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Post by jdredd on Oct 23, 2018 0:48:21 GMT -5
www.nytimes.com/2018/10/22/opinion/midterms-democrats-health-care.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage"It has now become evident that Republicans are better at politicizing cultural issues and Democrats are better at offering economic benefits to those who are struggling. If you think voting behavior is primarily motivated by material appeals, the Democratic strategy is fine. But if you think it’s motivated by cultural identity, a desire for respect, a sense of what’s right, loyalty to a common story, the Democratic strategy leaves a lot to be desired. These days, culture is more important than economics." I think Mr. Brooks has it wrong...again. I believe the reason Trumpty the Clown's approval rating is up to 47% is because of economic good times, not that he wants transgender people dead. And if people are like me, the Dumbocrats are boring everyone to death with their emphasis on health care, health care, health care. So old school, but not unexpected from the Democratic Gerontocracy.
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Post by jdredd on Oct 24, 2018 16:12:19 GMT -5
Consistency has never been my strong suite, as anyone who reads this board would know. I am NOT a fan of traditional values, so logically I should be a fan of unfettered Capitalism, since Capitalism is the biggest enemy of traditional values there is. One example: How many American men now worship at the altar of the NFL on Sundays, as c hu rch attendance has been declining for decades among men? Or Christmas has turned into an orgy of consumerism? And gambling (I include Wall Street with that), porn, drugs, and usury are all mainstream now? Thank you, Capitalism.
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Post by jdredd on Nov 14, 2018 16:14:06 GMT -5
www.nationalreview.com/2018/11/conservative-challenge-support-family-civil-society-outside-of-government/"With the 2018 midterm elections now in the rearview mirror, Republicans have been awakened to a simple fact: The laws of political gravity apply to President Trump. Democrats won sweeping victories in the House, kept their Senate losses to a near-minimum despite a brutal map, and took down-ballot races with alacrity. Republicans won heavily Republican districts, but they lost competitive districts. Their historical advantage among suburban voters flatlined. They lost ground in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Arizona; they nearly lost ground in Georgia and Florida, too. Down-ballot Republicans even felt the heat in Texas. All of which suggests that many Republican pundits’ seeming optimism in the election’s aftermath is wishful thinking. As the reality of the new landscape sets in, certain Republicans seem determined to come up with a new, policy-based form of Trumpism. This Trumpism is based on a recognition of two forces tearing apart the working class: the bifurcation of opportunity based on education and the breakdown of the nuclear family. In 2008, Ross Douthat, now of the New York Times, and Reihan Salam, now of National Review, wrote: Safe streets, successful marriages, cultural solidarity, and vibrant religious and civic institutions make working-class Americans more likely to be wealthy, healthy, and upwardly mobile. Public disorder, family disintegration, cultural fragmentation, and civic and religious disaffection, on the other hand, breed downward mobility and financial strain —which in turn breeds further social dislocation, in a vicious cycle that threatens to transform a working class into an underclass. Today, this banner has been picked up by Oren Cass of the Manhattan Institute, author of the new bestseller The Once and Future Worker. Cass makes a similar case, arguing for a “working hypothesis . . . that a labor market in which workers can support strong families and communities is the central determinant of long-term prosperity and should be the central focus of public policy.” Hmmmmm...maybe the right is having second thoughts about how Wall Street threw the American worker under the bus (China never could have taken our manufacturing if Wall Street hadn't been an accomplice). But anyway, I'm more interested in the cultural aspect. "Cultural Solidarity"? Whazzat? I suspect they mean the way Americans seemed to share the same cultural identity back in the 50's (as long as you weren't brown, black, Asian, or Native American). Sure they want to return to that, because it was on conservative terms. It might be good if they had something to offer other than mindless flag-waving, gun-loving, and religious fanaticism.
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Post by jdredd on Nov 26, 2018 13:41:37 GMT -5
www.nytimes.com/2018/11/25/business/media/broadcast-networks-television-ratings.html?action=click&module=Editors%20Picks&pgtype=Homepage"Two months into the new television season, there’s big ratings news: The N.F.L. is back! Then there’s … everything else. Viewership for entertainment programming on the broadcast networks continues to fall as audiences flock to streaming services like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon. Among adults under the age of 50, the number of viewers for network shows has tumbled an additional 10 percent this season. Oh, and football. Viewers still can’t get enough, which has come as a relief to network executives." Yes, the billionaire NFL owners still have their deathgrip on the throat of American "culture".
