Newsome's appearance on Ezra Klein's podcast was enlightening.
https://youtu.be/PqBsRNUXWfs?si=EwDOTfV4F7dttjQM
I didn't enjoy it, but I can see he is pulling all the levers to be the next president. My main concern is that he's all ambition, and while he may be someone to beat Trump and the Republicans, he's not the person we need.
wj - I'd never call Newsom a progressive, but I agree that any reasonable CA pol would be read as a loony leftie by default because that's the trope everyone knows.
First and foremost, the Dems need someone who is young-ish, charismatic, and a good communicator, and then whoever that is needs to hammer on the idea that the middle class needs saving and expanding, and that tax cuts have not done the job for that. They need to run on restoring dignity and affordability to working people and reducing the influence of corporations and donors over elected officials - basically a pro-labor message without the high church union messaging.
wonkie - agree that policy messaging is a loser, but think that a good fight message needs some sort of big picture policy narrative that resonates and that gets to the core of the party's values. And they need to take aim at all of the tropes that have harmed us - trickle down, tax cut prosperity; tough on crime justice; making schools compete - and replace them with a focus on investing in the public good.
The labels annoy me too because there is no shared meaning. They mean whatever someone wants them to mean--largely unattached to policy responses to issues. Yet the news media and many citizens treat those labels as if they were useful analysis tools for explaining where pols are on policy. It's annoying.
I don't think elections are won on policy and certainly not on policy nuances--unless there is a very clear harm done to a large number of people that is simple to see like taking away their health insurance. I think I persistent mistake made by Dems and especially by self-proclaimed progressives is the belief that the majority of voters are moved by policy. "HRC would have won if she had run on Medicare for All" etc.
Most people vote the way they shop: brand, eye appeal, connotations they put on a product, previous experience, what their family always did, etc. I doubt if your typical voter has more than the faintest slogan level understanding of policy. They notice style, though.
Maybe I'm cynical. But I'm looking at elections that were won THREE TIMES by Republicans who cut taxes for rich people and created deficits while blaming the deficits on Democrats before electing a Republican who did it AGAIN--and yet your typical Republican voter claims to be opposed to deficits, and I doubt if many really want tax cuts for the rich. Meanwhile on Blue Sky self-identified progressives say things like, "Democrats are the party of corporate power!"
Everyone says they vote for whoever they think is "better on the issues" but how many people have any idea what policies a candidate is committed to on those issues?
Kinda sounds like Vance has been cast for that position. He probably wouldn't have won if the cultists stayed home. (In a snit because their god-king wasn't nominated in this alternate history.) But as a post-Trump successor, especially if he succeeded a deceased Trump? I can see them believing that could work. And, with a little help from the Democrats, it might.
I harbor the optimistic hope that the Democrats will resist the temptation to nominate someone who self-brands as progressive. A candidate who holds those positions is fine. But in the current culture, brand is going to be important. So, Pritzker could work, but Newsom would not -- California's image is just too radical in too much of the country.
Not a complaint about you or your posting that, wonkie, but I hate polls like the one that Emerson College put together because I don't think that they have any actual relevance to a real election. It's more about how people label political positions in their heads, and it shows us nothing about what voters actually want or what they respond to.
Who is the person being polled thinking of when they think of "MAGA Republican," of "moderate Republican," of "moderate Democrat," of "progressive Democrat?" What are the tipping point issues that make them choose one over the other? What do they like or dislike about each of them? No idea. Instead, we are left to guess what each of those labels might mean to a group of a thousand strangers.
These surveys pretend to inform, but they don't do any real work to unpack the assumptions on which they work to find any real information that might make a difference. And politicians are paying people six figure salaries to make this sort of tea and read the leaves.
A number of people have reported that the real reason Trump is dismantling NCAR is to punish Colorado's governor for not releasing Tina Peters from jail. Peters is the former Mesa County clerk and "the 2020 election was stolen" fanatic who was convicted of several state crimes associated with her providing unauthorized persons access to the voting machines in her care, and that person breaking the seals, opening the covers, and tinkering with the insides.
I skimmed some of the stories in the Wyoming press. Wyoming's Congress critters either did not respond to questions, or said that they had not heard from the administration about the fate of the supercomputer center in Wyoming.
The problem with the survey results that I posted is that, as far as I can see, there are no moderate Republicans--in terms of policy. Some are more polite than others but nearly the entire party from top to bottom is fully complicit in all of the excesses of Trumpism from Project 2025 to the DOGE rampage, to the treason, to tax cuts for rich people and the attacks on the not-rich to the ethical, moral, and financial corruption and the violations of the rule of law. Yes, there are individuals here and there and some slight breaking of ranks recently, but moderates? Even the three ladies who get called moderate are complicit with the majority of what the Trump admin has done.
