I didn’t watch the debate. I came home from lifeguarding ravenous, inhaled a metric ton of pasta, did a little work and went to bed. I’m put off by the endless, ENDless pregaming for these events, the boners sprung by the entire Politico staff, all of it. I asked myself, will anything that happens tonight change my vote? It will not. I figured if Vance ripped open his shirt to show off his new swastika tattoo, I’d hear about it later. So I skipped. Sorry not sorry.
From what I’m reading this morning, I didn’t miss a thing. Republicans think Vance cleaned Walz’ clock, Democrats vice versa. Yawn.
I continue to worry about current events, don’t you fret about that. The Last Good Year is inching toward its finale, one ballistic-missile attack at a time. I read a thread yesterday about the longshoremen’s strike, and about the cozy relationship between the union president and Fat Orange Elvis, and it sounded like the girl in “Jaws” who’s trying to tell the panicking crowd on the beach the shark isn’t there, it’s over here. Last good year.
Speaking of Politico, et al, my friend Ryan — literally half my age, a former student, and author of the Last Good Year theory — said something the other day in our group chat that I’ve been mulling ever since. He said we were a better-informed nation under the old system of media-as-gatekeeper than we are today, which is in large part the utopia the earliest bloggers (99 percent of whom gave it up) dreamed of, back when we were invading Iraq and everything was democracy-whiskey-sexy. “The MSM is a lecture. The web is a conversation,” etc. I think James Lileks said that, and the whole warblog crew lifted him aloft and proclaimed him the pundit in whom they most trusted. (Note that he not only didn’t quit his six-figure MSM job — hard to find another humor columnist opening in our shrinking world — but now that his column has finally been taken from him, retaining his job, he has not ceased bitching about it.)
Anyway, don’t want to re-plow that ground. My point is, the old system wasn’t so terrible, even as flawed as it was. I’m a news junkie, and I only learned of the impending longshoreman’s strike…last weekend, I believe. And now it’s upon us, and it’s not even Wednesday. Once upon a time, an army of labor reporters would have kept us up to date for weeks, maybe months, ahead of the strike, and we’d at least have had time to process it, call our elected representatives, etc. Now there are hardly any labor reporters. One I follow is on Substack, essentially self-employed.
The old gatekeepers were overwhelmingly white and male, also older and well-to-do, if not rich. This undoubtedly left many stories uncovered. It also allowed a rich vein of alt-journalism to flourish, in the ethnic presses and the free weeklies in every city. One made their money on lower-cost advertising targeted directly at their readers, the other on racy personals and ads for escorts and strippers.
And what replaced this terrible system? Some marquee brands (NYT, WP) survive, a handful of nonprofit, serious news sites (MinnPost, Texas Tribune, the outfit I used to work for) and a whole lot of clickbait. Plus, a form of human clickbait — the influencer. The friend who likes all the things you like, will tell you about the things they like (use their product code for 10 percent off and free shipping) and lies happily to your face, but you like those lies, so it’s OK.
And don’t get me started on social media, the great bullshit amplifier of our age. I used to correct people who posted urban legends on Facebook as though they were facts, but I don’t anymore, because I was so often accused of being, essentially, a party pooper. Let people believe, etc. OK.
Don’t get me wrong. Some of these innovations have been welcome. We’re all busy. It’s nice to have some filters in our lives to productively direct our moments when we can be free to pay attention to the world outside our own bubble. And many podcasts are miles better than the hollowed-out husk of commercial radio. But for all the information we process from day to day — that I process, anyway — I still feel like there are yawning gaps in my knowledge.
And I know there are some in yours.
Anyway, that’s my rant for the day. Maybe some photos? OK. A yard sign a few blocks over:
Also, speaking of the MSM, I think this story is the very last place for a play-on-words headline, but no one asked me:
Fibs, not vicious lies, and “dog,” get it? HAHAHAHA.
Talk later.
