SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2017
Hooray for Hollywood: We the liberals have a vast love of political defeat.
We pursue this affair with reckless abandon. Nothing can dissuade us from our self-destructive course. We can't quit our love for defeat.
We've been struck by the vastness of this love on several occasions just in the past day. We think of what we saw on last evening's NewsHour. We think of these fascinating letters in yesterday's New York Times, which we'll discuss in some detail next week.
We think of this childish letter in today's Washington Post, whose (apparently under-informed) author isn't likely to rest until defeat is total.
More on all that next week.
For this pre-Oscar Day post, we'd planned to print the text of a speech written by Paddy Chayefsky for his crazily prophetic film, Network.
It has often been said that Chayefsky wrote Bill O'Reilly twenty-five years in advance. Watching Faye Dunaway deliver this particular speech last week, it occurred to us that Chayefsky also pre-wrote Donald J. Trump.
Let's postpone that too. On this day, our tribe's commitment to total defeat seems overwhelming, plupowerful.
Before the Mayflower: Long before Network, Chayefsky's wrote a series of searching films about the lives of New York City's white working class.
His film Marty won the Best Picture Oscar in 1955, already having won Cannes' Palme d'Or. He even wrote a film, The Catered Affair, in which we were asked to believe that Bette Davis was Debbie Reynolds' mother!
We hope to get to all that next week. Down through the years, our self-impressed tribe has engineered so many ways to seek our own defeat!
I supposed it has never occurred to Somerby that the left has a more difficult task than the right. Convincing people to change is more difficult that convincing them to reject change. The latter is consistent with human nature whereas change requires a vision of a better future, imagination, hope, faith in our own abilities. People are driven to change by desperate circumstances, they do not seek it naturally. So offering change as a party platform is a loser from the starting gate, unless our party can convince people it will be better for them. And that is an uphill battle.
ReplyDeleteSomerby thinks, whenever we lose an election, it is our fault for throwing victory away. I think Somerby is wrong to continually harp on the deficiencies of the left. It is disheartening enough when we lose without Somerby's chiding.
I am curious to see whether Somerby realizes that Howard Beale is not the protagonist in Network. He is a hapless pawn, so blinded by his own misery that he cannot see how he is being used. He is made that way by his unrelieved focus on the ugliness of the news and his failure of human connection. He is no one to admire or emulate as some idiots have been doing online.
Change away from the direction of the dangerous, illiberal "progressive" left is the focus of liberals, including those who identify as "conservative." Convincing people to reject that movement is the challenge because education has failed those people. They have been miseducated and indoctrinated all the way through grad school and are in need of deprogramming from the destructive, failed ideologies they embrace.
DeleteHello, I am Theresa Williams After being in relationship with Anderson for years, he broke up with me, I did everything possible to bring him back but all was in vain, I wanted him back so much because of the love I have for him, I begged him with everything, I made promises but he refused. I explained my problem to my friend and she suggested that I should rather contact a spell caster that could help me cast a spell to bring him back but I am the type that never believed in spell, I had no choice than to try it, I mailed the spell caster, and he told me there was no problem that everything will be okay before three days, that my ex will return to me before three days, he cast the spell and surprisingly in the second day, it was around 4 pm. My ex called me, I was so surprised, I answered the call and all he said was that he was so sorry for everything that happened that he wanted me to return to him, that he loves me so much. I was so happy and went to him that was how we started living together happily again. Since then, I have made promise that anybody I know that have a relationship problem, I would be of help to such person by referring him or her to the only real and powerful spell caster who helped me with my own problem. email: drogunduspellcaster@gmail.com you can email him if you need his assistance in your relationship or any other Case.
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Yes indeed, Anon. @ 11:34, Bob isn't all that smart. Yes, I'm sure "it never occurred to him," as you say. I'm sure too that Bob doesn't realize that Beale is "not the protagonist." He's just too dumb. I'm very glad that he has you to point out his shortcomings. I'm sure that he is too.
DeleteAnd I have you to point things out to me. How stupid does that make you?
Delete"In September, an F.B.I. agent called the D.N.C. and said that its computer network appeared to have been hacked. The agent was transferred to the help desk, where a tech-support contractor jotted down the information, checked Google for information on “the Dukes,” and ran a basic check for evidence of hacking. The F.B.I. agent left follow-up messages in October but never visited the office, and the D.N.C. leadership failed to mount a full-scale defense."
