Re: We are all Slave now.
 

In the end, what will have undone this administration is senility.

Re: We are all Slave now.
 

I don't think that's quite it. Sometimes you're in the con for so long that you start to believe some of it yourself. As Mark Twain said, if you always tell the truth then you don't need to remember anything.

Re: We are all Slave now.
 

I agree there's a mix of many things, including what's in that article.

But people with their mental faculties could pull off all of it. People who insist on tweeting themselves further into a hole and hiring elderly media whores to represent them cannot.

Re: We are all Slave now.
 

I think it's charitable to think that a younger Trump would be handling this much differently.

Re: My left brain knows all love is fleeting,
 

You're fond of that analogy, but isn't the issue of the day that the folks from Minneapolis decided to line up their army on the North Dakota border and start shooting people on the other side?

And while there are many disturbing things about Israel and Palestine today, including Israel's attacks on Gaza, the anti-Semitic speech from Abbas is pretty disturbing, too.

Re: My left brain knows all love is fleeting,
 

Anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli ideas are used routinely by Middle Eastern governments to appeal to their people and distract from things the governments don't want to talk about. Hard to tell whether they believe it or are exploiting it (mostly likely a mix), or which would be worse.

Re: My left brain knows all love is fleeting,
 

Actually the Minneapolis people send planes and helicopters into ND to retaliate for the missiles. Chicken/Egg. No one who doesn't know what that is like knows what that is like.

Re: My left brain knows all love is fleeting,
 

Too true. No one is ever responsible for the bad things they do. They are just defending themselves and/or retaliating for past grievances.

Re: We are all Slave now.
 

Welp, Paul Ryan can't get *anything* done in Congress.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DcTCYHvUwAAvmzW.jpg

Re: My left brain knows all love is fleeting,
 

When you say it, you own it.

Re: My left brain knows all love is fleeting,
 

You can do chickens and eggs back to Exodus, but the problem is that it's pretty hard to justify the Deuteronomical Ban in today's world, so if you get back that far, the Canaanites win.

Re: We are all Slave now.
 

I really like the little knife-twist where the good Father points out that religious bias played a role in his dismissal.

I want to see what iron 'stache does with this in his race against Paul Ryan.

Sometimes God works in plain sight.

Rudy Can Fail
 

It is. But he’d have attracted better than D List celebrities, thugs, and has beens to assist him. Rudy’s arguably clinically demented... Or perhaps so pathologically powermad he thinks he can invite successful impeachment, stage a coup in a weak moment during the trial, and ascend to the pedestal of American Mussolini.

Trump and Co. spoke truth to the old, scared, and crazed, and then sailed into dementia with them.

Re: My left brain knows all love is fleeting,
 

There is no solution in the Isreali/Palestinian situation. It’s ultimately Balfour’s creation. And as with British cars, it’ll be eternally “in for service.”

Israel/Palestine = Giant geopolitical Range Rover

Re: Rudy Can Fail
 

You have to be mad.

Trump and Co. haven't met truth. They don't know what truth is. They've been lying their asses off since the 70s and long ago forgot how to even recognize something close to the truth.

Re: We are all Slave now.
 

Etiquette Question: Okay, I realize I needed to change my "Kayne" sig line. but is it okay to eat at Jean Georges?

Re: Rudy Can Fail
 

Ironic use. "Truth" in this age is what your target audience wants to hear.

Regarding objective truth, it still exists, but it doesn't much matter. I know it when I see it. You know it when you see it. But of what value is it when people are so polarized they adhere to narratives regardless of whether they're factual?

This semi-famous statement, credited to many and claimed by none, seems increasingly less cynical and more factual every day:

"The truth is useless. You have to understand this right now. You can't
deposit the truth in a bank. You can't pay rent with the truth. You can't
buy groceries with the truth. The truth is a useless commodity that will
hang around your neck like an albatross-all the way to the homeless
shelter. And if you think that the million or so people in this country
that are really interested in the truth about their government can support
people who would tell them the truth, you got another thing coming.
Because the million or so people in this country that are truly interested
in the truth don't have money."

Re: Rudy Can Fail
 

Each time I engage with you on Trump, I see more and more of the parallels to 1930s Germany, Italy and Spain.

Re: Rudy Can Fail
 

You realize I'm actually on your side here. I was being ironic when I used "speak truth" to the old. The joke is that Trump spoke "truth" to the old and scared which they wanted to hear. It's not actual truth, of course.

