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Monday’s Forum
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36 responses to “Monday’s Forum”
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The battle over Stars and Stripes
Stars and Stripes has a front page like no other. On a day when the headlines on other newspapers were dominated by earthquakes in Venezuela and Supreme Court decisions on immigration, Erik Slavin, the editor-in-chief of Stars and Stripes, put out a newspaper for the American military, with stories about new tactics involving drones, and service members and families facing food insecurity. “We want to go with something that we know will directly interest our readers right away,” Slavin said.
The newspaper is part of the Department of Defense, and its reporters are Pentagon employees. But it has long maintained editorial independence from the top brass. “We’re trying to provide independent news for the military community,” Slavin said.
An average of 1.4 million people see Stars and Stripes each day – mostly online, although it still puts out a print version overseas, for service members in remote places where access to the internet can be unreliable.
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The paper has been published continuously since World War II, heralded as representing “the free thought and free expression of a free people.”But this past January, chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell posted this on X: “We are bringing Stars & Stripes into the 21st century. We will modernize its operations, refocus its content away from woke distractions that syphon morale…”
Asked what he understood “woke distractions” to mean, editor-in-chief Erik Slavin replied, “I really don’t know what they were referring to, because they didn’t explain it.”
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At the same time Parnell’s social media post appeared, the Pentagon rescinded a federal regulation directing that Stars and Stripes operate “without news management or censorship.
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it placed new restrictions on what the paper could do. “We were barred from running comics, and we were no longer to run news from paid wire services as well,” he said.That meant no more news stories from the Associated Press, which was temporarily banned from the Oval Office for refusing to go along with changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. What the restrictions meant, Slavin said, was that, “It’s more difficult for us to cover breaking news.”
Everything from this administration is flat-out propaganda.
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Here’s a quote from a video-game discussion board that is a sample of people’s attitudes toward billionaires and their mega-corps, taken when they think they aren’t talking about politics:
Talking about SpaceCraft:
User 1: The Company does not pay extra for safety features.
User 2: Your Debt is important to us.(the player owes money to the company as a narrative device).
Then in response:
User 3: In Subnautica 2, when you get too close to paying off your debt the company erases your memory and you have to start over.
This kind of thing is common in the video games I play and in their discussions. I could still be in a bubble, I guess, but it’s the kind of thing that makes me think that a political movement that can credibly take on the billionaires will get a lot of traction.
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Apparently, Trump called the FIFA president about Balogun’s red card.
I was none too happy with that being a red card. That seemed a bit severe, even though a yellow would have been appropriate.
However, I did not want this. If there are any Belgians or fans of Belgium reading this: I’m sorry. This is awful.
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Can someone, anyone, explain how it would be humanly possible to cut a slit, the length of a football field, in a heavy rubber liner 18” min below water? The liner would be pressed hard against the concrete bottom so you would need many, many blades as they would be dulled by contact with the cement.
Let me help you. It’s f’ing impossible.
So why does NO ONE press back on this bullshit?
And now we’re going to pay the same fuck-ups even more money, no questions asked???
I’m so sick and tired of this. And if we had a functional 4the estate even the first term would have never happened.-
That AP piece seems to have been written as though much of the information previously learned does not exist. Other reports have quoted the pool coating company guy saying that they plan to repair it under warranty after it can be partially drained. And a number of reporters have asked for but not received evidence of the claimed vandalism.
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The Reflecting Pool, and most if not all of the other monuments in DC, has 24-hour camera coverage. If there was vandalism, they would have had absolutely released the video evidence by now. Also, it’s a painted-on coating. It shouldn’t peel up like that, unless it was improperly applied/not cured correctly. I’m very annoyed that media coverage is just repeating the nonsense bleated out by the Spokessheep in this administration.
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Has anyone seen Supergirl? Is it worth the price of a VIP theater ticket? I estimate next weekend will be the last chance to see it in a theater, if it doesn’t get taken off the schedule before then.
On other things, I made beans with tomato sauce and beef, with a side of poorly thought out pasta carbonara. I used some of the turkey stock to cook the entree in the instant pot. There is a definite difference from using chicken bouillon, but it’s rather subtle.
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Since the president, his marionette house speaker, and others in trump’s camp have taken to calling their political adversaries communists at every opportunity, I’m gonna point out that this smacks of more projection or, if you prefer, “every accusation is a confession.” As with the so-called weaponization of Justice accusation, which revealed his intention to use the DOJ as a political tool of punishment and reward, trump’s concept of communism includes the very things he’s been working toward in this term—state control over the means of production and the media, patronage and spoils for those in power, and a dear-leader type of authoritarianism.
