and by the 6th we would hit 114: weather that kills.
Scout211
@WaterGirl: just give her an Amazon gift card and help her set up a kindle app on her device, or she can read from a computer on a browser.
Kindle paperbacks are typically under $10 ($2.99 to $10.99) and kindle hardbacks are under $20 ($11.99 to $16.99).
An Amazon gift card can purchase kindle books and regular books or any item for sale on Amazon.
ETA: I just read that she already reads kindle books. So again, an Amazon gift card is all she needs.
zhena gogolia
@gene108: Abandoning the effort in order to mount an unnecessary invasion of a large Middle Eastern country that had not attacked us? Just for starters.
Chetan Murthy
@sab: Your comment reminds me of that “Homeland Security … Since 1492″ t-shirt (the one with the famous Native American warriors photo”. On the back is a poem, which ends with “in the end, you cannot eat money”. People who think “I’m good, Jack” don’t understand that in their golden years, *other* will have to work to feed, clothe, house, and care for them. That those people need educations and housing and decent lives, or they won’t be there to do that work. Ah, well.
WaterGirl
@Narya: Good thought.
She does Kindle, though, so I just want to make it
easieraffordable to do what she alreadydoesdid before money got tight.Miss Bianca
@Quinerly: Aww. That’s a nice tribute. Condolences to all the Parrotheads out there.
Mr. Bemused Senior
In my opinion, mostly acts of omission. Shifting attention to Iraq, of course, but mostly allying ourselves with corrupt warlords rather than fighting corruption.
WaterGirl
@Scout211: I do not want to give her an Amazon gift card. Hence my questions about how to do a Kindle-specific gift card.
I think she would see an Amazon gift card as me giving her money. I want to be giving her back the gift of reading. That may not make sense, but that’s how I feel about it.
smith
@Denali5: I agree that these are potent factors in the degeneration of the corporate media in this country, but I think there is another that we tend to overlook: The change in generational understanding of how our politics work in the past 30 years, ever since the onset of the Newt Gingrich era. At this point probably a majority of journalists do not remember a time when the GQP participated in good faith in politics or government. To anyone under the age of maybe 55, the bad-faith antics of the GQP are just the way things are. There is no expectation that their side will offer anything other than performance art, and if anything substantive happens, especially anything negative, it’s obviously the fault of the Dems, because they are the only ones even trying to govern. Murc’s Law and IOKIYAR are understood to be just the way political journalism is done.
Starfish
@WaterGirl:
Consider getting her a 12-month Kindle Unlimited gift subscription. She won’t own the books, but she can search and read whatever she wants for a year. I had a subscription for a few months before the pandemic when I was taking the bus to work.
Brachiator
@tobie:
Nobody gives a shit about global inflation. Nobody will ever give a shit about global inflation.
It’s much like stories about earthquakes. I remember this actual news announcement on a Los Angeles TV station. “Earthquake and tsunami devastate Japan. Could Southern California be hit by the Big one?”
But your larger point is right on the money. Inflation may be tapering off, but food and housing prices are persistently high.
And the crazy thing about most prices is that, except for gasoline, they rarely go down back to earlier levels.
Geminid
@WaterGirl: You stay so busy you might not have noticed that your Representative was in town last week:
Ms. Budzinski’s attended the Illinois State Fair last week and her official and personal Twitter accounts are packed with pics of her talking with people, racing Rep. Tom Bost in a tractor with a humongous disc plow, holding up a corn dog (she’s on Team Mustard) etc. She must have been there two days because she had quite a sunburn by the end.
Scout211
@WaterGirl: They don’t have Kindle specific gift cards. I just double checked for sure and the one that is on the site and is called “Kindle gift card” says “not available.” I think they ended that promo quite a long time ago.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
in which Rick Scott helps Joe Biden troll Tiny Dee. Is there a beef between them ?
is JRB disappointed that Tiny Dee was hiding, no doubt quaking a little in his big white go-go boots?
wjca
You see it that way. Obvious the Faux News viewers do not. And what is obvious to you may not be to others, even outside the right wing bubble.
But consider, just for a moment, being part of the MSM. You are hearing yourself criticized (vigorously denounced, actually), in pretty much the same terms, of being biased. It’s from both sides; mirror images. Nobody loves being denounced. And it is all too easy to say to yourself: “If both sides think I am biased against them, I must be successfully reflecting the moderate center and reality.”
