I loved that movie when I was super young. But today, due to my life experiences, that movie was a warning (spoiler alert) and prediction of the future of what happens when someone of then "younger" generation of his era (late 1980s) is running a major TV network. What seemed over the top, unbelievable, and hilarious to me as a teenager is now our current reality. And yet, I'm looking forward to seeing this movie again, cuz it's been awhile since I've seen this movie!!!
"Die Hard" is of course a classic, but I will be spending Christmas w/ my best friend's family, and it probably isn't appropriate for a bunch of pre-teen boys.
I've never seen "Trading Places", but I'll be busy doing family stuff with my family at New Year's.
"Arthur is a spoiled, drunken, wealthy man-child but yet you still like this guy. He stumbles through life with no responsibilities and way more money than he needs, from one besotted escapade to the next. He has been accompanied his entire life by his valet, Hobson, a man with a quick wit that knows Arthur better than anyone."
This is the setup for the Jeeves stories. Nice to see it got carried further (although I can't imagine Bertie Wooster ever growing up).
I just went out to dip my fuel tank, because it is Sunday. I am burning more this winter than I did last winter, 11 gallons a week. I’m also heating my garage this winter which I did not do last winter. That is pretty indulgent, and I haven’t decided exactly how I feel about this. And I’m also burning firewood 24/7.
Warm. I feel warm.
I used about 200 gallons of fuel oil last year. I’m on track for using about 300 this year, or a little less. Just for perspective, I knew someone who bought a house that I looked at, and decided against because I thought it would be hard to heat. She told me that during the cold months they were burning 700 gallons a month. Not sustainable.
Also, where is Darth? It’s not really as much fun without him harassing me about this, but don’t tell him I ever said that.
Late to the party, but just wanted to say that, in my family, when someone says "I'm going to go..." do something mundane like have a shower or make a sandwich or watch TV, inevitably, someone else will say "I'll alert the media."
The youngest ones don't even know where it's from, but still say it... us olds all know we got that from Arthur.
When I was little, my parents and I watched this movie and of course I thought it was fun and silly. So when my parents said they were going to rent "Author Author" I was excited for more Dudley Moore et al hijinks and was disappointed that...it was not just even more Arthur.
I'll add one more that hubs has been getting a lot lately...
Q: I just signed up for your class, but it's scheduled during the time that I work each week. Is it okay if I never attend lecture, and can you arrange for all of my tests to be taken online while everybody else has to take their tests in the classroom?
I am preparing to send out an email tomorrow to my undergrad students telling them that next semester's midterm exam is on the last class before spring break. Be there or fail the course.
They won't read it and when they do they will complain to my boss that they had scheduled "family ski vacations" or a "once in a lifetime trip to Europe" on that date.
To which I will respond, "that sure is unfortunate." I will really like to tell them to bite me.
I would write into my syllabus that students would get X number of "freebies" where an absence would not in any way be counted against them.
But I said in exchange for that, I didn't want to hear narratives about why students wouldn't be in class (they got several "freebies," which would be enough to accommodate most legit "emergencies" or "oh shit I fucked up my schedule" moments.
20 years ago, I hardly got any narratives.
The last 5 years I taught were Hell. Excuse after excuse and extreme attitudes of entitlement.
I grade participation (attending class, asking decent questions, office hours, use of discussion board) based on relative performance. These are juniors/seniors and should understand that concept. The good students do. The rest just want to know what they have to do get a specific grade.
The real world is going to be a cold slap in the face for them.
I also write into the syllabus that they should never email me with reasons why they couldn't make it to class (unless hospitalization or grief absence which are handled at the university level). Students still send me doctor's notes. Ugh!
Here I am worried about emailing student grades and make sure that I use a VPN an these kids don't give a shit about privacy.
I was thinking about what you said about this on an earlier thread and I immediately thought of when I was a public defender. I would call to introduce myself and talk about the legal process. Nothing, or "I'm really busy". I would call about what to expect for your upcoming court date. Nothing.
The day after a warrant gets issued for failure to appear, my phone's blowing up with "YOU DIDN"T CALL ME I HAVE A NEW NUMBER FIX IT!"
The day before the final hearing, "CAN'T YOU DO SOMETHING WE NEVER TALKED WHAT'S HAPPENING HOW IS THIS FAIR?"