Repeating a comment from a few months ago…
With respect to the administration taking equity stakes in American companies, Jonathan Last wrote a column in November titled Donald Trump Is a Commie, the first part of which is not paywalled. He noted that the administration has taken government stakes in Westinghouse, Nvidia, Intel, AMD, US Steel, MP Materials, and Lithium Americas Corp., and has exerted influence over corporate decisions such as Microsoft’s executive staffing, law firms’ pro bono client/case selection, and the terms of the sale of TikTok to political allies.In the piece, JV Last asks the question,
So why is it so hard for people to just say, out loud, what is obvious: Donald Trump is a socialist who is trying to make the American economy function more like Communist China?
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Digby had a post yesterday that touches on Dr. Taylor’s recent couple of posts on CATO’s survey showing wide spread ignorance and specifically on his recurring references to republic v democracy.
Digby extensively quotes Salon on a study by the Johns-Hopkins Agora Institute. They did a very deep dive on the attitudes of a very small number (21) of self-identified conservatives/Republicans. Salon described it,
The most fundamental issue the researchers attempted to resolve is the relationship their subjects had with what is commonly thought of as the American secular faith in democracy. What the study found is that the respondents either had a notion of what constituted democracy that greatly differed from what is taught in Civics 101 — when such a course is even offered — or rejected outright the very concept of democracy. In fact, the latter view was the majority opinion:
14 out of 21 participants in this study had an immediate negative reaction when asked about democracy . . . Sarah (mid 30s, WY), a homeschooling mother, put it plainly: “I don’t like the word democracy.”
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But for all the major media’s hand-wringing about “economic anxiety” being a driving force behind Trump’s election victory in 2016, there is little discussion of that sort among the study’s respondents. There is one reference by Maria from Michigan to losing her job as a result of “the economic collapse under Obama,” which actually occurred under George W. Bush. (Economic growth was positive in seven of the eight years of Obama’s presidency, with a rate of -0.2% only in 2009 as the effects of the financial collapse of 2008 were ongoing — nothing remotely as poor as the -3.4% gross domestic product decline in the last year of Trump’s first term.)The study describes Maria from Michigan this way: “Her verdict on the Democratic Party as having dedicated its playbook to Satan* and chosen the ‘platform of death’ does not leave room for normal civic constraints to apply.”
What do the study’s participants talk about? Their central concern is their own so-called “moral foundations.” For them, any democracy is valid only insofar as it vigorously upholds “faith, family, freedom and place,” as indicated in the study’s title. Since they believe their values are under relentless attack by the institutions of democracy, then democracy must be sacrificed. In this mindset, political opponents are not acting in good faith but are outright demonic. The study describes Maria from Michigan this way: “Her verdict on the Democratic Party as having dedicated its playbook to Satan and chosen the ‘platform of death’ does not leave room for normal civic constraints to apply.”
An extreme case, but how do you even talk to people like that?
Reading this I was once again struck that democracy means the wrong people get to vote, big city people and Democrats. One subject was quite explicit, “Kyle (mid 20s, WY), a delivery driver, extends the logic: ‘Every single small town would be outvoted by every single city. We wouldn’t be able to feed people cows. We’d all be eating seaweed.”
Digby thinks it’s even simpler,
It’s really that the word “democracy” reminds them of the word “Democrat,” and “republic” makes them think of “Republican.” That’s actually how fatuous this whole thing is.
But skimming the very long executive summary of the Johns-Hopkins study I think I’m closer to right, they really don’t want the wrong people voting. The subjects seemed fairly sophisticated. (Maybe faux sophisticated is more accurate.) They weren’t just repeating FOX, they’d applied their life experience, “done their own research”, and there is some internal logic to their positions.
Salon chose to use this to question the electoral effectiveness of the “abundance agenda” that per Digby “swept the left for about 5 minutes last year”. It more directly shows “preserving democracy” is actually a negative with them. I think the electoral lesson is Ds are just going to have to kiss off some people. The study does not seem to address one key question – how many of these people are there?
This business of the Ds and Satan apparently comes from reading a copy of Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, which very few on the modern left seem to have read. Apparently there’s a tongue in cheek reference to Lucifer being the first radical that “Maria” took literally.
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I think it’s important to try and isolate people like that. Maybe something will reach them eventually, but likely not.
So, what’s needed is to drive a wedge between them and others who might join them. To focus on them, to make them the poster child. To put the attitude of “We are ready to give up on democracy” on center stage and keep it there.
I’m pretty sure I saw a quote from Sam Alito to the effect of “right and wrong are not up for a vote”.
We don’t really have the institutions to do that, but maybe a collaborative effort?
Finally, I note that in 2016, for the first time in the history of the US, the number of Americans identifying as white Christians dropped below 50 percent. I think this is part and parcel of what’s going on. They see an existential threat. There is, but the threat comes from the failure of their own message.
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We discussed this in a recent thread, I think.
I agree that there is internal logic, but it is based on faulty assumptions and misinformation that have been fed to them by talk radio and infotainment.
The economic collapse under Obama is one form. But that is mere proof of concept. The most impactful propaganda involves things about the centrality of Judeo-Christian values in the Founding. Those claims are the ones that act as a filter with a large surface area.
