What’s on your mind?
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
24 Comments
Recent Posts
- Day 14: Louisiana Senator Approvingly Compares Trump to Stalin
- Day 13: Elon Musk Flexes His Muscles
- Day 12: While Elon Musk Takes Over, We Podcast With Driftglass and Blue Gal
- Day 11: Harm of Fascist Regime’s Foreign Aid Freeze Comes Into View
- Day 10: The Fascist Regime Blames a Plane Crash on Nonwhite People
If.
If the pilgrims had shot a skunk instead of a turkey, thanksgiving would be a completely different holiday.
.
Fires and more mandatory evacuations.
I’ve been watching Gallup’s Trump approval poll for a while. Over the last few weeks his approval been steadily ticking upward. It’s still relatively terrible, but it’s far better than a president of his caliber should have.
Which just confirms what I’ve been afraid of for a long time. No one pays attention to the news, and a good chunk who do are 1) misinformed or 2) too stupid to understand what’s happening.
Since the election, several of my friends have insisted that Trump’s base would erode once he failed to deliver on his promises. I know there’s some evidence of that now, but he’ll never hit the rock bottom of, say, 12% approval, which is what would happen in a normal society. What I’ve been telling my friends, and anyone on the ‘net who will listen, is that the base can’t erode so long as they believe he’s accomplishing something. They don’t actually have to see the wall to believe that it’s been constructed and is keeping Mexicans out.
It’s kind of amazing to witness firsthand how powerful propaganda is. A sizable chunk of the country can be told the president is doing a good job, with everything outside of their computer and TV telling them otherwise, and the’ll believe it no matter what.
Sorry if I’ve ruined anyone’s morning.
He remains popular because his face appears on every news report as of 6 am est every morning. This goes on all day long. The media has been compelled to report on his tweets accompanied by a presidential looking photo. The tweeting has the same effect of putting the donald photo on every bill board in the country. How do you stop this. Well, since the administration has stated that the tweets are the donald’s personal opinions, there should be a declaimer that details the tweets are not government policy and only the opinion of the donald. Time to stop the fake government from using the media as free propaganda.
You write:
The media run on profit.
Both “fake governments” The TrumpGov and the neocentrist alliance of both parties that opposes him…use the media as free propaganda.
And the media profit.
There is no solution, shan. No cure. Sorry. This disease must run its course.
AG
The perceived cure of loss of audience has been disproved by the persistence of Rush and the shock jocks, who get by with subsidies from large millionaires and and every small-town wanna-be tinpot dictator or company town meister.
Too late to ruin mine. I looked at the news.
Not good.
Worst?
Google News
It’s like printed CNN.
AG
Long run scheduled for today. Music tonight. Trying to schedule a trip to Canada I really don’t want to make but I have to. Regretting my decision NOT to expat in Guatemala. Not looking forward to Monday.
A professor at Drexel University got put on academic leave because of right wing threats. Not because of the content of his tweets, but because of the threats themselves.
http://www.chronicle.com/article/A-Professor-Is-Placed-on-Leave/241441?key=m5UvP8_ex3VKbYi7dlXqQaTdM
uffj_EK4CYvGzcO75IDQxPuxq7_mDy2auZJ_k3GcTNaVUxGcndxX2JaRVkwdUxyQm1TRHdqbWRURW94VVpNSmtwMHhIeC1Jcw
Manafort. He is in debt to the Russians for 40 million. How did he get that top job as campaign manager for the donald? New updated version of the spy who came in from the cold?
Thinking about the half-dozen or so State Legislature candidates running in a local race who are seeking Labor’s support. We’ll hear their initial public pitches in an hour or so. Very competitive race, at least theoretically: they better bring their A games today.
Love my career hate my job. walk away from the latter ends the former. I’m close to the next and final step. Feels like a million miles away though.
Looks like Trump, in his wisdom, is about to cancel the Iran deal, unless congress nails him out. Or, what is the same thing, cause Iran to withdraw. He will reverse everything Obama did. What a week this has been.
no not nails, bails. Sorry.
Freudian slip — you wish they’d nail him.
That too!
“Well, I started out on burgundy, soon hit the harder stuff.”
Worried the Senate might make a liar out of BooMan and actually pass a budget.
Attending a family gathering in fresh air by the coast, half dozen friends and family safe and homes intact for now. Mom out of the hospital, racing over ’til next year – I guess it feels kind of like the calm before the storm…
I saw a great article about a new book/research about how “Big Tech” (specifically their algorithms) is shaping and warping our decision-making and even our humanity. Can’t wait to track it down.
Frank Foer – “World Without Mind: The Existential Threat of Big Tech.”
(Sorry – no attribution for the article; I saw it in hard-copy while traveling, and the online version is behind a paywall.)
I’ve been thinking about the necessity to remind folks about Karl Popper’s The Open Society and its Enemies, especially where Popper discusses good explanations and bad explanations. A good starter is the Choices chapter of David Deutsch’s The Beginning of Infinity (which is itself a work on good explanations and bad explanations.)
It seems to me that marketing driven explanations are always bad explanations when there would be good explanations (and policies) that would be as or more persuasive.
about NH-1.
Carol Shea-Porter was in many ways one of the early activist winners over the Party establishment.
Her retirement sets up a battle for the Democratic nomination.
Pappas is from the family that owns a restaurant well known in political circles here (since a good number of candidate events get held there). He is on the Executive Council (a NH institution that is very unique to the state, and very powerful).
Against him is Mark MacKenzie, the head of the NH AFL-CIO.
MacKenzie was on the Sanders NH steering committee. Pappas was for Clinton.
The establishment in this state has never liked Shea-Porter, and Pappas was considering opposing her in a primary before she announced she was not running.
Which will not help Pappas.
There are others that might run. I am curious if this becomes a proxy fight for the Sanders and Clinton forces in New Hampshire.