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Post by jdredd on Mar 5, 2019 1:33:49 GMT -5
www.nytimes.com/2019/03/04/business/media/cpac-google-facebook.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage§ion=BusinessOXON HILL, Md. — A year ago, attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference, the annual jamboree of the political right, were greeted by Big Tech with open arms and open bars. Google sponsored a lavish hospitality suite, courting conservatives with an outdoor fireplace, hors d’oeuvres and flowing cocktails. Bright young representatives from Facebook hosted a “help desk,” handing out cookies frosted with emoji icons and offering free demonstrations of its virtual reality product, Oculus. That was then. At last week’s gathering here in a suburb of Washington, Silicon Valley’s only obvious presence was on the lips of exercised right-wing critics who whipped up the crowd by denouncing the American tech industry as an authoritarian hegemony intent on censoring their cause. “Facebook, Google and Twitter are pushing a left-wing social agenda while marshaling their marketing power to shut conservative voices out of the marketplace,” said Senator Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, during a featured session with the ominous title “Blocked: This Panel Has Been Removed for Conservative Content.” I had no idea Big Tech was such an ally of righties previously, but now the righties have turned on them because of a so-called "left-wing social agenda". I count this as a win for the good guys. Not that I trust Big Tech at all.
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Post by jdredd on Jun 4, 2019 10:24:04 GMT -5
www.nytimes.com/2019/06/03/arts/television/james-holzhauer-jeopardy.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage§ion=Television"For weeks, the “Jeopardy!” phenomenon James Holzhauer had been unstoppable. He set the record for the most money won in one episode, holds the second spot on the list, and the next 14. Eleven times during his winning streak, he went a whole game without buzzing in incorrectly. For fans, the question was not whether he would surpass the $2.52 million Ken Jennings won during his record 74-game winning streak in 2004, but when. The correct response: What is never? In the prerecorded episode that aired on Monday, Holzhauer’s “Jeopardy!” reign came to an end with his 33rd game, a tantalizing $58,484 shy of Jennings’s mark. The number of the day turned out to be $22,002, the amount that separated him from the winner, a librarian from Chicago named Emma Boettcher." I couldn't care less who wins at Jeopardy. My question is: who does? Apparently it has a large following, and has been on the air since Reagan was reelected. Probably popular in trailer parks, just like Reagan.
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Post by jdredd on Jun 5, 2019 17:09:21 GMT -5
I've noticed recently that the right wing press has really starting to address the right's failures in winning the culture war. After the rise of the counter-culture, their competing message simply seemed to be "Look out for numero uno, because money makes the world go 'round", which works for most people. Apparently not enough, though. The right is not satisfied with owning the economy and the government, they lust after controlling the culture too. They want it all.
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Post by jdredd on Jun 13, 2019 1:22:06 GMT -5
www.nationalreview.com/corner/bill-maher-and-the-horror-of-abortion/"Bill Maher recently did the country a service by illustrating, in a way few other pundits have, the simple horror of abortion — what it does, and what becomes of its victims. Years from now, when abortion is outlawed and our culture has stopped glorifying the killing of the unborn, Maher may be seen as something of an inadvertent sage. He will, doubtlessly, roll over in his grave. On his HBO show recently, Maher admitted that, though he is pro-abortion rights, he is “a little squishy and always [has] been.” That’s because Maher’s mother was advised to “[not] have another [baby].” Whether this is an oblique reference to abortion or not — whether Maher’s mother was told to abort him or if she merely considered it an option — the point is clear: Maher is well aware that, in his own brutally honest phrasing, he could have ended up “on the cutting room floor.” People still watch Maher?
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Post by jdredd on Jun 15, 2019 2:08:00 GMT -5
www.nationalreview.com/2019/06/my-father-left-me-ireland-book-review/"As a teen atheist and the sole child of a single mom who raised him in soulless suburbs around New York City, Michael was well on his way to becoming such a man. He began to look deeper, to confront the question of what provides us with true satisfaction, true joy. What really matters? It can’t be merely to do well in school so we can do well in a career in order to claim all of the goodies offered by a materialist cornucopia. Michael wanted fulfillment, devotion, a sense of rootedness. He rediscovered the Catholic rch, the country of his forebears, and the father from the other side of the ocean. In his memoir My Father Left Me Ireland: An American Son’s Search for Home, Michael turns the very specific circumstances of his formation into a universally appealing consideration of why we are here and what we should hope to accomplish." Awwww...a Millennial moving forward by moving backwards. Just like so many Boomers did in the 80's.
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Post by jdredd on Jul 2, 2019 10:03:19 GMT -5
This is the 30th anniversary (and it took me way too long to do the math...dementia sucks) of Tiananmen Square, when the Chinese did not get their Revolution. I can relate, as a (clueless) lefty who was hoping for one here 50 years ago. Theirs came a LOT closer.