The LA Times is going to add an AI "bias meter" to articles now.
I repeat myself often, even about repeating myself often.
This is a satirist's solution, and a natural product of the US news media's long obsession with being neutral. The owners don't credit readers with the knowledge to understand what is right or left leaning, and don't dare to think they, a news publication, could be in a position to educate them. No.
Our readers are dullards who can't understand what "bias" means by themselves and rather than teaching them how to spot it, we will simply tell them (and hope they don't ask about the bias of the AI). No need for onerous thinking, just shovel our garbage into your brain holes. We'll tell you if it's bad, promise.
I think we'd have a killer source of renewable energy in this country, if you hooked the generators up to their respective graves--in which, given how things are now, those guys would never stop spinning.
All the media bias charts I've ever seen place the 'center' quite a bit to the right, and don't seem to realize they've done so. I've always said they tell us more about the people making the charts than anything else.
It's just always amazing to me that there isn't an understanding "this newspaper is conservative" and "this newspaper is leftwing" and people want to see them as neither.
A good fruitcake that's been well-soaked with rum or maybe bourbon is hard to complain about. My grandmother would send us one every year and my dad would take care of the soaking part.
"Why won't these conservative judges step aside to make way for even more partisan hacks who will help destroy jurisprudence even further than the Opus Dei Supreme Court has done"?
Don't forget to tip your justices and elected officials!
That reminds me, a friend was at the dog beach yesterday and there was a guy with his cat on a leash/harness. Said it was her first time there and she seemed to like it.
Why does Mitt Romney think the Dems "blew it" in 2024?
1) America perceives the Democratic Party not necessarily as "elites," but as college professors, and America doesn't like woke scolds. [I'll agree with him on that point, although it's hilarious that the working class thinks a presidency and cabinet stacked with billionaires cares about them]
2) The Democratic Party misread the room, and thought Bidenomics was a great economic triumph. [We did message pretty badly on that one, we SHOULD have been talking about GLOBAL inflation, and how we had a better landing than any other country in the world]
3) The "transgender" stuff. [Again, bad messaging on our part. We should have been saying stuff like "there are 13 transgender athletes in high school sports, and 2 of them are girls, why are MAGA-MANLY-MEN so TERRIFIED of 2 girls"?]
4) "Defund the Police," which wasn't really ever a thing in the Dem Party, but shows how our far left flank manages to tank our chances of willing elections.
I was HOPING Jake Tapper would mention that Harris only had 90 days to pull a campaign together, and she was running against a blatant liar who promised people the world, and will deliver NOTHING to America other than debt and misery. Harris's big mistake was going so far to the left in 2020, (because she misread the room back then, like a LOT of Democrats did) and it came back to bite her on the ass. As a reminder, we lost by 2.2 million votes so not exactly a blow-out, although we did lose ALL of the swing states.
She should have taken more credit on the economy, trumpeted Low inflation and job creation, I know why she didn't but it was kind of like Gore distancing himself from Clinton.
I wish we'd flooded the zone with video of Dump's goons attacking the Capitol. It was barely mentioned. We kept talking about what a dictator Dump wants to be, but we had all that footage of a female cop getting knocked unconscious, and that young cop getting squeezed in a door and screaming in pain. I don't remember seeing ONE ad that showed any 1/6 footage. Romney spent some time talking about what a dark day that was. Why didn't WE???
Also, why don't we EVER point out to people that tax cuts on rich people aren't "free" or even low cost? Why don't we EVER mention that SS and Medicare and Obamacare will be cut to pay for these tax cuts? It really drives me nuts that our messaging is so poor on issues that people SHOULD care about.
I disagree with you mostly, but still upvoted you. Biden won in 2020 because he was a moderate. Clinton and Obama won for the same reason. Harris didn't even appeal to Democrats in 2020, because she was running too far to the left.
Joe was hugely popular in 2021, but started to lose the narrative when he pulled out of Afghanistan. DUMP negotiated that clusterfuck, but Democrats never bothered to mention that FACT to anyone. We should have been shouting it from the rooftops. We also should have blamed Dump for inflation, which we never did.