I think people are reacting to style. They don't want the overt bullying (the pseudo polite hatemongering of pre-Trump Republicans who outsourced their most overt rhetoric to people like Limbaugh is probably still acceptable). They don't want the shouting and yelling and shrillness.
I've always thought that the Republicans erred in nominating Trump because he was a threat to their goal of changing the US into a one party oligarchy. They need a fascist who seems nice.
The survey, which was conducted between December 14 and 15 and measured public opinion based upon the answers provided by 1,000 registered voters, found that if they had their pick between a progressive Democrat, MAGA Republican, moderate Democrat, and moderate Republican, American would most prefer the last, followed by a moderate Democrat, then a progressive Democrat, and then a MAGA Republican. New poll reveals what kind of president Americans want most
HIs aides seem to think that MORE exposure of Trump being Trump will help him, but I don't think his performance on prime time went over all that well with anyone outside the cult--and might have been a bit cringy to some cult members. I know Trump and Republican media have degenerated the tone of our public discourse and normalized behavior which should seem disgusting, but even with that, how many people like being shouted at by a red-faced, angry old man?
As an undergrad in Boulder, I used to make a trip to NCAR a handful of times a semester to collect signatures for grants for the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (I was a grant courier there for two year). They did a lot of grant work with NCAR, including a lot of grants I remember that were doing some of that important work on climate change that drew all that fire from He Who Slumbers' quid-pro-donors.
“This facility is one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country.”
Michael's citation of this MAGAt justification for closing NCAR reminds me of the Homer Simpson solution to a Check Engine light: stick a piece of electrical tape over it. Morons rule. Even deMAGAfication may not save us.
possibly apropos, from LGM which links to this CNN article
Other presidents receive similarly politicized descriptions, such as former President Barack Obama. “Barack Hussein Obama was the first Black President, a community organizer, one term Senator from Illinois, and one of the most divisive political figures in American History,” the plaque reads. It dings him for passing what Trump calls “the highly ineffective ‘Unaffordable’ Care Act” and signing “the one-sided Paris Climate Accords.”
and
The plaques are eloquently written descriptions of each President and the legacy they left behind. As a student of history, many were written directly by the President himself,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNN in a statement when asked for more information about who’s paying for them.
My general rule is that everything that comes out of Leavitt's mouth, including and, but, and the, is a lie, so there must be a writer's room of monkeys churning out this shit.
Is He, Trump the world's most efficient thumb typist?
I have always assumed that, whatever else may be true, He does not produce his screeds by typing on a cellphone, complete with punctuation and CAPITALIZATION, while sitting on one of his golden toilets. But maybe I'm wrong, being unpracticed in phone typing myself.
Both marching and school band, when transported to Japan, became something that women could excel at. Instrumental stereotypes run deep (if you don't know about Abbie Conant, it's worth it to read about it. Malcolm Gladwell wrote about it in a chapter in Blink which brought a lot of attention. I would pass that on, but Gladwell wrote the chapter without ever contacting Conant or even giving her the courtesy of letting her know she was going to be the focus of a chapter in his book. I guess some people would argue that he brought attention to her case, I tend to think this is shitty on the part of Gladwell)
Unfortunately, because brass band is often for women, it is often viewed as a skill to raise a woman's marriagability. English functions in a similar way and I tell people that in some ways, my job is like teaching needlepoint in Victorian England.
Damn. I posted another link from the Atlantic (see Wiles thread) about the Trump Reiner quotes, but unbeknown to me the extract I also copied had too many links (5), so it's awaiting approval. So here, at least, is the full link:
Unfortunately, I no longer have a sub to Vanity Fair. But this is Jonathan Chait in the Atlantic on the subject. Here is his concluding paragraph:
In this way, the most remarkable revelation from these newly published interviews comes not from what Wiles did or didn’t say, but in how Trump and his enablers are spinning it. Comments that would have precipitated a crisis in any other presidency are now simply being dismissed—knowingly, cynically—as “fake news.”
I know that the age difference between these musicians and Drum Corps International (22 max age) is vast, but the marching band show had me thinking about how much fun I used to have watching the DCI championships on PBS with my late brother back in the '80s, and set me to looking for a modern show that could give me a sense of the current state of DCI showmanship:
https://youtu.be/8EktPlyf7Ok?si=CEO9hjqJqB4bRi5d
Bluecoats: Downside Up 2016 performance.