But given the public's distaste for actual truth, and desire to instead trade in narratives, I have to ask, somewhat earnestly, "What's the value of truth anymore"?

Seriously. Put aside the typical adversarial bent of conversation here and assume I'm asking the question without any bias of any kind. "Truth is worth _____ right now?" Or perhaps more significantly, fill in this: "Truth is likely to go [up/down] to [x] degree in value in the near future."

Consider this argument: https://www.fastcompany.com/40565050...reputation-now

Isn't truth increasingly uncomfortably close to, if not fused with, or all but eaten by, branding/messaging/spin/tribal dog-whistling?

Even when it's factual, is it not gilded or massaged to suit the audience?

ETA: Your reference to Goebbels is apt. But to find the real villain, you have to go back to Bernays. The Big Lie is an American concept, born on Madison Avenue, a few minutes from Trump Tower.

Re: We are all Slave now.
 

1. Isn't Ryan Catholic?

2. Ryan is retiring so 'stache and the other people (a nazi on the GOP side and at least one Dem woman) are running for an open seat.

Re: Rudy Can Fail
 

I know "both sides" is your brand, but what are the truths that the Dems refuse to accept?

Re: Rudy Can Fail
 

That neither party has truly transformative solutions that are necessary, and that Democratic solutions, while more inclusive, are just fiddling at the margins.

R: Eat cake.
D: Here's a little something for you.

R/D: Now excuse us, so we can serve our corporate/special interest owners.

Re: Rudy Can Fail
 

You're not "rust bucket," so maybe you didn't see it, but Obama and Clinton (both) and algore and JFK all flooded michigan with ads about how they'd bring back good manufacturing jobs.

Re: Rudy Can Fail
 

I think there is some truth to this. Sadly, I think it's all a game to them. New representatives get elected with good ideas/intentions, but are immediately "advised" that party comes before constituents, and that beating the other side is all that matters.

Re: Rudy Can Fail
 

We seem to live in a world where people are more interested in arguing over whether reality is relevant rather than over what it is, and as long as that is the case, we are Wiemar.

Re: Rudy Can Fail
 

I think Dems are actually trying to solve real problems, like how to get healthcare to people and how to maximize the US' role in a global economy. I'd love for these to seem sexier than they are, but getting a large pool of people from $10 an hour jobs without benefits to $15 an hour jobs one with health care is indeed transformative.

Cutting corporate taxes in half and eliminating healthcare insurance is not.

Re: Rudy Can Fail
 

It's the "manufacturing" component of that that is hardest.

Re: We are all Slave now.
 

I forget he was retiring - but yes, he is Catholic, there are a lot of Catholics in his state, but it may be we don't get to pin this one on anyone who matters in November.

Re: Rudy Can Fail
 

Okay, but we'd likely be at '90s levels of employment (prime age epop) if we just hadn't done (mostly state and local level) austerity after the Great Recession. In other words, we're within the margin.

Re: Rudy Can Fail
 

Helpful context, but do you think they believed that?

Re: Rudy Can Fail
 

2. The system is terminally dysfunctional as a result of the influence of corporate money and corporate regulatory and legislative capture.

Democrats once believed that govt was a necessary check on corporate power. Now they seem to believe that govt should serve corporate interests first, but just make sure to give some charity to the people getting screwed as a result of the imbalance.

Modern Democrats seem to be fine with gross inequality as long as they're allowed to administer charity to those on the losing end. Yes, in the short term, this is better than Republican policies, which are cruel. But over the long term, it doesn't fix the problem. It only treats the symptoms.

GGG rightly notes that the Democrats support higher wages. That's true, and that's laudable. But you don't see them moving the ball on that issue at the national level, even when they're in charge. They don't dare even raise the prospect of doing what Seattle did across the country because their corporate benefactors would kill them if they did. Sure, maybe Booker and Warren and Bernie do it. But even they know, a bill to radically raise minimum wage will never happen, so demanding one is cheap and easy political points with the left, with little downside.

Term limits are the only cure. And the downsides to that fix are problematic for other reasons.

The agency problem in govt is simply not fixable.

Re: Rudy Can Fail
 

Half of the Democrats think things are basically OK and just need fiddling at the margins, and the other half think we need transformative solutions that they'll never have the votes to adopt.