LindaG said on October 2, 2024 at 11:23 am
Watched for a while. If anyone had taken a drink every time JDV said “Kamala Harris” or “Margaret,” you’d be under the table. He did that on “Face the Nation” a couple weeks ago too.
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Jeff Borden said on October 2, 2024 at 12:03 pm
I don’t traffic in conspiracy theories, but it’s not altogether impossible the 25th Amendment could be invoked as Lumpy’s gray matter accelerates into cold oatmeal. The tech bros behind Vance -billionaires who see themselves as the only real leaders among us- would be fully on board with that scenario. Vance shares their world view.
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Suzanne said on October 2, 2024 at 12:47 pm
Re-upping my comment which was the last on the last post:
Vance came across as rational and sincere unless you know enough about him to know that most of what he said was a lie. I wish Walz had called him on that more. Vance has done nothing as a Senator because ultimately, he doesn’t believe in democracy, so why would he?
What showed me his true character was when he angrily went after the moderators for calling out his Haitian immigrant lies and the way he condescendingly repeated the moderators’ names over and over and over (“Well, Nora, blah, blah, blah…” on almost every question). I don’t know about you men, but most women know this type and they are 99.9% of the time jerks. He was subtly but forcefully letting the women moderators know he was above them.
This is worth reading:
https://jaredyatessexton.substack.com/p/what-are-we-doing-here-reactions
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Julie Robinson said on October 2, 2024 at 1:15 pm
Had to go to bed myself, exhausted after my volunteer gig and a vet visit for a couple of sick cats. Took mom for lab work this morning and she informed me part of a tooth broke off, so now we’re at the dentists. Thought I could run to the store for a couple things for dinner, and learned there are brightandshiny Publix and then there’s the Publix near the dentist. Still have to get those things.
Did I mention D is away on another trip? Glad someone’s having fun.
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Scout said on October 2, 2024 at 1:23 pm
JD Vance is a Manchurian Candidate. It may sound hysterical, but this is not hyperbole. The powers behind the ending of democracy (Heritage Foundation) don’t actually want Trump back in office because he is no longer viable in his diminished mental and physical capacity and they know it. But Peter Thiel and his ilk are using the cult to get their soulless, Christofascist, unelectable Trojan Horse in place so they can invoke the 25th as soon as possible to eject the aged, insane felonious rapist and install the younger, smoother puppet who will satisfy their Project 2025 wet dreams.
We need to stop them. There really are more of us than them, but we have to get people to understand the stakes and show up.
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tajalli said on October 2, 2024 at 1:24 pm
Did not watch the debate due to having forgotten while enthralled with Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy, which is India’s answer to A Remembrance of Things Past, at 1475 pages long. Stunning writing. A savory feast.
Suzanne, I think you’re on to something. Bandler and Grinder discussed in depth in their books on Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) the non-verbal gestures that reveal how information is being processed and structured for presentation.
In most people, the left side is memory and the right is synthesis (fabrication); upwards is visual, side-to-side is verbal, and downwards is kinesthetic processing. So Vance is probably a visual thinker using imagery references predominantly and he was fabricating rather than referencing memories.
My concern about Vance is that were “that guy” to get elected, the first thing done would be to have him declared incompetent, allowing Vance to rise to power. Vance would actually be effective. Talk about gut roiling. Guess Scout beat me to the draw on this topic.
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David C said on October 2, 2024 at 2:10 pm
The debate couldn’t have changed my vote. We received our ballots, mailed them back, they they were accepted a week ago. Now if I could only make the ads stop.
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Sherri said on October 2, 2024 at 2:33 pm
I didn’t watch the debate last night. I don’t watch debates. I don’t learn anything from them, it’s just political theater, and I always care more about what a politician has done than what they say in a campaign. And we have plenty of evidence about these two candidates, about what matters to them.