Their 2014 show - Tilt - is also pretty amazing from a technical standpoint as they are performing the whole thing at an angle to the field markings, which seems like it would take a ton of practice to pull off consistently. I liked the music for the 2016 show a little better, though, so that's what you get.
I don't know re authorship. I do know there really isn't an antidote to such a terrible comment. James Woods' heartfelt tribute to Rob Reiner is, however, a start.
Disclaimer: I know it's Fox News, something I don't watch. This was linked to on a blog I read and is well worth the listen, IMO. I do give credit to Watters getting out of the way (mostly) and letting Woods express himself.
The administration announced they will be dismantling the National Center for Atmospheric Research because "This facility is one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country." Last summer I toured NCAR's supercomputer center in Cheyenne, WY. The center provides free access to supercomputer resources to hundreds/thousands of university earth sciences researchers who would not otherwise have access to that sort of computing power. The center is jointly funded by the NSF and the State of Wyoming (U of Wyoming researchers get priority scheduling for time on the machines).
I found the data portion of the center as interesting as the processing part. The center includes curated content from the massive set of atmosphere and ocean observations collected by NOAA. On the tour, they would open one of the rack doors and let me stick my nose in with the processing blades. The data facility was inside two layers of bulletproof glass.
i've always assumed he writes his own social media junk. i doubt anyone else could really understand what's going on in his head and so would eventually end up contradicting what Trump actually thinks. and then Trump would have corrected it. but i don't think we've seen that.
i'm sure he posts things that were co-/written by other people now and then. but the rants are all him.
On “The Wiles Interview”
Newsome's appearance on Ezra Klein's podcast was enlightening.
https://youtu.be/PqBsRNUXWfs?si=EwDOTfV4F7dttjQM
I didn't enjoy it, but I can see he is pulling all the levers to be the next president. My main concern is that he's all ambition, and while he may be someone to beat Trump and the Republicans, he's not the person we need.
"
wj - I'd never call Newsom a progressive, but I agree that any reasonable CA pol would be read as a loony leftie by default because that's the trope everyone knows.
First and foremost, the Dems need someone who is young-ish, charismatic, and a good communicator, and then whoever that is needs to hammer on the idea that the middle class needs saving and expanding, and that tax cuts have not done the job for that. They need to run on restoring dignity and affordability to working people and reducing the influence of corporations and donors over elected officials - basically a pro-labor message without the high church union messaging.
wonkie - agree that policy messaging is a loser, but think that a good fight message needs some sort of big picture policy narrative that resonates and that gets to the core of the party's values. And they need to take aim at all of the tropes that have harmed us - trickle down, tax cut prosperity; tough on crime justice; making schools compete - and replace them with a focus on investing in the public good.
"
The labels annoy me too because there is no shared meaning. They mean whatever someone wants them to mean--largely unattached to policy responses to issues. Yet the news media and many citizens treat those labels as if they were useful analysis tools for explaining where pols are on policy. It's annoying.
I don't think elections are won on policy and certainly not on policy nuances--unless there is a very clear harm done to a large number of people that is simple to see like taking away their health insurance. I think I persistent mistake made by Dems and especially by self-proclaimed progressives is the belief that the majority of voters are moved by policy. "HRC would have won if she had run on Medicare for All" etc.
Most people vote the way they shop: brand, eye appeal, connotations they put on a product, previous experience, what their family always did, etc. I doubt if your typical voter has more than the faintest slogan level understanding of policy. They notice style, though.
Maybe I'm cynical. But I'm looking at elections that were won THREE TIMES by Republicans who cut taxes for rich people and created deficits while blaming the deficits on Democrats before electing a Republican who did it AGAIN--and yet your typical Republican voter claims to be opposed to deficits, and I doubt if many really want tax cuts for the rich. Meanwhile on Blue Sky self-identified progressives say things like, "Democrats are the party of corporate power!"
Everyone says they vote for whoever they think is "better on the issues" but how many people have any idea what policies a candidate is committed to on those issues?
"
Kinda sounds like Vance has been cast for that position. He probably wouldn't have won if the cultists stayed home. (In a snit because their god-king wasn't nominated in this alternate history.) But as a post-Trump successor, especially if he succeeded a deceased Trump? I can see them believing that could work. And, with a little help from the Democrats, it might.
I harbor the optimistic hope that the Democrats will resist the temptation to nominate someone who self-brands as progressive. A candidate who holds those positions is fine. But in the current culture, brand is going to be important. So, Pritzker could work, but Newsom would not -- California's image is just too radical in too much of the country.