That may not be correct. But as a reaction it is entirely understandable. And not likely to be changed without a change in what is said to them, and how it is said. So the alternatives are:
If there is a viable third alternative to achieve change, I’m not seeing it.
WaterGirl
@Scout211: Interesting! It’s the ghost Kindle gift card option. Who knew?
JaySinWA
@WaterGirl: If I read things correctly there is a Kindle branded Amazon gift card, but it isn’t limited to Kindle books.
I managed to find a Kindle Unlimited gift page, but it is tied to being logged in with an amazon account. Here’s the link and info:
Alternately from searching “kindle unlimited gift” you get an Alexis answer:
If they have Amazon Prime, the Prime Reading is pretty much the same included with Prime (but you have to subscribe, even though it’s free with Prime). I think you can gift Prime as well
I see
@Starfish:
beat me to it
karen marie
NPR’s reporting on FL hurricane recovery included comments from two “regular people.” Of course, they complained Biden hadn’t come to their home and fixed their problems yet.
No mention of the lack of assistance from DeSantis.
brendancalling
Last year, I got an email from my local NPR affiliate’s development director begging for cash and asking me to share my thoughts with her. Her email was provided—I think I’ll email tonight about why I don’t give money anymore, and how their shit coverage of Biden is a big part of that.
Also, we banged out 13.1 miles today.
JoyceH
@sab:
There’s a reason for that. Your books have to be in KDP Select (exclusive to Amazon) if you want them to be available on Kindle Unlimited. And I don’t know about others, but probably two-thirds of my royalties come from KU borrows.
Scout211
@WaterGirl: @Starfish:
I agree that a Kindle Unlimited gift subscription is the best option if you don’t want it to seem like money. If she likes mass market women’s fiction, romance, science fiction and mysteries it definitely is worth the cost of the subscription. I’ve saved a lot of money with Kindle Unlimited.
The drawback is, new release hardbacks and quality paperbacks are usually not included in Kindle Unlimited.
WaterGirl
@Starfish: Thanks! I was just googling, and it is easy to send a Kindle Unlimited subscription – I can do it from my own account, so she doesn’t have to do anything on her end.
It seems to cost $12 a month if I do it monthly, $10 a month if I do one year, and $7 a month if I do 2 years.
I think I will go with 2 years. I wonder if I have to pay the whole $172 up front. I guess I’ll find out.
Thanks to everyone for the input!
Frankensteinbeck
@wjca:
Projection is a way of life for Republicans, but it’s more than that. This is a variation of the spaghetti vs tire rims and anthrax argument. Republicans have gone off the fucking rails. They have created a fantasy universe to believe in that justifies their sadistic policy choices. They are convinced of the need for total war against Democrats, and by going so insane they have slowly dragged Democrats to the necessity of total opposition. We remain vastly more willing to compromise and, bluntly, the facts are in our side every single time.
How this applies to the media and your observation is thus: If you are not reporting their fantasy world as truth, Republicans believe you are lying. If you don’t say J6 was a noble act of patriots, Portland burned down during BLM, Biden is a senile husk, and that abortion clinics are encouraging women to wait until the very last minute so that the baby’s organs can be sold for profit, you are obviously a dishonest liberal hack.
The National press mostly tries to find a middle ground between Democrat and Republican positions, to present both as legitimate. But you can’t do that with a fantasy world. Trying produces something repugnant and dishonest, and we call it out as repugnant and dishonest. It also still isn’t the Republican fantasy world in total, so Republicans think you’re lying.
zhena gogolia
Speaking of Biden, we got our tote bags today. I got Dark Brandon, and I got Pride sunglasses for my husband. They are beautiful, sturdy bags. Just in time for first day of school Monday!
WaterGirl
@brendancalling:
Wow, that’s quite an accomplishment. Go you! (and your friend)
zhena gogolia
@Frankensteinbeck: Well put.
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: There look to be a lot of choices. Which one did you get?
El Muneco
@Chetan Murthy: In retrospect, a lot of our hopeful expectations for Obama were things we were projecting onto him, and my disappointment that he didn’t actually govern that way is in that sense irrational.
Similarly, it turns out that a lot of our pessimistic expectations for Biden were _also_ things we were projecting onto him. So perhaps we shouldn’t be that surprised that he’s governing much more positively than the prevailing wisdom of 2016-2020 would have it.
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl: I got the one that has repeating Dark Brandon images, and for my husband I got one that has rows of Biden sunglasses in rainbow colors.
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl:
This one:
Ooops, wrong links for some reason.
