Friday Tabs
POLITICO West Wing Playbook, “Herbert Hoover stans fight back.” tl;dr: Admirers of the 31st President are not amused at President Biden’s constant comparisons between him and Donald Trump.
Paul Krugman, NYT, “Why I Am Now Deeply Worried for America.” tl;dr: It’s really hard coming up with column ideas.
WaPo, “Cellphones fail. Should you have a landline phone for emergencies?” tl;dr: Probably not, at least if you have home WiFi, neighbors, or live in close proximity to civilization.
WaPo, “Beyoncé becomes first Black woman to top Billboard country music chart.” tl;dr: A superstar can put out a crappy song in another genre and her fans will still listen. As will those wondering if the song is any good. (It is decidedly not.) Judge for yourself. Charley Pride, she ain’t.
WaPo, “Teamsters give GOP first major donation in years with $45,000 to RNC.” tl;dr: Politics makes strange bedfellows. But the headline elides that they’ve also donated vastly more money ($150,000) to the DNC.
NYT, “California Tried to Ban Plastic Grocery Bags. It Didn’t Work.” tl;dr: The headline is misleading. What didn’t work was substituting “multi-use” bags that were so thin that they were considered disposable, thus actually creating more waste than the regular ones.
Rolling Stone, “Trump’s Final Hours in Office Were Consumed With Fury at Snoop Dogg.” tl;dr: But of course they were.
WaPo, “Mike Lindell must pay man $5M in ‘Prove Mike Wrong’ challenge, judge says.” tl;dr: Mike was wrong. (A two-time Trump voter who was a computer forensics expert debunked the MyPillow guy’s unsubstantiated election fraud claims.)
I get WiFi from the phone company, and the price includes a landline.
Mexico has banned one kind of plastic bags at grocery stores. Namely the ones where you put all your purchases. They allow the small bags for produce, but these are allegedly biodegradable. The stores sell reusable bags at reasonable prives, and these can be reused countless times.
As it turns out, landlines sometimes fail so you should also have a cellphone.
Being a presidential-history nerd, I’m well aware comparisons between Trump and Hoover are simplistic at best. But politicians should be allowed their cheap shots. If Repubs want to compare Biden with Carter due to inflation and a hostage situation killing the latter’s presidency, Dems can use Hoover as their foil. It isn’t exactly new, either: remember “George Herbert Hoover Bush”?
I will note something many people aren’t aware of (and which surprised me when I first heard it), which is that the term “trickle-down” as a criticism of Republican economic policy was first applied not to Reagan, but to Hoover, and the person credited with popularizing the term was none other than Will Rogers. And even though there are important differences between the policies of Hoover and those of Reagan, one commonality was a belief that the economy was made healthier by pleasing the business class. Putting aside the issue of trade (which seem to swing like a pendulum in the GOP’s history), I definitely think Trump has continued that approach.
I suppose the biggest reason why I’d object to the analogy is that Hoover was such a greater human being than Trump. To the extent that Hoover pursued ineffective policies as president, they sprang from principled beliefs in a way that’s completely alien to a person like Trump.
Herbert Hoover was far, far smarter and more accomplished than Donald Trump. Yeah, yeah, I know; who isn’t? But even so…
Back in 1974, years before they became icons of dance-pop, the Pointer Sisters scored a modest hit with “Fairy Tale,” which went on to win a Grammy for Best Country Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group.
I think Texas Hold ‘Em is a fun and catchy song. YMMV.
Re Krugman. There really has been, and still is, a lot of rather silly focus on Biden’s age and occasional misstep compared to Trump’s. I took the column as Krugman’s quiet, public appeal to his editors to do better.
I haven’t read NYT yet this morning. But I did write them a complaining email already. (Comments were closed early for some reason>) They have a page A1 story about IVF in AL. They start with a touching description of a lady crying with joy that a blastocyst is now a person. They did note, without highlighting the irony, that she herself had children through IVF. They failed to note, as Atrios caught, that she is a long time conservative activist. They did this regularly in their Cletus Safaris, failing to note that the random diner they quoted was a member of the local Republican county committee. FTFNYT.
@gVOR10: The New York Slimes news back on its presidential election year bullshyte, per usual. 20+ Biden’s age stories/columns in the past couple of weeks, including on the front page, but Republicans collaborating with Russia (again) to destroy a Democrat and elevate a fascist (again) at the risk of American and European security is buried on A16.
If Krugman is calling out the editors and news desk, I hope he’s louder behind-the-scenes.
