We do have a serious problem downplaying honor and masculinity in American culture. Boys will look for it and if no one teaches them they will invent their own ways to be manly, often destructive ways. Like listening to Ben Shapiro.
It’s the 2020 primary, the 22nd amendment has been repealed. You are a Democrat. The primary comes down to Biden and Obama. Who do you vote for?
It’s the 2020 primary, the 22nd amendment has been repealed. You are a Democrat. The primary comes down to Obama, Kamala and Mayor Pete. Who do you vote for?
It’s the 2020 primary, the 22nd amendment has been repealed. You are a Democrat. The primary comes down to Biden and Obama, but you know Obama is bringing back Rahn Emanuel as chief of staff and Geithner at Treasury. Who do you vote for?
1. Unless there's a vaccine very soon, I fear that Joe Biden will not handle the pandemic much better than Trump did. I really hope I'm wrong. It just seems to me that a lot of dealing with the pandemic means convincing people to sacrifice...
2. ... Americans aren't going to sacrifice very important cultural rituals and family time when they see their elites living by a separate set of rules. It just doesn't work that way. They have to see their leaders sacrificing first. Will even that work? I don't know. But...
3. That isn't how Dems think of themselves. One thing that's really clear about the boomer and up elite Dems is they really believe they are beloved and trusted. They don't understand you have to *earn* popular trust, Harvard doesn't grant it to you with your law degree.
Governing matters. Democrats victories in 2006 and 2008 were about the war in Iraq and financial crisis, Trump's victory had a lot more to do with NAFTA and China PNTR than anything else.
Flip it around, Trump entirely defined the agenda in 2016, and he was the challenger. Nate's a smart guy, but he's completely lost because his polls didn't work and he doesn't realize the government exists.
It's a mixed bag. There are some really bad signs. For example, the Commerce transition team's lead is the general counsel at the University of Pittsburgh, which has been hiring union busting consultants to go after faculty and grad student unions.
Bridget Dooling, on Biden's OMB team, is a straight up Koch brothers plant. She wants more cost/benefit analysis across government, your basic deregulatory operative. citizen.org/article/koch-c…
On the way out the door Trump DOJ antitrust chief Makan Delrahim approves the Uber-Postmates deal, because apparently independent restaurants have it too good these days. I guess that's one way to ask for a private equity job. axios.com/doj-clears-ube…
So @makandelrahim will go down as one of the all time biggest dumbasses to run the antitrust division. A lightweight, generally corrupt, but also recused from the Google case, which is the only interesting thing in the division he ostensibly runs. Embarrassing.
Hey Republicans, Trump's antitrust chief is doing the bidding of little big tech. This is embarrassing. Clean house now that you have the chance out of power to do so.
1. I'll explain what I mean here. I'm a Biden voter. But it is fundamentally dangerous that Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai are making policy over how we deliberate over political matters. This policy has to be done through the government. But the problem is even deeper.
2. Voting machines are now consolidated and owned by private equity firms, who make policy over electoral infrastructure itself. Media conglomerates organize the political parties. Contractors structure government spending and Blackrock structures Federal Reserve policy.
3. The essence of democracy is twofold, civic and commercial. We need competitive markets and a democratic system of industrial control. Otherwise monopolists will and do make public policy that we the people would otherwise be making.