Another Scott
@Narya: There are lots of free books available in various electronic formats at Project Gutenberg and Archive.org as well. A Kindle should be able to easily read them, but I don’t know the details on how to get them on the device.
I have a bunch of Kindle books that I read on the Kindle app on my phone.
Cheers,
Scott.
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl:
This one:
https://shop.joebiden.com/dark-repeating-natural-canvas-tote/
And this one:
https://shop.joebiden.com/pride-aviators-natural-canvas-tote/
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: Huh. I googled Dark Brandon tote and none of those came up as options. Maybe you ordered on the Biden site where the $$ goes in as a donation?
edit: After I posted, I saw your comment just above mine. I guessed right on the source, at least. Looking now
edit 2: “Pride Aviators” – love that.
Brachiator
@Tony Jay:
What a horror show. But I also see that the reporter took at least one story of abuse to another paper. And it looks as though the editor had influence at a number of publications.
Other people knew about him, or maybe suspected something. But it also looks like he actively tried to use his power and connections to suppress stories and investigations.
This person certainly seems like a monster. It just adds to the ugliness that other people may have been enabling or even protecting him.
wjca
@Frankensteinbeck: To be clear, I’m not arguing the merits of the criticisms. I’m trying to figure out how to effectuate chenge.
Jeffro
Yours too? >(
These damn nihilist Gringrich babies, I swear
Ruckus
@Mike in NC:
We’re so glad we never had kids.
Some days I miss the concept of kids. Then I wake up and laugh at myself. The concept that in a world of 7 billion and hunger and what a third or more of the range of human personalities in political office are like and desire for the rest of us, that flys out the window at supersonic speed.
I like the concept of kids, of seeing them learn and grow, of growing up and going out on their own, to do this thing called biology and humanity. And then my brain backs up to the paragraph above and I smile and think, there must be more to life than procreation and repetition.
Chetan Murthy
@El Muneco: *grin* You could be right about that. But think that’s underselling Granpa Joe. I mean, he was “The Senator from MBNA”. He was instrumental in confirming Clarence (spit) Thomas and muzzling the women he harrassed, muzzling Anita Hill and others. He was key to passing that law that made student loans non-dischargeable (over the protests of Senator-to-Be Professor Elizabeth Warren). In a real sense, he seemed to be at the center of so many of the bad things the Democratic Party was complicit in for decades. He campaigned on “we’re not gonna change a buncha things: things will go back to the way they were!”
……
AND YET, when he became President, he governed *very* differently, and so much better. Sure, it could be because our expectations were so low. But I don’t believe that. I believe that he understood that the Party had moved, and he moved with it. Which is …. *remarkable* for a guy in his 70s. Just *remarkable*.
But hey, at the end of the day, we’re all thankful for his service and leadership and sacrificing what ought to be a well-earned retirement, to save our country.
karen marie
@WaterGirl: Does your aunt have a library card? Her library should have kindle books to borrow for free. I was able to get a library card just for downloadable books without having to go to the library.
I know nothing about kindle unlimited. I only do audio books. Librivox is wonderful, and free, but public domain only. Audible starts getting into real money at $15/month but I’ve stuck with it because I’ve found some wonderful authors, like Tom Holt and Robert Rankin, and if I really hate something I can return it and get my credit back for something else.
smith
They always have the option of reporting information that can stand up to empirical tests. That they consistently report halfway between spaghetti vs anthrax/tire rims, when they surely know that it’s really spaghetti, betrays an ulterior motive.
Chetan Murthy
@wjca:
I think many of us disbelieve that either of the paths you suggest will work. #1, b/c “it is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”, and #2 because without a lot of money, you can’t build an alternative media ecosystem with *reach*.
Bill Arnold
@Another Scott:
For some reason, Kindle is the default pdf reader on my amazon fire tablet (android-based, and has google play installed through some hoop-jumping).
That is, clicking on a pdf link (in a chrome-based browser) opens it in kindle. So it is do-able, somehow.
Ruckus
@realbtl:
I repeat this here regularly and without remorse. I am an OLD FART.
I do not watch or listen to MSM or even the offshoots. I haven’t for decades because for decades (most of the ones since I’ve been alive, so a lot) it has been about the wealthy that own the news, making more money. When TV first started it was at most 1/2 hour of news in the evening. Now it’s several channels and websites of 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And it’s PROFITABLE for the owners. Which is the only reason it’s done – PROFITS. In this country PROFITS is the only reason almost everyone but government does anything.