"
Not a complaint about you or your posting that, wonkie, but I hate polls like the one that Emerson College put together because I don't think that they have any actual relevance to a real election. It's more about how people label political positions in their heads, and it shows us nothing about what voters actually want or what they respond to.
Who is the person being polled thinking of when they think of "MAGA Republican," of "moderate Republican," of "moderate Democrat," of "progressive Democrat?" What are the tipping point issues that make them choose one over the other? What do they like or dislike about each of them? No idea. Instead, we are left to guess what each of those labels might mean to a group of a thousand strangers.
These surveys pretend to inform, but they don't do any real work to unpack the assumptions on which they work to find any real information that might make a difference. And politicians are paying people six figure salaries to make this sort of tea and read the leaves.
On “Author, author?”
A number of people have reported that the real reason Trump is dismantling NCAR is to punish Colorado's governor for not releasing Tina Peters from jail. Peters is the former Mesa County clerk and "the 2020 election was stolen" fanatic who was convicted of several state crimes associated with her providing unauthorized persons access to the voting machines in her care, and that person breaking the seals, opening the covers, and tinkering with the insides.
I skimmed some of the stories in the Wyoming press. Wyoming's Congress critters either did not respond to questions, or said that they had not heard from the administration about the fate of the supercomputer center in Wyoming.
On “The Wiles Interview”
They're looking for Charlie Baker.
I don't think he's interested in the gig.
"
The problem with the survey results that I posted is that, as far as I can see, there are no moderate Republicans--in terms of policy. Some are more polite than others but nearly the entire party from top to bottom is fully complicit in all of the excesses of Trumpism from Project 2025 to the DOGE rampage, to the treason, to tax cuts for rich people and the attacks on the not-rich to the ethical, moral, and financial corruption and the violations of the rule of law. Yes, there are individuals here and there and some slight breaking of ranks recently, but moderates? Even the three ladies who get called moderate are complicit with the majority of what the Trump admin has done.
I think people are reacting to style. They don't want the overt bullying (the pseudo polite hatemongering of pre-Trump Republicans who outsourced their most overt rhetoric to people like Limbaugh is probably still acceptable). They don't want the shouting and yelling and shrillness.
I've always thought that the Republicans erred in nominating Trump because he was a threat to their goal of changing the US into a one party oligarchy. They need a fascist who seems nice.
"
The survey, which was conducted between December 14 and 15 and measured public opinion based upon the answers provided by 1,000 registered voters, found that if they had their pick between a progressive Democrat, MAGA Republican, moderate Democrat, and moderate Republican, American would most prefer the last, followed by a moderate Democrat, then a progressive Democrat, and then a MAGA Republican. New poll reveals what kind of president Americans want most
On “Author, author?”
HIs aides seem to think that MORE exposure of Trump being Trump will help him, but I don't think his performance on prime time went over all that well with anyone outside the cult--and might have been a bit cringy to some cult members. I know Trump and Republican media have degenerated the tone of our public discourse and normalized behavior which should seem disgusting, but even with that, how many people like being shouted at by a red-faced, angry old man?
"
As an undergrad in Boulder, I used to make a trip to NCAR a handful of times a semester to collect signatures for grants for the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (I was a grant courier there for two year). They did a lot of grant work with NCAR, including a lot of grants I remember that were doing some of that important work on climate change that drew all that fire from He Who Slumbers' quid-pro-donors.
To quote Droopy Dog, "This makes me mad."
"
what a child
"
“This facility is one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country.”
Michael's citation of this MAGAt justification for closing NCAR reminds me of the Homer Simpson solution to a Check Engine light: stick a piece of electrical tape over it. Morons rule. Even deMAGAfication may not save us.
--TP
"
possibly apropos, from LGM which links to this CNN article
Other presidents receive similarly politicized descriptions, such as former President Barack Obama.
“Barack Hussein Obama was the first Black President, a community organizer, one term Senator from Illinois, and one of the most divisive political figures in American History,” the plaque reads. It dings him for passing what Trump calls “the highly ineffective ‘Unaffordable’ Care Act” and signing “the one-sided Paris Climate Accords.”
and
The plaques are eloquently written descriptions of each President and the legacy they left behind. As a student of history, many were written directly by the President himself,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNN in a statement when asked for more information about who’s paying for them.
My general rule is that everything that comes out of Leavitt's mouth, including and, but, and the, is a lie, so there must be a writer's room of monkeys churning out this shit.
"
Is He, Trump the world's most efficient thumb typist?
I have always assumed that, whatever else may be true, He does not produce his screeds by typing on a cellphone, complete with punctuation and CAPITALIZATION, while sitting on one of his golden toilets. But maybe I'm wrong, being unpracticed in phone typing myself.