We need to run on populist economic ideas, and then deliver them. I thought Biden/Harris should have worked on building affordable housing, and not forgiving student loans (too targeted and too elitist). Run on issues that people actually want and support.
That ad where Harris was saying in 2020 she wanted to provide transitioning services for people in jail, with the tagline "she cares about they/them, and we care about YOU" was considered the best commercial of this election cycle. We ALWAYS make the mistake of assuming people are on the same page as us, when they aren't there yet. I voted for Obama in 2008 even though he ran opposed to gay marriage, and I'm gay. I KNEW why he was doing that - he wanted to win. I also knew he was an intelligent man, who was fine with gay marriage.
Except that I think things like building affordable housing is a left thing. That's what I mean when I said she should go left.
It's insane to me that of the developed nations the US has a social housing program roughly the size of the one in Belgium.
Not per capita. Actual dollars.
(I actually have no idea, but tell me I'm wrong!)
I have had conversations recently as housing in the bay area is a major issue.
People are a little taken aback when my proposal is "the state just builds houses". Sure, they can contract that out, or hire people directly (I like the second option better) and eminent domain some land and build some fucking housing. Anything, apartments, tiny houses, whatever, just build lots of houses.
Now THIS post I agree with 100%. We simply didn't ever bother to mention that inflation was GLOBAL, and we had the best landing from inflation of any country in the world.
We need to get our shit together, and start focusing on economic ideas that matter to people.
We also need to start reminding people of what inflation was when Biden left (2.4%) and what it is after Dump's tariffs take effect. We need to remind people of what the jobless rate was when Dump took office, and what it is when he leaves (IF he leaves).
It has become common to be accused of being "woke" and "elitist" and "talking down" to people when countering their "sincerely held beliefs" with facts.
I agree with you somewhat, but I fucking HATE being scolded by my fellow Democrats, because I might disagree with them on an issue.
Examples:
1) I got scolded on the Wonkette CONSTANTLY in 2020 for thinking Biden was our best candidate, and had the best chance of beating Dump, because he was a moderate. Other Wonkers kept telling me how the country had really moved to the far left, and we SHOULD be running on defunding the police, and reparations (both of which were polling terribly, even with Democrats).
2) I got scolded on the Wonkette BRUTALLY in 2024, after Biden's disastrous debate performance, for merely suggesting that Biden should consider stepping aside. Once Biden stepped aside, and Harris seemed to be catching fire, the same people who had been scolding me, were suddenly thrilled that Biden had stepped aside.
We really just need to get our shit together on messaging, and start pointing out to the middle class, and the working class, that the elitist GQP isn't going to solve any of their problems by cutting taxes on the super wealthy. My theory is that our representatives are afraid of offending our large donors, and mentioning that tax cuts on the wealthy aren't free.
The fact that we the people are going to be paying not only the felon's salary, but the ridiculous toilet clowns he's forcing on us to destroy our government. Not only is Elno going to clean up with taxpayer funded contracts, we'll be paying him a salary to "delete" out safety nets. We'll not only pay K$sh a hefty salary, we'll also pay to turn the FBI in to a taxpayer funded goon squad to lock em' up. republicans always forget, WE are paying for all of this shit. ALL OF IT.
Don't forget we'll also be paying $3 million PER WEEKEND, for Dump to fly to his personal golf courses, to play golf. If DOGE wants to get rid of waste, fraud, and abuse, start right there. Dump is "a really rich guy" so let him play for his own damned golf outings.
Next week, Dec. 21: 𝐒𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐠𝐞𝐝 https://open.substack.com/pub/ziggywiggy/p/wonkette-movie-night-dec-21-scrooged?r=2knfuc&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐦𝐚𝐬 𝐃𝐚𝐲 𝐌𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐞 𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐞: 𝐃𝐢𝐞 𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝟏𝐩𝐦 𝐏𝐓/ 𝟒𝐩𝐦 𝐄𝐓
Dec. 28: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐈𝐧 𝐖𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫
𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐘𝐞𝐚𝐫'𝐬 𝐃𝐚𝐲 𝐌𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐞 𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐞: 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝟏𝐩𝐦 𝐏𝐓/ 𝟒𝐩𝐦 𝐄𝐓. Recommended by Rebecca!
Yay for Trading Places! And it is a New Years' movie every bit as much as Long Kiss Goodnight!