I was listening to a podcast the other day that mentioned that 44% of people employed in this country were in low wage jobs, and that 70% of the people who qualified for Medicaid and food assistance were employed full-time. And I read about the plastics factory in Erwin, TN, where the employees weren’t allowed to leave despite a flash flood warning until the water was already in the parking lot, and a number of employees died. Of course, in Trump/Vance world, at least some of those who died don’t count, because they were Mexican, and they’ve made it clear that they don’t believe that any immigrant is legal.
I also read about how much money Matt Yglesias is making on Substack, and while I don’t begrudge him his money, I do realize that there’s always a market for a certain type of contrarian, one who will will be contrary without ever challenging the status quo, who makes everything about personal choice. Bari Weiss, Caitlin Flanagan, Johnathan Haidt – it’s not that they’re always wrong, it’s that their contrariness never challenges power, always punches the same direction. (I don’t include Bret Stephens here because he is always wrong.)
I’ve come over time to realize that power and privilege is less about color or economics, and more about who gets the benefit of the doubt. Obviously, that’s influenced by color, gender, and economics, but it can happen anywhere. Who is “one of us”? Fundamentally, the GOP wants to define that narrowly. Dems don’t always define as openly as I would like, but at least they move in the right direction.
I think Jesus was pretty clear in the Gospels that the definition of “one of us” was “all of us”, but evidently evangelicals and conservative Catholics don’t like that, or think Jesus’s nonexistent words on abortion matter more.
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Julie Robinson said on October 2, 2024 at 4:17 pm
The jobs that are available today pay so much less than they used to. The comfortable middle class life we enjoyed is out of reach.
Our son just landed one that is double what he’s making now, with benefits no less, and he’s over the moon. But it’s a third of what dad was earning at that age, in real money not adjusted for inflation. He and his wife survive because of her job, and because her folks picked up a house on foreclosure right after the last real estate meltdown, which they rent back to them.
Daughter earns squat as a pastor and lives with us and probably always will. I don’t dare think of her future after we’re gone.
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basset said on October 2, 2024 at 4:55 pm
Political-looking sign on our street says
“Presidents are temporary but
WU-TANG
is forever.”
Sheeesh.
Watched as much of the debate last night as I could stand, which wasn’t much for most of the reasons you all cite here.
Mrs. B and I don’t watch a whole lot of series TV but somehow we fell into “The Resident” on Netflix and watched three or four of em, enough to see that they were pretty much all the same. I see it was popular on Fox for awhile, then fell off quite a bit… anyone have any opinions on it?
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Heather said on October 2, 2024 at 5:00 pm
I watched the debate instead of going swimming, which was the wrong decision. Although I don’t think any VP debate is particularly pivotal, it is depressing that this environment allowed Vance to shine. Although the fact-checking comment and his refusal to say that Trump lost were pretty good comebacks. I don’t know why Walz didn’t hammer him more on admitting he lied about Haitians and saying crazy stuff about women.
Really hoping Vance goes the Dan Quayle route and falls into a deep hole of indifference after November.
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David C said on October 2, 2024 at 6:00 pm
I wonder if the Rs have given up on Wisconsin. I just finished watching the Detroit Tigers’ playoff game on local, over-the-air TV and saw three Kamala ads, a couple for Democratic State Assembly candidates, and not a single Republican ad. If old guys, like me, watching baseball isn’t at least a one-half Republican demographic, I don’t know what is.
When I was in elementary school, I had friends with dads working at Sears and living at least as well as we did with my carpenter dad. Now if you’re working retail, you’re just scraping by.
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Julie Robinson said on October 2, 2024 at 6:53 pm
basset, I looked up The Resident, and it looks like another medical drama, yawn. I’ve been too busy to see much of anything, though I have been watching Moonflower Murders on PBS. I enjoyed the first series, Magpie Murders, as I had enjoyed both the books, as well as being a fan of Lesley Manville. There is a third Anthony Horowitz book coming out soon and I’ve got it on hold at the library.