SiubhanDuinne
@Alison Rose:
Nominating this.
karen marie
@zhena gogolia: I got a black T shirt with Joe’s signature. Classy. Plus I will hopefully not get shot by a RWNJ when I wear it to a grocery store because they can’t read cursive.
Sure Lurkalot
@WaterGirl:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/kindle/ku/gift_landing
Haven’t read whole thread so this may be duplicative.
wjca
You may well be right. So, do you see any path forward?
Or are we stuck venting about an insoluble problem? And if so, how are those who get their news from the MSM reachable? Because winning elections without them is, as we have seen to our sorrow, chancy.
zhena gogolia
@karen marie: I like that one. I just can’t wear T-shirts with high necks any more (it turns out I have a lot of company among jackals, as I learned the other day).
Mousebumples
Late to the thread, but a few comments –
Agreed! I’m keeping an eye out on Postcards to Voters, and I’d love to do some writing to Virginia (and maybe Ohio?) this fall! Anyone else interested if I bother WaterGirl to see if she’d be willing to Front Page some postcard threads this fall?
@WaterGirl – if you can’t get the Kindle Unlimited gift to work, give her a card with a message to the effect of what you’d like to give her. It might end up being “This is an Amazon Gift Card for #purpose” but I think your thoughts are on target and will be appreciated.
Chetan Murthy
@wjca: My belief is: the only solution is steeply progressive wealth and income taxes (sure, use the $$ for good purposes, or heck, just burn it!) to reduce the influence of wealthy owners of the media.
Yes, that’s tough to do. Maybe impossible. But I don’t see how anything else works.
persistentillusion
@sab: Reagan is in Hell, but he’s still so demented that he thinks it’s Heaven. And Nancy keeps telling him it’s OK.
Josie
@Mousebumples:
I am interested. Could you guide me to a good place to order stamps and post cards? I feel a need to do something, but can’t do person to person stuff or give much money.
cain
@wjca:
When you’re in a propaganda bubble you aren’t even experiencing reality.
I’ve heard this whole “they need to appear balanced” because of all the criticism and polarization etc.
The polarization actually is created by the media – polarization, drama etc is all part of how they can get people to watch 24 hour news. Remember we live in an age where we are the product.
It’s even conceivable that the data being collected is used to train AI algorithms to generate even more of the kind of content that would polarize people.
Michael Bersin
@sab:
In 2009 at then Senator Claire McCaskill’s (D) healthcare town hall at the Johnson County fairground near Warrensburg, Missouri a guy, labeling himself as a union laborer, stood up to speak and angrily denounced everything, stating, “All taxation is theft.”
We spouse, also in the audience, said aloud in response, to no one in particular, “Did you walk cross country to get here?”
wjca
Which tax change has the additional merit of being something that is worth doing for its own sake. But, as you say, the challenge will be to get it done.
smith
@wjca: It’s certainly an uphill climb to convince people who believe the MSM and the Nice Polite Republicans represent liberal media, and we may never make as many inroads as we’d like. That’s an older audience, though, and its voting power is starting to wane.
On the other hand, the fact is that memes, as an example, start up and spread worldwide with little or no help from the corporate media. The same with CT, which may get picked up and amplified by Fox, et al, but don’t generally originate there. I’m not advocating trying to seed conspiracy theories, but it seems to me there are a lot of opportunities via social media that could be exploited. In fact, I’d speculate that one reason younger voters trend so progressive is that they don’t get their news from the MSM, but rather from social media sources they trust. They aren’t partiicularly swayed by that filter. So, maybe fewer tv ads and more online influence operations?
Mousebumples
@Josie: Sure! USPS sells forever postcard stamps. You can buy from your local store or I believe off their website – https://www.usps.com
They also sell blank postcards, but you can use leftover postcards you already have too! I had a bunch from travels. Generally don’t want anything super controversial. I believe MazeDancer also has art you can print onto cardstock on her website – Postcard Patriots https://www.postcardpatriots.com/
You can also buy postcards at etsy – but I vote for low investment in the short term until you can figure out how much you’ll need in terms of supplies.
Welcome to the postcarding team! 👋
Ruckus
@smith:
I like and respect your style!
Ruckus
@SiubhanDuinne:
Seconded.
wjca
Seems likely. I would note that a serious fraction of available, experienced and capable, campaign managers are so experienced that they’ve been working in the campaigning field since the mid-90s. Getting them to embrace online influencing as a useful tactic, let alone figuring out how to do it, is its own challenge.