I loved that movie when I was super young. But today, due to my life experiences, that movie was a warning (spoiler alert) and prediction of the future of what happens when someone of then "younger" generation of his era (late 1980s) is running a major TV network. What seemed over the top, unbelievable, and hilarious to me as a teenager is now our current reality. And yet, I'm looking forward to seeing this movie again, cuz it's been awhile since I've seen this movie!!!
"Die Hard" is of course a classic, but I will be spending Christmas w/ my best friend's family, and it probably isn't appropriate for a bunch of pre-teen boys.
I've never seen "Trading Places", but I'll be busy doing family stuff with my family at New Year's.
But y'all enjoy!
Oh, I dunno, my 14-yo asked when we'd be watching Die Hard this season... :o
Three total treats!
Hang on, Isn't "The Lion in Winter" somewhere? Best Christmas Movie Ever!
Yes, Dec. 28. I was announcing the matinees because they are special events.
Ok, FOUR total treats!
I'm gonna be a very busy Movie Boss. Working on the holidays cause I love you guys!
I so love you!
"Sometimes you have to slap them in the face just to get their attention."
Bill Murray! Karen Allen! Carole Kane! Robert Mitchum! And other stars!
Like that guy from the New York Dolls!
Buster Poindexter!
"It's a toaster!"
"Arthur is a spoiled, drunken, wealthy man-child but yet you still like this guy. He stumbles through life with no responsibilities and way more money than he needs, from one besotted escapade to the next. He has been accompanied his entire life by his valet, Hobson, a man with a quick wit that knows Arthur better than anyone."
This is the setup for the Jeeves stories. Nice to see it got carried further (although I can't imagine Bertie Wooster ever growing up).
"A real woman could stop you from drinking, Arthur."
"It'd have to be a real big woman!"
My favorite line...
I just went out to dip my fuel tank, because it is Sunday. I am burning more this winter than I did last winter, 11 gallons a week. I’m also heating my garage this winter which I did not do last winter. That is pretty indulgent, and I haven’t decided exactly how I feel about this. And I’m also burning firewood 24/7.
Warm. I feel warm.
I used about 200 gallons of fuel oil last year. I’m on track for using about 300 this year, or a little less. Just for perspective, I knew someone who bought a house that I looked at, and decided against because I thought it would be hard to heat. She told me that during the cold months they were burning 700 gallons a month. Not sustainable.
Also, where is Darth? It’s not really as much fun without him harassing me about this, but don’t tell him I ever said that.
Late to the party, but just wanted to say that, in my family, when someone says "I'm going to go..." do something mundane like have a shower or make a sandwich or watch TV, inevitably, someone else will say "I'll alert the media."
The youngest ones don't even know where it's from, but still say it... us olds all know we got that from Arthur.
When I was little, my parents and I watched this movie and of course I thought it was fun and silly. So when my parents said they were going to rent "Author Author" I was excited for more Dudley Moore et al hijinks and was disappointed that...it was not just even more Arthur.
Companies are firing Gen Z employees soon after hiring them.
https://www.euronews.com/next/2024/12/08/companies-are-firing-gen-z-workers-soon-after-hiring-them-whats-behind-their-job-market-st?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us
Ohmygosh, I certainly know why. I have spent the weekend fielding questions from undergraduates. Every email:
Q: How is this being graded?
A: The answer is in the syllabus. You know, the thing you have been ignoring for 4 months.
Q: But, can't you just give me the answer to my question?
or my personal favorite:
Statement: I am special so I hope that you see fit to give me a better grade than I deserve.
Doesn’t fit my experience of them, though admittedly I’m working with Gen-z-ers with graduate and postgraduate degrees, mostly.
They’re remarkably responsible and are good at being good at things - they have mastered the process of mastery.
They definitely do have a jaundiced view of the world and very little political nous for ones so well educated, which is troubling.
There is a big difference between undergrads and grad students. Undergraduate years do a pretty good job of weeding out the difficult students.
I have refused to write graduate school recommendations for some students over the years.
That's one of the reasons I'm glad I am no longer teaching uni/college students.
The entitlement was off the charts the last few years I taught (I stopped teaching in 2021).
The stories I could tell. Hopefully, I can make it four more years without screaming out loud.