DeleteBob is right that we're totally incompetent fools. Sorry if the truth is disheartening young'n but the truth hurts.
It would be incompetent if anyone except the contractor had received the message. You cannot seek out and investigate a message that you didn't know was received. The FBI had the duty to make sure someone in authority received the information. A tech contractor reached via the Help Desk doesn't fit that category.
DeleteThere is plenty of blame to go around in this situation, starting with the Russians who did the hacking and the Republicans who encouraged them.
This is like saying that the average consumer is to blame when his credit card info is hacked and used. There is no reason to expect the DNC to be expert at cybersecurity but the person who takes and uses that info is a criminal.
"There is no reason to expect the DNC to be expert at cybersecurity" Wondering why do you say that? What is your reasoning behind that thinking? Aren't they teeing themselves up to lead the free world? Wouldn't that require an expertise in cyber security? It seems like there are many reasons to expect. I'm surprised that they would not be. It's even insane to not be I fell. Anyway, why do see no reason they would not be? Thanks,
DeleteThe DNC is not the presidential candidate. It is a separate fundraising organization that helps candidates get elected. It is not any kind of government entity. So, no, they are not "teeing themselves up to lead the free world" and they do not have expertise in cybersecurity.
DeleteThanks for the response. Obviously they will have to be moving forward as their lack of expertise contributed to a failure of their objective.
DeleteOr we could catch the crooks and put them in jail as a lesson to others.
DeleteYou're saying the DNC should remain oblivious to cybersecurity, stay penetrable to further election-altering attacks and instead get our current government to fly to Russia, catch them and teach others a lesson? That's not a great idea if I may say so. The DNC must become cyber security experts immediately quite obviously.
DeleteThose who used the data are as guilty as those who stole it. Receiving stolen goods is a crime in the US. We cannot all become cybersecurity experts. That is unreasonable. A motivated hacker will get in despite precautions. They never should have condoned the hacking by using the data.
DeleteThanks for helping me understand your thoughts on this important matter.
Delete@4:11 -- Your reply sounds just like the form letter I get when I write to my congressperson.
DeleteI'm sure it does.
DeleteMy favorite Oscar winner has been director Martin Ritt. His record of support for working people is more impressive than Paddy Chayefsky.
ReplyDeleteI fear that Bob's self-loathing has finally consumed him.
ReplyDeleteWarren Beatty pre-wrote Donald Trump in his portrayal of a unorthodox rhyming politician, Bulworth.
ReplyDelete"Now the women that the world has mistreated and abused,
When we try to fix it, we tend to get confused.
We got respectable, the system, we’ll tell you that for style,
But there’s one thing in politics that always makes me smile.
Like the pussy, the pussy,
I like it really fine!
Like when you be a Senator you get it all the time.
The young ones, the old ones we really like em all!
And when you be in Washington you hardly have to call.
The women love that power and you don’t pull that rug out,
No matter what they say or do,
They get that nappy dug-out.
The dug-out the dug-out"
We have a delusional authoritarian in the White House, who has managed to live 70 years without ever having developed even a single positive human trait - and Bob thinks the problem is Maddow and some liberal lady who writes a letter to the WaPo.
ReplyDeleteI'm starting to feel like Bob has been trolling me for 20 years.
Well, how did we lose to this delusional authoritarian if not by incompetence?
DeleteRussian interference.
DeleteComey ... twice.
DeleteIn Bob's book we always lose and it's hard to miss that nothing makes him happier than when it's actually true. For the hundredth time, "Network" is the middlebrow's favorite, a one note satire that falls apart halfway through with some embarrassing racist slop. Not a big surprise Bob misses it.
ReplyDeleteHighbrow sophisticate Greg schools us middlebrow rubes with his laser insight and learned critique.
DeleteThanks! ( not the only one to notice the flaws of "Network.")
DeleteI agree with Digby on this: http://www.salon.com/2017/02/24/forget-about-reaching-out-to-trump-voters-democrats-that-is-a-pointless-self-destructive-strategy/
ReplyDeleteAgree. Trump voters view Democrats as uneducated, stupid, or crazy, or some combination and do not view them as authoritative on ethical questions or issues involving national security. Since their approach is always from a posture of knowing better and their evidence is their feelings, everything they say is rejected as the rantings of an angry blue-haired campus feminist.