The dock strike is already affecting shipping times. I wanted to get a kids’ book about school shootings, and it won’t arrive until Nov. 4-8. I couldn’t find it anywhere local either. I just hope the book isn’t needed until then.
One kitty had to go back to the vet today; now both have to take meds twice daily in their eyes or noses or both. But mom’s dentist glued her tooth back on and all is well there!
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Cheez Whiz said on October 2, 2024 at 10:55 pm
“Better informed” has a lot of baggage there, implying both “better” information and that the consumers of information need gatekeepers to ensure they get “better” information. Yes, there’s a ton of blatant misinformation and propaganda much more readily available than in Gatekeeper Days, but if we need curated information to hold the country together we have bigger problems than a lack of gatekeepers.
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Suzanne said on October 3, 2024 at 8:52 am
This is an excellent piece on how Vance came to be who he is. I have long surmised that his time amongst the Ivy League crowd cemented that no matter how hard he tried, he would never truly be accepted by them. Uncomfortable in his own skin, rather than accept that there would always be doors closed to him, he made the decision to try to gain power and burn it all down.
https://www.bettedangerous.com/?utm_source=navbar&utm_medium=web
‘Who Goes Nazi?’ — An 83-Year-Old Prediction of JD Vance
“…he talks awkwardly rather than glibly; he is courteous. He commands a distant and cold respect. But he is a very dangerous man. Were he primitive and brutal he would be a criminal—a murderer. But he is subtle and cruel. He would rise high in a Nazi regime. It would need men just like him—intellectual and ruthless. But Mr. C is not a born Nazi. He is the product of a democracy hypocritically preaching social equality and practicing a carelessly brutal snobbery. He is a sensitive, gifted man who has been humiliated into nihilism. He would laugh to see heads roll.”
The piece is worth reading.
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brian stouder said on October 3, 2024 at 11:04 am
Suzanne thanks for the thought-provoking link. The waves that Trump/Vance are surfing are indeed there, always.
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Cullen said on October 3, 2024 at 11:14 am
Thank you for that link, Suzanne. It would be a profound understatement to say this piece is worth reading. History is reaching out to us and tapping us all on the shoulder. The threat has revealed itself in the form of Vance. We cannot say we weren’t warned. Vote as if our lives depend on it.
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Jeff Borden said on October 3, 2024 at 11:40 am
Have you seen the stories about Melania embracing abortion rights? Expect to see clips used in Harris/Walz commercials soon.
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Dexter Friend said on October 3, 2024 at 1:03 pm
My wish was Stacey Abrams over Harris 4 years ago, and I resented that pick, but through the age-does-matter replacement I am now all-in for Kamala Harris for President. Then I wanted Josh Shapiro , not Walz. Walz came on like Gaffigan portrayed him but in the debate his thin hair was plastered down like Alfalfa and he was as milquetoast as Sid in Huckleberry Finn. Not impressive at all. he condescended to Vance and barely raised his voice, the perfectly coiffed gentleman. Bah!
Vance just lied and when asked every question began off-topic before finally answering said query with like 5 little meaningless words, and he definitely believes Trump won 2020. Fuck him. Yesterday? Walz was back in Gaffigan form, bellowing from the podium…too late. Then, oh yeah, we have a serial “mis-spoker” in Walz. He has told numerous lies, exaggerations, and vague alterated “truths” in his life, which from, he has declated himself “a knucklehead”. Yikes. Was he the right pick? Let’s fuckin’ HOPE so. Sheee-ittttt….
But he has my vote.
Yard sign update: On the old river road from Toledo to Napoleon as I returned home from my Covid19 + flu shots at the V.A. , Harris signs dominated the rapist signs, 12-1. Then as I approached the Napoleon turnoff back to the super-slab, Trump took over, 100%.
My grandson is working as a paramedic on the North Carolina mountains and hollers and this disaster is biblical at minimum. It is terrible. He sent me a few photographs I will never show anybody. I love North Carolina, and have spent many weeks, months there. It is awful.