Re: Rudy Can Fail
 

Obama worked to have his lasting legacy be healthcare, which against a lot of bad faith obstruction was very difficult. That actually had a very substantial impact on real incomes for a large swath of people, and created a large number of good jobs dispersed across the country in healthcare.

My suspicion is the next Democrat trying to find a legacy is going to focus either on wages or education.

Dems won't get more than one big move per president unless they get a much larger portion of the house and senate than I think is possible in the next decade and a half.

Re: Rudy Can Fail
 

The second half, when asked to identify transformative solutions, generally can't come up with anything that isn't on the agenda of the first half; the differences are usually more about presentation than substance.

Re: Rudy Can Fail
 

Yup. And while you're throwing out truth, put knowledge in the garbage bin as well.

Remember when knowledge, literacy, was something worth pursuing for it's own sake? So you could be more interesting than an orthodontist talking about his investments at the local coffee klatch or cocktail party?

Yeah, well, the only knowledge worth having now is that which Can Be Monetized. Have you noticed almost all discussions of politics and world events inevitably turn into conversations about how to play them for investment or business advantage?

Junior isn't reading the classics to broaden his mind. He's reading them because he'll be tested on them at some point. He's reading them only as much as he needs to in order to get through the essay portion of the exam. And when he's done reading them, he's off to his Kaplan SAT course, to learn how to game the test so he can go to some college where he'll take adderall and obsess over getting from 3.5 to 3.7. Get credentialed, get the job, and then get on the hamster wheel. Feed that corporate Borg with labor so it can use its profits to grow its stranglehold around yours and everyone else's necks.

Re: Rudy Can Fail
 

You're really not on top of the curve on these things, which are changing rapidly. For example, Minneapolis adopted a phased-in $15 minimum wage last year. St. Paul is considering one right now, and will probably adopt one. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the suburbs do too.

Which is to say Dems do not currently have the power to do anything nationally, and may not for awhile. But things are taking significant leftward turns locally where they do have the power to make change. The smart money should expect that to flow onto the national stage if Dems get the chance.

Watch the positions that Gillibrand is taking these days - Medicare for all, "jobs guarantee," etc. She's probably running for president, but to do it, she's moving to the left side of the party.

Re: Rudy Can Fail
 

seriously?

The biggest fiction the R voters believe is that they are all smart and the D voters are either dumb, or of ill-intent.

The biggest fiction the D voters believe is that they are all smart and the R voters are either dumb, or of ill-intent. The average IQ of D voters is probably right close to the average IQ of R voters.

Re: Rudy Can Fail
 

That's true. Obamacare was a Big Idea. And it did create a number of jobs. That was a very "old school Democrat" move on his part.

But he had to get the support of the insurance industry to get it done. He preferred single payer, but that debate had to be avoided. Couldn't fight the insurers. So, despite there being numerous good economic arguments for single payer (far more than for Obamacare), and everyone knowing we will eventually have single payer and so might as well get it done sooner rather than later, we have the half-step of Obamacare.

I get it. Politics is the art of the possible.

And I understand we can't just launch into bold things because of the law of unintended consequences. But the corporate strangleholds on both parties are so strong that even a master advocate like Obama understood he couldn't engage the debate we should have had:

"HC is taking too much out of the economy and not giving enough back. As a sector, it's too large, too inefficient, and it starves other sectors to our detriment. It's time consider a single payer system."

You might say Obamacare was an incremental step toward single payer, a trojan horse bringing "socialized medicine," as the right called it. Maybe that's true. Maybe that was brilliance on Obama's part. Maybe the public is too stupid to have the frank arguments put before it.

Or maybe we can't do anything on a reasonable time table in this country because sclerotic corporations spend ungodly sums of money to protect their revenue streams, inhibiting good policy and innovation in almost every area except tech.

Re: Rudy Can Fail
 

You were talking about the things that Dem politicians said. Things that were pretty obvious lies.

ETA: I realize that the predicate for "they" in my post was ambiguous. I meant do you think that the politicians who were promising to bring back manufacturing jobs believed they could do that. I do not. I think they knew what voters wanted to hear and were willing to say it.

Re: Rudy Can Fail
 

This makes sense in a world in which a lot of centrist Democrats are worried about what moderates think. But are those days passing? Increasingly Democrats are not interested in compromise, because Republicans don't do it and so it's a one-way street. And there don't seem to be many moderate voters anymore. So it might not take as big a margin in either chamber than it would have in the past.