As an aside, the NYT has one of the most annoying paywalls on the planet. Instead of just saying “you can’t see this page if you don’t pay”, they lead you through half a dozen clicks that seem like they might be about to show you the article, then start to show you the article, THEN say “no money no lookie”.
True story. Back in 2003, Hurricane Isabel slammed into Eastern US. My mother lived a few blocks from the shoreline in Hampton. The storm surge swirled around her house (an older home sensibly built on blocks). Power went out but her old landline phone still worked. It was a relief to stay in contact.
I work in the industry – yesterday was fun! I almost feel bad for AT&T, but I do feel bad for the poor engineers who caused this issue by mistake and will probably get shit-canned.
Here in Colorado stores are required to charge 10 cents for a plastic bag. This is enough of an incentive that 99% of people I see in the store bring their own bags in.
I’ve been using good, large durable bags for years because I’m one of those people that hates unpacking 15 plastic grocery bags for 25 grocery items. And it’s also easier to carry.
I recall hearing something about how Sheryl Crow tried to promote some stuff in the world of Country Music (she did a whole album of country songs!), and giving up because it was so insular and required so many free appearances.
So kudos to Beyonce for cracking this barrier. I think it demonstrates the motivation behind the insularity of the Country scene. They probably view pop stars who do crossover country songs as “carpetbaggers” who don’t really care about country music, and only care about the bucks.
(Don’t think I’m denying that there’s racism. There’s racism everywhere, but too often people say “racism” and think there’s no more to say.)
I’ve listened to the song a couple times. It’s definitely country, and since she’s from Houston, authentically Texan. The accompanying video is mysterious to me. I think it’s ok, but not necessarily great. Some very good, precise backing vocals on it (as is usual for B).
It isn’t up to the standard of “All the Single Ladies”, which I consider pretty darn brilliant, though.
@Scott: Historically, landline phones were “line powered.” This means that they got their electricity from the central office switch (the same source as the dial tone) and operated independently of electrical grid. A power outage would not affect phones – only a break in the phone lines would. As household phones have moved from copper to fiber, the FCC has instituted rules about providing back up battery power, but that really doesn’t work with fiber connections unless you connect an old fashion phone directly to a modem that is on back-up power. While fiber is much more robust, this subtle change in technology really undermines what used to be the full separation of the phone network and the power network.
@Jen:Aside from being twangy, it’s not meaningfully a country song. But that’s true of a lot of the “hick-hop” and “bro-country” stuff on the charts, too.
@Jay L Gischer: Aside from Darius Rucker, it’s hard to think of a recent pop star who truly crossed over. Staind’s Aaron Lewis made the transition, too, but I don’t know that he’s had as much success.
@Andy: It’s a nickel a bag here and I do in fact carry some heavy duty reusable bags in the car. I forget to bring them in about a third of the time, though.
@Scott: I kept an old landline phone for that purpose, too. Cox accidentally gave away my longtime number when we moved to the new house and it was too late by the time I noticed. At that point, I went ahead and dropped my landline coverage. But we inherited a partial-house generator for power emergencies.
@Jay L Gischer: The video is not the official one, it’s just animated imagery. I’m guessing the official video will come out when the full album drops.
I think one of the things I’ve found most enjoyable about the song is the sheer joy and delight that is evident in the faces of many, many different kinds of people doing dance challenges to it.
@Jay L Gischer:
The history of race with American music is complicated, and sometimes the effects are more indirect than deliberate. There once was official segregation among musicians, and the genre that came to be called R&B was first called literally “race music.” It was in that general milieu that country emerged. Its whiteness was very much by design, despite its very close relationship with black music (it was kind of the musical equivalent of Baptist churches). None of this is to say that someone today who acts surprised that a country song is being performed by a black person is being intentionally racist. Whatever the original reasons, country being more culturally white today isn’t necessarily due to any attempted exclusion anymore, and I certainly would never point to any specific white country musician and claim they’re a racist simply because of the genre they perform.
Of course I’m being as charitable as possible. It still remains the case that country has long been perhaps the most right-wing and reactionary music community around, with bands flying Confederate Flags and putting out pro-lynching anthems like “Simple Man” by Charlie Daniels or “Beer for my Horses” by Toby Keith and Willie Nelson (supposedly one of the community’s most notable lefties).
Country is certainly not my favorite genres, but I can very much appreciate good songs in almost any genre. I was prepared to defend the incredibly talented Beyoncé here, but the song is simply uninteresting to me. Great performance and production, of course; hopefully one of her other tracks will be more inspired.