Betty
This is probably a dead thread, but I just saw this headline from the Boston Globe: Threatened Auto Workers Strike Poses Problems for Biden’s Re-election. Why? Is everything his fault?
Tony G
@gene108: From my point of view, the rapid collapse of the Afghan Army and government two years ago was due to American political and military leaders LYING to each other and to the public for twenty years about the state of the Afghan Army and government. The Afghan government and military were totally corrupt and dysfunctional for twenty years — to a degree the exceeded even that of the South Vietnamese government and the ARVN in the sixties and seventies. The American media supported those lies for twenty years. Given the widespread corruption in Afghanistan, what happened in August of 2021 was inevitable
Betty
@Another Scott: Kindle has stopped access to Gutenberg Project books.
WaterGirl
@Mousebumples: I am over the hump and soon to be at the finish line with my summer client (maybe one final week of tying things up) and then we’ll be working on Virginia and other political action. Postcards for VA are definitely part of that..
trollhattan
@wjca: My “Bring Back Ike’s Tax Tables” campaign shall start soon, believe you me. If Republicans think “bringing America back” means the ’50s, then let’s give them that ’50s.
smith
@wjca: I’d guess there are lots of young people eager to teach them
ETA: I understand that political consultants get big commissions from placing tv ads, which always looked like good old-fashioned kickbacks to me. That would probably be a sticking point, but it’s very poor reason to keep doing it.
WaterGirl
@Josie: Remember if you are buying postcards for writing postcards, please consider our BJ pet postcards!
WaterGirl
@Betty: You have heard of “a solution looking for a problem?”
It’s the same principle… they want to bash Biden, so everything that isn’t great is an opportunity to bash him.
Ruckus
@wjca:
At this point in time there are a lot of moving pieces.
There may be more pieces of the puzzle. But this seems to be as simple as it can be made to me. This construct has been going on my entire life, and I am, as I’ve been told, in my eighth decade. The numbers have grown as the population does and the numbers of #3 and 4 has likely been going down some, but not nearly far/fast enough. Electing SFB to be their leader has made everything far worse. Because it normalized groups 3 and 4, gave them a level of power that they had mostly lost. Having shit for brains became normal. SFB was their first actual, obvious racist fuck as president in at least the lifetime of anyone alive.
Matt McIrvin
@Betty: I heard a little squib from CNN about Biden working to mediate the dispute, and that was the main spin: a strike would hurt Biden’s reelection chances, so naturally he was going to try to do something about it. Yeah, I guess doing your job is theoretically better for your reelection chances.
Mousebumples
@WaterGirl: Sounds good! My kids both start full time childcare (wrap care for my 4K starting daughter), so while my schedule isn’t free… It’s way less chaotic than a few weeks ago, when we last talked, lol.
And I forgot the pet postcards! I’m out of postcarding practice.
smith
@Matt McIrvin: I think the corporate media is really, really uncomfortable with the way Biden has been standing up for labor and helping to even out the imbalance between the power of labor and that of management. Not that he’s necessarily trying to tip the scales in this negotiation, but his cred in the labor movement makes his participation more likely to succeed in averting a strike than any intervention by a staunch anti-labor Republican could be. Pro-corporate journalists don’t have an easy way to deal with this without betraying staunch anti-labor biases themselves.
wjca
@Ruckus: I’d just add one group (Group 0, perhaps?): ultra-progressive Democrats. They’ll never vote Republican, of course. But they are prone to carping criticism of Biden (or any other electable Democrat) for being less than perfect. And to sitting home, muttering “Those politicians are all alike” as their excuse.
One thing 2016 did was administer a smack upside the head, to get them out of “All politicians are the same.” Trump made clear that there were real differences.
Dan B
@Frankensteinbeck: Good observation. Fantasy worldview versus reality. There’s no middle.
Ruckus
@Betty:
Why? Is everything his fault?
When you can only blame yourself or pick on someone or some group that had noting to do with whatever, you pick on them.
First rule of wealth and/or position, never admit when you screwed the dog. Or that you even know how to screw the dog.
Ruckus
@wjca:
Possibly. But I’ve actually worked towards elections on the democratic side and there were of course people in charge and they could look like all hell had broken loose, but they were rather effective at leadership. I believe the far, far left mostly sits home smoking/eating something and wondering why democrats don’t do better. They rarely seem to get their politics on. Maybe they really don’t have huge numbers?
Dillweed
@WaterGirl: Have you looked into online libraries? The Ohio Digital Library has lots of books available and the price is right.
