Reading this after today's GOP Drops Impeachment which I like more than this edition of TFN. Surprised so many unsub's. Had to be due to the Walz critique. Keep on keeping objective. Satire is a wonderful skill.
Your posts should come with a warning to put down the coffee (or tea, whatever) or one risks snortling it out one’s nose. Thank you for the erudite and informative giggles this morning. It is lovely when one can take burrs in the saddle and make them into tasty bread, as you do. Sending you much appreciation and love, and a promise to subscribe my next payday.
This is why you'll never win as a political candidate in a red area! Walz is othering Vance, yes, cutting the Republican "True American" approach off at the knees. Reminds me of that scene in "W" where the southerner easily defeated Georgie Bush by criticizing his outsider culture and implying Bush was a carpetbagger. Vance is already accused of the same by actual Appalachians.
Walz is also building the permission structure of COMMUNIST economics, by translating it to one of the Heartland's virtues of neighborliness. One of the ways to get through an intractable point of view is by appealing to a proudly held virtue without being confrontational.
I’m all for all of this! I just think you can do it with what Vance has said and supports, rather than with cultural identifiers that encompass tons and tons of people and aren’t really relevant.
Okay since you read that awful memoir, maybe you can clear something up for me. I was under the impression that the claim that JD fucked a couch was a joke- but then a friend said that in his memoir he did refer to it while not actually admitting it. I’m pretty sure she didn’t read it either, but read about it. I really don’t want to read the damn thing just to satisfy my curiosity, since of course whether he wrote about it or not, he is obviously a couchfucker.
I was liking your newsletter until this one. Tim Walz gave a great speech to his fellow Nebraskans & Vance seriously shat on Appalachian’s in his book & continues to try to tell us who is & isn’t acceptable.
Both can be true. As Jonathan has pointed out frequently, it’s up to us to help our leaders do better. Maybe that speech will make people vote who wouldn’t have. The point still remains- that is divisive language. Will it make Nebraskans like him more? Probably the ones who grew up there. I’m honest enough to admit that if Walz came to Oregon, pronounced it correctly and pandered to some of our local stuff, I’d be impressed. You can do that without implying that everyone else is less of an American.
Walz's lies or Vance's lies? Last paragraph. I totally appreciate you subjecting yourself to the horror of reading JD Vance. You've landed on many a grenade in your writing lifetime.
Okay, that's embarrassing. Thanks for the catch! And thanks for the appreciation. My dirty little secret is I'm compelled to do it, even if no one chips in to support me. I CAN'T HELP MYSELF.
Those were my majors. And I nearly did that thing of pushing back by listing all the "good" people, which is a bad way to push back on a thing that's dumb in principle. The other reason I didn't do that was there was an embarrassing number of people who were philosophy majors...who I would not want to list!
I was at the rally. Walz was pander-bear in chief for a goodly portion and that really seemed to be a theme ("Welcome Home Coach" was displayed on the marquee). Playing to the crowd, remarking on calling a Runza a hot pocket really hit BIG - several people around me were still laughing at that as we were all filing out of the event.
Regarding the Yale philosophy major line, that stuck in my craw. The decline in liberal arts majors and in universities cutting back on liberal arts education has a direct relation (in my mind) to a large swath of the population that's unable to think for themselves. As an English major with sociology and economics minors, it pains me when liberal arts is dumped on.
Then I went back to what the non-liberal arts majors around me were probably thinking and took that as more of a jab at Hillbilly McCouchdebaucher's attempts to portray himself as a "real American" - you know, like Hawley and Cruz and Sasse and all of those Ivy League educated monsters that try to act like they're just good old boys.
Edit: I loved the headline and snarkiness. If people don't "get" it that's on them.
Thank you. I must confess I was a bit concerned about the number of unsavory folks under the list of Philosophy majors. Maybe related to my theory that the anything-goes-ism of the ‘70s left may have turned some quarters of academia into schools for helping students learn how to justify whatever the fuck they want. Gulp.
Reading this after today's GOP Drops Impeachment which I like more than this edition of TFN. Surprised so many unsub's. Had to be due to the Walz critique. Keep on keeping objective. Satire is a wonderful skill.
Your posts should come with a warning to put down the coffee (or tea, whatever) or one risks snortling it out one’s nose. Thank you for the erudite and informative giggles this morning. It is lovely when one can take burrs in the saddle and make them into tasty bread, as you do. Sending you much appreciation and love, and a promise to subscribe my next payday.