The toilet paper run is back. This strike better end soon . One shipper, one man, made $14.1B last year according to Buttigieg today. Share that wealth, motherfucker!
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Sherri said on October 3, 2024 at 3:56 pm
I don’t know, I think JD was uncomfortable in his own skin long before Yale. We’re talking about someone who’s changed his name five times.
And JD wasn’t rejected at Yale. Tiger mom and conservative clerkship yenta Amy Chua was Vance’s mentor, he met his wife at Yale, and he connected with Peter Thiel at Yale.
What I find fascinating is his Catholicism, which I believe is sincere if twisted and weird. But I find the Catholicism of all the ultra right wingers twisted and weird, not because it’s so alien to my evangelical background, but because it’s not so alien to my evangelical background.
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jcburns said on October 3, 2024 at 5:25 pm
Basset, the thing I really like about The Resident is that they work in a hospital that looks identical to our art museum.
Hey, wait…
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David C said on October 3, 2024 at 6:15 pm
The funny thing about tradcaths is they really aren’t so keen on all that papal infallibility thing. I guess they were OK with PJP II and Benedict, just not the current guy. I remember a certain Catholic who lapsed before he became Catholic named Newton LeRoy Gingrich who when it came to pro choice (cafeteria) Catholics said “There’s a word for Catholics who don’t believe in the Church’s teachings. They’re called Protestants.” When they choose to ignore the be nice to strangers bit, though, they’re allowed to go to a different cafeteria and all is fine.
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Sherri said on October 3, 2024 at 6:44 pm
It’s the pro-life but fine with the death penalty Catholics that I don’t get. I mean, I’m used to blood-thirsty evangelicals (have you seen a Baptist hymnal?!?), but Catholics at least used to be more consistent on the abortion bad, but so’s the death penalty thing.
Of course, since the current crop of tradCaths seem to think the Enlightenment was a really bad idea, I shouldn’t be surprised. They’ll be burning heretics next, I guess.
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alex said on October 3, 2024 at 8:58 pm
I believe that JD’s Catholicism is no more sincere than his switcheroo to Trumpism. He’s an opportunist, plain and simple. Once an atheist always an atheist unless he was never really an atheist. I’ve met right-wingers who’ve tried to play me with that bullshit before.
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Sherri said on October 4, 2024 at 1:00 am
I enjoyed this interview with character actor Troy Evans: https://www.avclub.com/troy-evans-twin-peaks-demolition-man-china-beach
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Deborah said on October 4, 2024 at 8:51 am
This is an interesting article, you can listen to it also, the audio version has more than the written one. This is a gift, so no paywall https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/03/opinion/masha-gessen-vp-debate.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Pk4.E21R.jGWW95FNUTYe&smid=url-share
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Suzanne said on October 4, 2024 at 10:27 am
Sherri @19 regarding Vance’s integration into Yale. The people you mentioned, Chua, Thiel, and Vance’s child of immigrants wife, are also outsiders to the historic white, WASP culture of Yale. All either non-white or immigrants, and Thiel is gay. Successful as they may be, the old money conservative Bill Buckley types that are still around the Ivy Leagues will never fully accept them. Thiel knows it, Vance knows it, and they want to destroy and cash in on the destruction. I don’t think Chua has gone that route but she may have mentored him because she saw some of her own traits in him.
I don’t really know. Just armchair psychology from my not trained in psychology head.
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Sherri said on October 4, 2024 at 12:14 pm
Buckley famously felt excluded at Yale; it launched his career. God and Man at Yale is basically “they were mean to me because I was Catholic”. Conservatives have long made careers out of bashing institutions for not being sufficiently in awe of their genius.
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Sherri said on October 4, 2024 at 12:17 pm
Idaho state senator tells Native American candidate to go back where she came from.
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation-politics/north-idaho-state-senator-yells-go-back-to-where-you-came-from-at-native-american-candidate/
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