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Post by jdredd on Jul 5, 2019 10:41:55 GMT -5
www.nationalreview.com/2019/07/intellectual-dark-web-quiet-revolution/"The dominant assumption in conservative circles is that college campuses are left-wing echo chambers with little room for dissenting opinion. But this assumption misses a host of previously apolitical or liberal college students who are voluntarily seeking out conservative thought as an alternative to the contemporary liberal-arts curriculum. The leading figures of this movement, known colloquially as the Intellectual Dark Web, are a loose assortment of young intellectuals who have gained notoriety for articulating opposition to some aspect of what they see as the porous narratives of identity politics, The IDW has become an industry of sorts — Ben Shapiro, Jordan Peterson, and Joe Rogan are wildly popular — and it is leading something of a quiet grassroots insurgency against campus intelligentsia throughout America. As a collective, the IDW provides college students with an alternative to the intersectional narrative that is the foundation of the contemporary progressive belief system. Identity politics is not gospel, they say, and it is not mandatory to accept its premises as unquestionable truth. To be sure, so far there is no readily available evidence that demonstrates the ubiquity of this movement, but the explosive popularity of many IDW members — particularly among young people — makes it difficult to conclude that their influence is not significant." This shows how out of it I am. I've never heard of the IDW. But then I'm not on Facebook, Instagram, or the Tweetverse. I have read misogynist dick Jordan Peterson, though. Of course, being a geezer, what is happening in colleges Not My Problem. I'm more worried about the political scene at the Old Folks Home. Hmmmm. Maybe I'm now the face of Cultural Stagnation.
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Post by jdredd on Jul 22, 2019 2:13:15 GMT -5
www.nytimes.com/2019/07/21/opinion/college-graduates-rural-america.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage"Nowadays, when students share their concerns about the high cost of living in urban centers and the challenges of finding satisfying careers, I suggest they broaden their thinking geographically and look beyond a select group of urban areas. There are trade-offs to living in rural areas just as there are in urban areas; I am not proposing that students ignore the differing socioeconomic and cultural opportunities. But rural America is not “flyover” country; it is a dynamic part of our nation, even — and perhaps especially — for the highly educated. Understanding this reality could improve the lives of many college-educated people. At the very least, it should help rid them of some common anti-rural prejudices." Here is a hack from the American Enterprise Institute trying to convince young college graduates that rural areas aren't THAT bad. You might like living in Trumpland. You may also like sex with sheep.
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Post by jdredd on Aug 11, 2019 1:53:31 GMT -5
While the 87 dufus Democratic candidates are at the Iowa State Fair kissing babies and eating deep fried cow patties, 100,000 bikers have converged on stolen sacred Indian lands (the Black Hills) at Sturgis. From what I read, lots of topless babes, American flags up the yahoo, and Trump paraphernalia everywhere. Well, I guess that's one Boomer story, hippies turning into stockbrokers in the 80's, and then turning into bikers in the 10's as they retire. Somehow makes some sort of sense.
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Post by jdredd on Aug 22, 2019 1:11:07 GMT -5
www.nationalreview.com/news/bill-maher-mocks-rashida-tlaib-call-boycott-show/"Bill Maher mocked Representative Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.) Wednesday after she called for a boycott of his program, HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher, in response to his criticism of the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. “Some people have one move only: boycott. Cancel. Make-go-away,” Maher wrote on Twitter Wednesday. “But here’s the thing, the house voted 318 to 17 to condemn the #BDS movement, including 93% of Dems. Does Tlaib want to boycott 93% of her own party?” Maher was responding to Tlaib’s recent suggestion that his opposition to the BDS movement warranted a boycott of his program." Is Bill still around? I stopped watching his show years ago. Of course I stopped watching SNL decades ago and it's still around.
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Post by jdredd on Sept 6, 2019 2:49:59 GMT -5
www.nytimes.com/2019/09/05/opinion/internet-extremism.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage"I am a sick man. I am a spiteful man. I am an unattractive man. I believe my liver is diseased. I am one of those fanatics on the alt-right and the alt-left, the ones who make online forums so vicious, the ones who cancel and call out, the minority of online posters who fill the air with hate. I’m one of those radicals whose rage is intertwined with psychological fragility, whose anger at real wrongs is corrupted by my existential panic about myself." "To know anything about me you have to understand the chaos at the core of my innermost being. I was raised without coherent moral frameworks. I was raised amid social fragmentation and division, the permanent flux of liquid modernity." Here is one of Davy's sermons that I so enjoy. He's trying to think out of the box (hard for him) and into the brain of an internet extremist. But he falls into the trap, like most fence-straddlers, of thinking left and right "extremists" are all equivalent. There is a world of difference between "Workers of the World Unite" and "America: Love it or Leave It".
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