Ay ay ay, right? LMAO!
I'll add one more that hubs has been getting a lot lately...
Q: I just signed up for your class, but it's scheduled during the time that I work each week. Is it okay if I never attend lecture, and can you arrange for all of my tests to be taken online while everybody else has to take their tests in the classroom?
Good god.
I am preparing to send out an email tomorrow to my undergrad students telling them that next semester's midterm exam is on the last class before spring break. Be there or fail the course.
They won't read it and when they do they will complain to my boss that they had scheduled "family ski vacations" or a "once in a lifetime trip to Europe" on that date.
To which I will respond, "that sure is unfortunate." I will really like to tell them to bite me.
I would write into my syllabus that students would get X number of "freebies" where an absence would not in any way be counted against them.
But I said in exchange for that, I didn't want to hear narratives about why students wouldn't be in class (they got several "freebies," which would be enough to accommodate most legit "emergencies" or "oh shit I fucked up my schedule" moments.
20 years ago, I hardly got any narratives.
The last 5 years I taught were Hell. Excuse after excuse and extreme attitudes of entitlement.
I grade participation (attending class, asking decent questions, office hours, use of discussion board) based on relative performance. These are juniors/seniors and should understand that concept. The good students do. The rest just want to know what they have to do get a specific grade.
The real world is going to be a cold slap in the face for them.
I also write into the syllabus that they should never email me with reasons why they couldn't make it to class (unless hospitalization or grief absence which are handled at the university level). Students still send me doctor's notes. Ugh!
Here I am worried about emailing student grades and make sure that I use a VPN an these kids don't give a shit about privacy.
I was thinking about what you said about this on an earlier thread and I immediately thought of when I was a public defender. I would call to introduce myself and talk about the legal process. Nothing, or "I'm really busy". I would call about what to expect for your upcoming court date. Nothing.
The day after a warrant gets issued for failure to appear, my phone's blowing up with "YOU DIDN"T CALL ME I HAVE A NEW NUMBER FIX IT!"
The day before the final hearing, "CAN'T YOU DO SOMETHING WE NEVER TALKED WHAT'S HAPPENING HOW IS THIS FAIR?"
https://bsky.app/profile/kevinmkruse.bsky.social/post/3lde472fptc2r
The LA Times is going to add an AI "bias meter" to articles now.
I repeat myself often, even about repeating myself often.
This is a satirist's solution, and a natural product of the US news media's long obsession with being neutral. The owners don't credit readers with the knowledge to understand what is right or left leaning, and don't dare to think they, a news publication, could be in a position to educate them. No.
Our readers are dullards who can't understand what "bias" means by themselves and rather than teaching them how to spot it, we will simply tell them (and hope they don't ask about the bias of the AI). No need for onerous thinking, just shovel our garbage into your brain holes. We'll tell you if it's bad, promise.
"Neutral" is just doublespeak for the public not realizing that it's all 'washing the terrible to convince us it's fine.
They have been trying to convince us to only be worried about things that don't lose their owners money.
Now when people see and abandon them they are starting to panic.
"Please come back so we can keep you angry about things that don't exist! We've added a gif that tells you to believe us!!"
I wonder what Thomas Paine or Ben Franklin would have thought of what's happened to "news" in this shithole country?
I think we'd have a killer source of renewable energy in this country, if you hooked the generators up to their respective graves--in which, given how things are now, those guys would never stop spinning.
All the media bias charts I've ever seen place the 'center' quite a bit to the right, and don't seem to realize they've done so. I've always said they tell us more about the people making the charts than anything else.
It's just always amazing to me that there isn't an understanding "this newspaper is conservative" and "this newspaper is leftwing" and people want to see them as neither.
They want you to believe that conservative is normal and left wing is bad.
The VOA will be missed, with Loser Lake in charge, still good now though, https://www.voanews.com/a/mystery-drones-still-causing-concern-over-us-northeast-/7901613.html
https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:jpbigq3ve4rudyu5kzccy5xp/bafkreif67ukkfuqefspa777tklpll47oc5lwppxg7sq6lwfwioeabqtf7i@jpeg
Don't ask about the legal bills though.
I actually like fruitcake, and don't understand the hatred it generates.
It's sticky osmium,
I'm not a fan but I support your right to eat weird food!