Sorry to double-down on editing, but there is the sentence beginning "In 2000, Russia and Saudi Arabia were in a price war ."
Since that was 16 years before Tweetie-pie became president, I assume that was supposed to be 2020, but I wanted to confirm.
I'm gonna have to start giving out No-Prizes!
True or not, I wouldn’t leave him alone with my lazyboy
Ew.
This is why you'll never win as a political candidate in a red area! Walz is othering Vance, yes, cutting the Republican "True American" approach off at the knees. Reminds me of that scene in "W" where the southerner easily defeated Georgie Bush by criticizing his outsider culture and implying Bush was a carpetbagger. Vance is already accused of the same by actual Appalachians.
Walz is also building the permission structure of COMMUNIST economics, by translating it to one of the Heartland's virtues of neighborliness. One of the ways to get through an intractable point of view is by appealing to a proudly held virtue without being confrontational.
I’m all for all of this! I just think you can do it with what Vance has said and supports, rather than with cultural identifiers that encompass tons and tons of people and aren’t really relevant.
Okay since you read that awful memoir, maybe you can clear something up for me. I was under the impression that the claim that JD fucked a couch was a joke- but then a friend said that in his memoir he did refer to it while not actually admitting it. I’m pretty sure she didn’t read it either, but read about it. I really don’t want to read the damn thing just to satisfy my curiosity, since of course whether he wrote about it or not, he is obviously a couchfucker.
Haven’t you ever heard “all politics are local”?
I was liking your newsletter until this one. Tim Walz gave a great speech to his fellow Nebraskans & Vance seriously shat on Appalachian’s in his book & continues to try to tell us who is & isn’t acceptable.
I couldn’t read the rest. Ugh.
As a non-sports person, I should note that I don't always bat 100.
Both can be true. As Jonathan has pointed out frequently, it’s up to us to help our leaders do better. Maybe that speech will make people vote who wouldn’t have. The point still remains- that is divisive language. Will it make Nebraskans like him more? Probably the ones who grew up there. I’m honest enough to admit that if Walz came to Oregon, pronounced it correctly and pandered to some of our local stuff, I’d be impressed. You can do that without implying that everyone else is less of an American.
Point taken about anti-intellectualism and geographical holier than thou syndrome, but we can still feel good about hating on Yalies.
Far be it from me to deny life's small pleasures.
Walz's lies or Vance's lies? Last paragraph. I totally appreciate you subjecting yourself to the horror of reading JD Vance. You've landed on many a grenade in your writing lifetime.
Okay, that's embarrassing. Thanks for the catch! And thanks for the appreciation. My dirty little secret is I'm compelled to do it, even if no one chips in to support me. I CAN'T HELP MYSELF.
Seriously, he was a philosophy major?? That’s hard to believe.
From an English major and philosophy minor
Those were my majors. And I nearly did that thing of pushing back by listing all the "good" people, which is a bad way to push back on a thing that's dumb in principle. The other reason I didn't do that was there was an embarrassing number of people who were philosophy majors...who I would not want to list!
I was at the rally. Walz was pander-bear in chief for a goodly portion and that really seemed to be a theme ("Welcome Home Coach" was displayed on the marquee). Playing to the crowd, remarking on calling a Runza a hot pocket really hit BIG - several people around me were still laughing at that as we were all filing out of the event.
Regarding the Yale philosophy major line, that stuck in my craw. The decline in liberal arts majors and in universities cutting back on liberal arts education has a direct relation (in my mind) to a large swath of the population that's unable to think for themselves. As an English major with sociology and economics minors, it pains me when liberal arts is dumped on.
Then I went back to what the non-liberal arts majors around me were probably thinking and took that as more of a jab at Hillbilly McCouchdebaucher's attempts to portray himself as a "real American" - you know, like Hawley and Cruz and Sasse and all of those Ivy League educated monsters that try to act like they're just good old boys.
Edit: I loved the headline and snarkiness. If people don't "get" it that's on them.
Thank you. I must confess I was a bit concerned about the number of unsavory folks under the list of Philosophy majors. Maybe related to my theory that the anything-goes-ism of the ‘70s left may have turned some quarters of academia into schools for helping students learn how to justify whatever the fuck they want. Gulp.