DeleteLiberal voters view Republicans as uneducated, stupid, or crazy, or some combination and do not view them as authoritative on ethical questions or issues involving national security. Since their approach is always from a posture of knowing better and their evidence is their feelings, everything they say is rejected as the rantings of an angry blue-eyed white supremacist.
DeleteThe parallelism works pretty well, except for leaving out the homophobia, racism, sexism, xenophobia, greed, and anti-intellectualism typical of Republicans.
Anon 7:08
DeleteCute reply, except yours refers to a different set than that in Anon 12:57's post.
Trump voters and Republicans may overlap, but they are not identical.
Trump voters and Republicans view Democrats as ignorant and bigoted haters of whites, males, and Christians, motivated by the fact that white male Christians established and fought and died for the values and institutions they now rely on to protest white males. They pretend to care about minorities and the poor, as long as they are not poor white males or poor white Christians.
DeleteSome of the "Trump voters" had voted for Obama. Go figure.
Delete@3:58, you are confused about where the attitudes toward poor white males came from. Read Isenberg's fascinating book, "White Trash."
DeleteNow you are blaming Democrats for disliking you, but let me assure you, liberals do not pretend to like people of color better than you. They really dislike you. You have more advantages than poor minorities because of your skin color and status as a white person in our society, yet you persist in being poor, ignorant, and otherwise deplorable. That is on you.
Lots of people have fought and died for our country, including minorities and white male Christians, quite a few women, and quite a few non-Christians. You seem to want to cut those others out of the picture. That doesn't seem fair when they too died for our values and institutions.
Conservatives view liberals as unthinking sheep. One piece of evidence is the wall with Mexico. When Senators Clinton and Obama voted for it, it was good policy. When Trump began building the wall, as per the law, the wall became bigoted and ineffective. And, AFAIK no liberal has felt a need to justify their change of heart.
DeleteLeftists pretend to care about minorities because they have to try to compensate for the moral bankruptcy of defending the mass killing of inconvenient human beings. No one cares what leftists think.
DeleteTrump's wall isn't the same as the fence authorized by this bill. Clinton has always been for secure borders.
DeleteBTW the New York Times finally noted that immigration harms poor Americans, including poor blacks and Hispanics.
DeleteOver the past 30 years, a large fraction of immigrants, nearly a third, were high school dropouts, so the incumbent low-skill work force formed the core group of Americans who paid the price for the influx of millions of workers. Their wages fell as much as 6 percent. Those low-skill Americans included many native-born blacks and Hispanics, as well as earlier waves of immigrants....But they don’t point out the trade-off involved: Workers in jobs sought by immigrants lose out.
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/02/27/opinion/the-immigration-debate-we-need.html?_r=0&referer=http://m.facebook.com
D in C
DeleteYou forgot to beat the drum about minimum wages denying jobs to Black teenagers.
This has always been a major moral issue for conservatives.
"Some of the "Trump voters" had voted for Obama. Go figure."
DeleteThey had to. They couldn't vote for a Republican, since they were making believe they were something called "The Tea Party" (and not at all "Republicans" after George W. Bush's (Google the name) Iraq folly and the crashing of the world's economy (caused by Republicans, which these Obama/ Trump voters certainly were no part of).
Kevin Drum asks why Border agents always seem to treat people badly. There is a reason. If you put someone under stress it is easier to tell if they are lying. An easy way to stress people is to insult them.
ReplyDeleteHey, State Trooper Hitler, why'd you pull me over?
DeleteI'm only committed to partial defeat. Is that a problem?
ReplyDeleteHey guys, How To Get Ex Lover Back.
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ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteMy husband never bought me anything if it wasn’t a holiday or birthday and even then never bought me anything good. I had been eyeing this three stone diamond & ruby necklace for sometime, never mentioned it to him but often thought about what it would be like to have him surprise me with something like that. I requested the receive a gift money spell and two days later my husband surprised me with the exact necklace I had been looking at. I had never even told him about that necklace. That same day he had given me the gift of taking me shopping for a new dress (to wear with the new necklace), a day at the spa and the most romantic dinner we have ever had! Once again thank you Dr.Todd you really the best, e-mail:manifestspellcast@gmail.com or manifestspellcast@yahoo.com
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