@Kylopod: I feel that once upon a time country was not so one-sided in its politics. I mean, who doesn’t love Johnny Cash? Credence Clearwater Revival has very deep country roots, to my ears. Yeah, the band who cut “Fortunate Son”. And that message actually connects with some very conservative folks. Dan Fogerty was pretty darn lefty, but also knew how to connect with an audience.
There’s a fantastic video of Roy Clark and Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown (who is black) playing “Take the A Train” (by Duke Ellington) on Hee Haw.
That’s sort of a brain exploder. Is it country? Is it jazz? Does it matter? I’m sure that’s what Roy Clark had in mind, too.
@Andy:
My old rule of thumb, $20 per bag for groceries, has worked since the 70s. It’s just that the bags have gotten smaller.
Re: race and country music…the banjo originated in West Africa as a hollow gourd instrument called a banjar. (The Musical Instrument Museum in Scottsdale has a huge and very interesting collection.) So some of the flipping out by characters such as the Dukes of Hazard guy over this Beyonce song sort of causes me to roll my eyes.
For the most part I do not care for country music. I do like Stephen Wilson, Jr. though, who describes his music as “Death Cab for Country,” which I can appreciate.
Pop and country….just an inch apart musically. Most people don’t know the Stones started out as a C&W band.
Living where we do (in a cell hole, I have to drive 5 miles to get a cell signal) we have a landline. For whatever good it does us. These past 6 months I think it has been down at least as much as it’s been up. Getting it fixed when it does go down is like pulling teeth. In our early years out here we had a tech do some repairs and he told us that AT&T doesn’t even want to mess with landlines these days. A couple times I almost filed a complaint with the PSC and each time the lines got fixed the day I was gonna do it.
I think they’ve got us bugged.
@dazedandconfused: “Pop and country….just an inch apart musically. Most people don’t know the Stones started out as a C&W band.”
Maybe I’m too slow to realize you’re joking… but the Stones, like so many British Invasion bands, started off wanting to imitate Black blues musicians…
@wr:
Indeed, “All Over Now”–while I do agree it has a countryish feel (and it happens to be one of my favorite underrated Stones records)–is a cover of a song originally performed by a black R&B group (The Valentinos).
I’m also not willing to generalize about the relationship between country and “pop” based on the Stones. Are the Stones really pop? Pop isn’t a specific genre, anyway, just a general term for easily digestible commercial music that draws from many genres. Kenny Rogers described his hit song “Lady,” written by Lionel Richie, as a country musician performing an R&B song and meeting in the middle at pop. Country-pop is a real thing, but there are a ton of other pops, from Tony Bennett to Michael Jackson to Taylor Swift.
James, you are a data point of one. I rather suspect there are several million people who will happily, and loudly, disagree with you. Just because it doesn’t fit your personal idea of what is or isn’t country, doesn’t make it so. Musical genres change with each generation. If they don’t, they die.
As for your Charley Pride love affair, you are dating yourself.
HEY! YOU KIDS! GET OFF JAMES’ LAWN!!!
FTR, I haven’t heard any of her country stuff and I’m not gonna look for it. If my youtube logarithm coughs it up, I’ll give it a listen and decide for myself. But I’m not gonna hear it on the radio because… I don’t have one.
She might not be Charley Pride but she, and the song, are easily as good as any pop country songs sung by a female on the charts at any given time. And the video is a roaster.
@Jay L Gischer: Roy Clark was a genius with a guitar. He could play damned near any type of music, for the really good ones it’s all just music. I once got the treat of seeing Doc Watson and Doctor John on stage together.
I would never have thought those 2 could blend their styles together but it was absolute magic.
@Joe:..Historically, landline phones were “line powered.” This means that they got their electricity from the central office switch (the same source as the dial tone) and operated independently of electrical grid. A power outage would not affect phones – only a break in the phone lines would.
I worked in the landline telephone industry 1973-2009. All the central offices that I saw across 14 states and dozens of different phone companies had banks of wet cell batteries to provide current to the telephone systems. Those batteries were kept charged by a connection to the local electric utility. Almost all those central offices had backup generators on site that would provide current if the local electric utility failed. Some remote switches that were powered by banks of batteries charged by the local electric utility did not have back up generators on site. The phone companies had mobile generators that were towed to those remote sites if the local power utility failed.
@Kathy:
Are you sure it isn’t just a desktop phone with VOIP? A landline phone actually uses analog signals strung across separate wires and runs on a whole different system then wifi. If you desk phone is VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), then when your internet goes down the phone goes down too.
Some years back there was a lot of work done by phone companies trying to get their old landlines to carry internet but as far as I know it never panned out, at least in the US.