Fruitcake is the head cheese of baked goods, texture is kinda scary.
I can't get past the typical spice blends, not sure why.
Jeez ... you can't tell the difference between animal scraps and fruit?
just visually
A good fruitcake that's been well-soaked with rum or maybe bourbon is hard to complain about. My grandmother would send us one every year and my dad would take care of the soaking part.
I prefer not to pollute my rum with weird fruit.
"Ya know, that fishing spot will still be there. I'm staying put."
--
"Judge revokes decision to retire, foiling Trump’s replacement plans
James Wynn takes rare step after two trial court judges do the same, prompting conservative complaints"
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/14/judge-revokes-retirement-decision
Hahaha
"Why won't these conservative judges step aside to make way for even more partisan hacks who will help destroy jurisprudence even further than the Opus Dei Supreme Court has done"?
Don't forget to tip your justices and elected officials!
Today is 12/15 (Sunday)
🧁 Bill of Rights Day
🧁 Cat Herders Day
🧁 International Tea Day
🧁 National Cupcake Day
🧁 National Lemon Cupcake Day
🧁 National Regifting Day
🧁 National Wear Your Pearls Day
🧁 Ugly Sweater Day
Cat Herders Day?! That's my day.
That reminds me, a friend was at the dog beach yesterday and there was a guy with his cat on a leash/harness. Said it was her first time there and she seemed to like it.
Why does Mitt Romney think the Dems "blew it" in 2024?
1) America perceives the Democratic Party not necessarily as "elites," but as college professors, and America doesn't like woke scolds. [I'll agree with him on that point, although it's hilarious that the working class thinks a presidency and cabinet stacked with billionaires cares about them]
2) The Democratic Party misread the room, and thought Bidenomics was a great economic triumph. [We did message pretty badly on that one, we SHOULD have been talking about GLOBAL inflation, and how we had a better landing than any other country in the world]
3) The "transgender" stuff. [Again, bad messaging on our part. We should have been saying stuff like "there are 13 transgender athletes in high school sports, and 2 of them are girls, why are MAGA-MANLY-MEN so TERRIFIED of 2 girls"?]
4) "Defund the Police," which wasn't really ever a thing in the Dem Party, but shows how our far left flank manages to tank our chances of willing elections.
I was HOPING Jake Tapper would mention that Harris only had 90 days to pull a campaign together, and she was running against a blatant liar who promised people the world, and will deliver NOTHING to America other than debt and misery. Harris's big mistake was going so far to the left in 2020, (because she misread the room back then, like a LOT of Democrats did) and it came back to bite her on the ass. As a reminder, we lost by 2.2 million votes so not exactly a blow-out, although we did lose ALL of the swing states.
She should have taken more credit on the economy, trumpeted Low inflation and job creation, I know why she didn't but it was kind of like Gore distancing himself from Clinton.
I wish we'd flooded the zone with video of Dump's goons attacking the Capitol. It was barely mentioned. We kept talking about what a dictator Dump wants to be, but we had all that footage of a female cop getting knocked unconscious, and that young cop getting squeezed in a door and screaming in pain. I don't remember seeing ONE ad that showed any 1/6 footage. Romney spent some time talking about what a dark day that was. Why didn't WE???
Also, why don't we EVER point out to people that tax cuts on rich people aren't "free" or even low cost? Why don't we EVER mention that SS and Medicare and Obamacare will be cut to pay for these tax cuts? It really drives me nuts that our messaging is so poor on issues that people SHOULD care about.
Joe has an approval rating of about negative four jillion.
If she should have done anything she should have run to the left. The never-trumpers were going to support her anyway.
I disagree with you mostly, but still upvoted you. Biden won in 2020 because he was a moderate. Clinton and Obama won for the same reason. Harris didn't even appeal to Democrats in 2020, because she was running too far to the left.
Joe was hugely popular in 2021, but started to lose the narrative when he pulled out of Afghanistan. DUMP negotiated that clusterfuck, but Democrats never bothered to mention that FACT to anyone. We should have been shouting it from the rooftops. We also should have blamed Dump for inflation, which we never did.
We need to run on populist economic ideas, and then deliver them. I thought Biden/Harris should have worked on building affordable housing, and not forgiving student loans (too targeted and too elitist). Run on issues that people actually want and support.