The democracy=democrat point is actually in the published JH study, IIRC.
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In the Cato study’s crosstabs, I found the following question:
CATO24. What is the greatest threat to the United States remaining a free republic? (Select up to 3)
16% selected “moral decline”.
That gives a very rough baseline of given that subjects were allowed to select up to 3.
These would be the people it seems safe to write off as having left the constraints of the natural.
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I guess this is Kathy bait. Some rando on Substack came up with a list of twenty Sci-Fi Novels for Literature Lovers. To my surprise, I’ve read fifteen of them, and only disagree with Dune being on the list.
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To begin with, anyone who publishes white text against a black background online should be expelled from the human race.
I’ve read some on the list, none past Do Androids Dream etc.
As with all lists, it representes the judgment, at least partly subjective, of one person or a small group of people.
Of Verne I only read From the Earth to the Moon, and recall little about it. Of Welles I read a few more things.
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Brave New World is on the list. I think it’s probably the worst “Classic” book I have ever read. From the Sexaphones to the entire noble savage plot, to resolving said plot with suicide… I get that it does a lot of interesting world-building, but the plot makes me cringe.
I do find the “nobody can read Shakespeare” thing funny, since almost no one in the real world reads Shakespeare except under duress anyway.*
I might be a bit of a Negative Nancy today. More of a Negatron than an Optimist Prime, etc.
The list could use some Octavia Butler. Kick BNW to the curb, and replace it with one of her books.
*: I do love Shakespeare, and think we should fix the inaccessibility problems of Shakespeare’s language by reintroducing 1500s slang with Gen Alpha or Gen Beta or whatever the next generation is. I want little viral cartoons with an animated dog saying “I bite my thumb at you” and comparing people to stags.
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Shakespeare needs to be translated into modern English, even if it screws up the iambic pentameter (or especially if it does).
Languages change. A lot.
In elementary school and junior high school, we read Cervantes’ El Quijote. I nearly got kicked out in one class when I asked if there was a Spanish translation available.
I do classify 1984 as science fiction because it takes place in the author’s future, and attempts to make use of technology more advanced than what existed in his time (badly, from a strictly scientific/technological viewpoint). It’s also political fiction, which I think was Orwell’s intent.
BTW, it’s oddly fitting to have my reply to your post appear before your post in a science fiction mini-thread 😀
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Threading temporal confusion ensues?
My opinion of 1984 was always a bit internally inconsistent: you both have a Britain that’s just “Airstrip One” but also “EngSoc” and London as a capital?
imho it’s just a juxtaposition of what Orwell knew about the Soviet Union onto a vague post-WW2 UK.
Political satire rather than SF.
Whereas Huxley in Brave New World was genuine SF, thought he hated it.
One massive absence from the list: Olaf Stapledon.
Lewis’s sorta-SF was in many respects a Christian response to some of Stapledon’s premises.
As well as having an odd link to Tolkein.
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Maine Dems choose wisely? Signs and wonders. Everybody already knew shoes would keep dropping on Platner the Fetterman 2.0 walking red flag. The judgment of Maine Dems has not exactly covered itself in glory ignoring this looming trainwreck because a) blue collar cosplay and b) “he says the magic genocide word!”
Does Maine even want a contrast to Collins? Mills is the only real — aka non-“indie” — Dempcrat since forever to win one of Maine’s main statewide races. And they also keep re-electing Collins over her contrasts.
Hence why Mills was forced — against her will — to step up as the only viable contrast to Platner. The rising star Maine Dems were too scared to take on the Queen of Maine; they’re all running for governor and other races. Maybe those chickens will reconsider now. Platner was already gonna lose anyway, as his polling had already declined to create a tied race, running 5+ points behind the rest of the Dem ticket.
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If only there were warning signs long before the primary…
He seemed like such a fine, upstanding former mercenary with a Nazi tattoo, a history of racist comments online, and accusations of sexual abuse. (I’m sure these have been swirling around for a while, unless it was other accusations)
Still, assume he rapes one woman a day for the entirety of a 6 year term in Congress. Will he do more or less damage than Collins? (I don’t know how to get that down to a bumper sticker slogan…)
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Earlier in the day the incantation from the nomenklatura was that referees shouldn’t review video on slow motion. This from the country that normalized video review, including slow motion, on their most popular sport.
I’m rooting for Belgium, too. I probably would have anyway. I’ve a soft spot for Belgium since 1985, when two of my roommates at the EF language school in Cambridge were from Belgium.
That’s not where I learned to speak English, BTW. In fact, I was already fluent (as were both my Belgian roommates). I won an essay contest in high school, and the prize was a 4 week stay at any EF language school in either the US, Canada, or England. I chose the latter, and my parents were ok paying for the airfare there. It was great practice, and I bought like 50 books on that trip (alas, some of them were later lost).
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