Some data points re: phone service:
– Landline phones are almost all VOIP at this point. When your power goes down, your internet connection goes out, and the landline is useless.
– In The Future (not too distant), your cell phone may also be serviced by satellites. Don’t ask me how I know.
@MarkedMan:
I honestly don’t know. the housemates use the landline (incessantly). I don’t have an extension in my room, and if it rings I let the machine pick up. I just pay for my part of the WiFi*
*That’s what people seem to call the home internet hook-up these days. In fact, the desktop is connected with an Ethernet cable to the modem, which is connected to the wall outlet. Only the smart TV and the phones use actual wireless connections.
@wr: Did that sound like a bluesy R&B song to you? An inch apart…like I said.
@Rick DeMent:
This.
I stan Charley Pride. Is Anybody Going to San Antone? is one of my forever jams. Charley Pride slander will not be tolerated.
I really, really love Destiny’s Child, some of the best girl group pop and R&B ever. Really enjoy Beyoncé’s earlier solo output as well, up to a point. The less poppy more ‘artistic/auteur’ Beyoncé that has gotten so much critical acclaim the past decade — meh. Doesn’t connect with me so much. But that just means it’s not for me, it doesn’t make it inherently bad. She’s connecting with an army of fans, she doesn’t need my hood opinion.
This “Texas Hold Em” country song…I’m also ambivalent. But also, it’s not significantly worse than “Try That In a Small Town” or “Red Solo Cup” and most of the barely-country tripe that’s dominated the genre for the past 25-30 years. She might not be Charley Pride, but the rest of em ain’t no Loretta Lynn or Hank Williams themselves.
@ptfe:
This is one part of the industry I actively follow for my job. It’s already here for SOS if you have an iPhone, and it’s in testing with Starlink/T-Mobile and AST/AT&T. I wouldn’t be surprised if we have reliable, near universal satellite-to-cell phone text messaging by the end of 2025.
@OzarkHillbilly: On this point, I think you should lay off James. He has every right to like what he likes, and not like what he doesn’t like, when it comes to music. She isn’t Charley Pride, she isn’t Johnny Cash. More relevantly, she isn’t Loretta Lynn or Patsy Cline or Tammy Wynette . She might be a bit like June Carter Cash though. I’m not sure.
I’m not too fond of border skirmishes in art though (is that really punk? etc.). This is a thing of fans, but generally not of musicians, though I’m sure there are exceptions.
The song clearly has country roots, and is rooted in those traditions as well as in line dancing. After watching a few of the videos of dancing to it, I would say that it’s spearheading an attempt by black Americans to reclaim this part of their heritage as Americans. Every last one of us has listened to some country music, after all. Why not be more of a part of it?
@MarkedMan:
The most successful version was called DSL (Digital Subscriber Loop/Line), and could achieve very high bit rates (at least for the 1980s and 90s) — but only if you lived quite near the local end office. The effective bandwidth dropped off rapidly with the length of your copper wire. The phone company could overcome this by installing repeaters on the lines, but by the time there was enough demand for them to consider doing this, the digital revolution had arrived. Also, by then everyone already had coaxial cable to their homes (for TV) if not fiber, so why bother trying to squeeze bandwidth out of twisted copper pairs?
DSL had its brief moment as the Hot New Thing — it was way better than dial-up modem, and the only home broadband option if you didn’t have cable TV. Which, in 1990, was most people.
I have a landline.
and James expecting neighbors to know you’re having a medical emergency isn’t a good idea. Here’s a story of a couple found several months after they died.
With all the blather about “real” country going on today, I just couldn’t resist.
And then…
@Kylopod: There’s a brilliant podcast called “A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs,” and in the most recent episode on The Byrds and “Hickory Wind,” the author was suggesting that one reason for the early ’70s move from blues-based rock to country-inspired rock was a move against the cultural appropriation of Black musical styles. Don’t know if there’s truth there or not — or if he was making the case or simply quoting someone — but it was an intriguing idea.
@dazedandconfused: “Did that sound like a bluesy R&B song to you? An inch apart…like I said.”
Well, sure, but by this time the Stones had been a professional group for two years and they were branching out a little. Back in 1962, what they were playing was Chicago Blues.
@wr: Interesting thought, but did anybody even use the word appropriation like that in the 70s? I’m going to claim ignorance having been born in that decade.
@Joe:
It’s the reverse out here where I live (coastal zone north of San Francisco). Although it’s getting better, steady reliable WiFi coverage has been kind of mediocre-plus for many years, so our landline has been a nice back up.