Tenar Arha
@WaterGirl: did someone already suggest hooking her Kindle up to her local library? Because I know that I could read kindle versions of books bc my younger cousins use their kindles that way. Anyway here’s link to a book riot article on how to
Mai Naem mobileI
@raven: Richardson was one of the good guys. There’s got to be a bunch of freed hostages mourning his death. RIP.
Tenar Arha
@Tenar Arha: also, for all the readers in this thread, a lot of states with multiple library networks often now have an e-card for books, audiobooks, streaming movies etc to state residents, usually available from the biggest library system in the state, ex. Boston Public Library in Massachusetts offers ALL state residents this option.
New York, NY does the same
looks like a similar program is available for Cincinnati, Ohio
(Try it! I’m searching for “name of biggest city/state capital” + “eCard” +“public library”)
Tenar Arha
@WaterGirl: if she turns down the Kindle Unlimited subscription gift, you’ll have a backup plan to hook her up with library books. Note you can even set her up with a selection of streaming movies by helping her get Kanopy and/or the Hoopla apps & connected to a library card on her TV too ;)
ETA Good Luck!
VFX Lurker
@WaterGirl: I’d like to be the umpteenth person on this thread to recommend Overdrive, if your godmother’s local library offers an Overdrive service. I’m spoiled rotten by the Los Angeles Public Library, which has 352,423 Kindle books available for borrowing. I can read any of these books on my Kindle devices.
If your godmother’s local libraries do not offer a well-stocked Overdrive service, BookRiot has a list of library systems that sell non-resident cards.
Mai Naem mobileI
I know people talk about media owners but its not just media owners who want their deregulation/no regulation and no/low taxes. It’s also the big stars. I used to watch CNBC early AM years ago and IIRC there was a discussion during the Obama admin about limiting tax deductions. Becky Quick one of their hosts who IIRC makes $3M/year was complaining about how she would lose an education tax write off for her kids. She makes enough in a less than a year to pay full freight for her kids to go an Ivy through grad school but she was whining because her taxes might go up a little.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Nice shot at Rhonda Sandtits on the local radio just now:
“Biden on the ground in storm-ravaged Florida community… [insert inspirational quote from Biden] “… not there, Governor Rhonda Sandtits.”
/on to next story
Once in a while they get it right…
WaterGirl
@VFX Lurker: These are all good ideas. But. She is not young and doesn’t even have a cell phone.
It doesn’t seem like much of a gift to get her something where she has to learn something new, and I’m too far away to help with the technology.
Ruckus
@Chetan Murthy:
I had to get a tooth fixed. Local dentist quoted $4000. to fix one tooth, not replace it. I had heard of UCLA dental school practice so I looked deeper and found there are levels of the care, First 2 yrs do cleaning and possibly minimal work. 3-4 yr do more. Faculty care is licensed dentists who are obviously faculty/teachers. My current faculty dentist is far, far better than the guy down the street and it cost me $2500 and all follow ups are included. The dentist I see is far better than any dentist I’ve been to in the last 70+ yrs.
kalakal
@WaterGirl: Her local library will probably have access to services such as Libby ( ex overdrive), Hoopla, and perhaps Kanopy ( films & TV) and Freegal (music). There’s a ton of free material
kalakal
@WaterGirl: I spend a lot of time helping retirees who are completely non tech savvy to use such services. For most it’s 5 to 10 minutes one and done. Libby in particular is super easy. Libraries also have a lot of free online magazines & newspapers
Ruckus
@laura:
Good sarcasm about Marin County.
Lived there for 6 yrs, owned a business, of course I opened it 2 yrs before the 2008 recession caused by what side of the aisle again???
It is a nice place to live, except for the overwhelming size of the population – 1/4 million and the money that I think shoots out of SOME lawn sprinklers. Not mine of course.
Ruckus
@Starfish:
To me that looks exactly what WG is looking for. Just under $120/year.
henqiguai
@WaterGirl: (#45)
Yeah, four days late to this thread but felt compelled to respond. Kindle is an Amazon product and so are Kindle-format books; an Amazon gift card is worth considering.
I’m only half through the thread so don’t know if this will be mentioned – check out BookBub (https://www.bookbub.com/). I get a daily email with a selection of books matching my profile, sci fi and urban fantasy (paranormal stuff like “The Dresden Files”); kindle and Nook books with prices ranging from $0.0 (yeah, free) to $2.99. I’ll never get through even the kindle downloads waiting for me to read.