That ad where Harris was saying in 2020 she wanted to provide transitioning services for people in jail, with the tagline "she cares about they/them, and we care about YOU" was considered the best commercial of this election cycle. We ALWAYS make the mistake of assuming people are on the same page as us, when they aren't there yet. I voted for Obama in 2008 even though he ran opposed to gay marriage, and I'm gay. I KNEW why he was doing that - he wanted to win. I also knew he was an intelligent man, who was fine with gay marriage.
That ad was good as the last Benghazi ad in 16.
I don't think we do disagree.
Except that I think things like building affordable housing is a left thing. That's what I mean when I said she should go left.
It's insane to me that of the developed nations the US has a social housing program roughly the size of the one in Belgium.
Not per capita. Actual dollars.
(I actually have no idea, but tell me I'm wrong!)
I have had conversations recently as housing in the bay area is a major issue.
People are a little taken aback when my proposal is "the state just builds houses". Sure, they can contract that out, or hire people directly (I like the second option better) and eminent domain some land and build some fucking housing. Anything, apartments, tiny houses, whatever, just build lots of houses.
I also would have liked to see more pushback against the open bigotry of the Trump campaign.
Plus every single incumbent party in the world has suffered losses post pandemic...
This was one of the hardest political campaigns ever run. Uphill the whole way in just 90 days.
It's incredible that she only lost by a point and a half.
With the dancing dipshit and the others enabled by Roberts, pouring cash into Trump's campaign.
Thanks Roberts.
Now THIS post I agree with 100%. We simply didn't ever bother to mention that inflation was GLOBAL, and we had the best landing from inflation of any country in the world.
We need to get our shit together, and start focusing on economic ideas that matter to people.
We also need to start reminding people of what inflation was when Biden left (2.4%) and what it is after Dump's tariffs take effect. We need to remind people of what the jobless rate was when Dump took office, and what it is when he leaves (IF he leaves).
It has become common to be accused of being "woke" and "elitist" and "talking down" to people when countering their "sincerely held beliefs" with facts.
I agree with you somewhat, but I fucking HATE being scolded by my fellow Democrats, because I might disagree with them on an issue.
Examples:
1) I got scolded on the Wonkette CONSTANTLY in 2020 for thinking Biden was our best candidate, and had the best chance of beating Dump, because he was a moderate. Other Wonkers kept telling me how the country had really moved to the far left, and we SHOULD be running on defunding the police, and reparations (both of which were polling terribly, even with Democrats).
2) I got scolded on the Wonkette BRUTALLY in 2024, after Biden's disastrous debate performance, for merely suggesting that Biden should consider stepping aside. Once Biden stepped aside, and Harris seemed to be catching fire, the same people who had been scolding me, were suddenly thrilled that Biden had stepped aside.
We really just need to get our shit together on messaging, and start pointing out to the middle class, and the working class, that the elitist GQP isn't going to solve any of their problems by cutting taxes on the super wealthy. My theory is that our representatives are afraid of offending our large donors, and mentioning that tax cuts on the wealthy aren't free.
The fact that we the people are going to be paying not only the felon's salary, but the ridiculous toilet clowns he's forcing on us to destroy our government. Not only is Elno going to clean up with taxpayer funded contracts, we'll be paying him a salary to "delete" out safety nets. We'll not only pay K$sh a hefty salary, we'll also pay to turn the FBI in to a taxpayer funded goon squad to lock em' up. republicans always forget, WE are paying for all of this shit. ALL OF IT.
Don't forget we'll also be paying $3 million PER WEEKEND, for Dump to fly to his personal golf courses, to play golf. If DOGE wants to get rid of waste, fraud, and abuse, start right there. Dump is "a really rich guy" so let him play for his own damned golf outings.
Hola, wonks. Been busy trying to avoid news and holiday crap and whatnot. Getting ready to head down to the Eagles game! https://substack.com/profile/117532647-dually-lobach/note/c-81628456?r=1xz4rr
(I just saw a [real] bald eagle making big loops over the harbor!!! (there's a nesting pair up-island))
That's Fluffya Iggles!
Ooh, that should be a good one!
I sure hope so. As long as we win, lol.