--TP
On “Weekend music thread #08 How do you get to Carnagie Hall?”
re: marching band as being for girls
Both marching and school band, when transported to Japan, became something that women could excel at. Instrumental stereotypes run deep (if you don't know about Abbie Conant, it's worth it to read about it. Malcolm Gladwell wrote about it in a chapter in Blink which brought a lot of attention. I would pass that on, but Gladwell wrote the chapter without ever contacting Conant or even giving her the courtesy of letting her know she was going to be the focus of a chapter in his book. I guess some people would argue that he brought attention to her case, I tend to think this is shitty on the part of Gladwell)
Unfortunately, because brass band is often for women, it is often viewed as a skill to raise a woman's marriagability. English functions in a similar way and I tell people that in some ways, my job is like teaching needlepoint in Victorian England.
On “The Wiles Interview”
Just read about Trump adding commemorative plaques to the set of photos of previous POTUS' in the White House.
And for "commemorative", please read rude and insulting, in the most puerile 7th grade bully style.
And a solid third of the country thinks this guy craps rainbows.
We're never coming back from this.
On “Author, author?”
Damn. I posted another link from the Atlantic (see Wiles thread) about the Trump Reiner quotes, but unbeknown to me the extract I also copied had too many links (5), so it's awaiting approval. So here, at least, is the full link:
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2025/12/trump-rob-reiner/685280/?gift=cx0iluuWx4Cg7JjlT8ugCTLKSpntcAyNF4mSlC9MB3U&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
On “The Wiles Interview”
Unfortunately, I no longer have a sub to Vanity Fair. But this is Jonathan Chait in the Atlantic on the subject. Here is his concluding paragraph:
In this way, the most remarkable revelation from these newly published interviews comes not from what Wiles did or didn’t say, but in how Trump and his enablers are spinning it. Comments that would have precipitated a crisis in any other presidency are now simply being dismissed—knowingly, cynically—as “fake news.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2025/12/real-revelation-susie-wiles-interviews/685281/?gift=cx0iluuWx4Cg7JjlT8ugCSpEPvf5scYMPM_cnV1DeE8&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
On “Weekend music thread #08 How do you get to Carnagie Hall?”
I know that the age difference between these musicians and Drum Corps International (22 max age) is vast, but the marching band show had me thinking about how much fun I used to have watching the DCI championships on PBS with my late brother back in the '80s, and set me to looking for a modern show that could give me a sense of the current state of DCI showmanship:
https://youtu.be/8EktPlyf7Ok?si=CEO9hjqJqB4bRi5d
Bluecoats: Downside Up 2016 performance.
Their 2014 show - Tilt - is also pretty amazing from a technical standpoint as they are performing the whole thing at an angle to the field markings, which seems like it would take a ton of practice to pull off consistently. I liked the music for the 2016 show a little better, though, so that's what you get.
On “Author, author?”
at least some of the GOP are not happy with Trump's Reiner reaction.
but, Jim Geraghty is impure enough in his Republicanism to be a regular at WaPo. so we shouldn't take him as a representative sample of the base.
"
I don't know re authorship. I do know there really isn't an antidote to such a terrible comment. James Woods' heartfelt tribute to Rob Reiner is, however, a start.
https://x.com/JesseBWatters/status/2000754643865891146?s=20
Disclaimer: I know it's Fox News, something I don't watch. This was linked to on a blog I read and is well worth the listen, IMO. I do give credit to Watters getting out of the way (mostly) and letting Woods express himself.
"
The administration announced they will be dismantling the National Center for Atmospheric Research because "This facility is one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country." Last summer I toured NCAR's supercomputer center in Cheyenne, WY. The center provides free access to supercomputer resources to hundreds/thousands of university earth sciences researchers who would not otherwise have access to that sort of computing power. The center is jointly funded by the NSF and the State of Wyoming (U of Wyoming researchers get priority scheduling for time on the machines).
I found the data portion of the center as interesting as the processing part. The center includes curated content from the massive set of atmosphere and ocean observations collected by NOAA. On the tour, they would open one of the rack doors and let me stick my nose in with the processing blades. The data facility was inside two layers of bulletproof glass.
"
i've always assumed he writes his own social media junk. i doubt anyone else could really understand what's going on in his head and so would eventually end up contradicting what Trump actually thinks. and then Trump would have corrected it. but i don't think we've seen that.
i'm sure he posts things that were co-/written by other people now and then. but the rants are all him.
"
A tidbit: Michele Reiner photographed Trump for the cover of The Art of the Deal.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.