Category Archives: Current Events

Someone named Geoffrey Kabaservice speculates what a Ronald Reagan run for the presidency would be like…today.

The agenda that Rick Santorum advances strikes me as both hateful and hurtful…and while analogies between being gay and being a racial minority only go so far, when he speaks of being straight, he sounds like a White Supremacist speaking of being Caucasian. He also annoys me with his whining about the way he's depicted in comedy sketches and with what you get when you Google his surname. The people dumping on him are still nicer to him than he is to gay people.

It seems to me he gets the most grief in this area because he comes off as just about the only prominent Republican out there who acts like he really believes all that anti-gay rhetoric they all spout. The rest all seem to me to be uttering it because they think it prods a certain section of the population to support them and donate bucks. If they get elected, they'll pay lip service to rolling back gay rights and do a little something in that direction but will use most of their clout to push for more tax breaks for rich folks and corporations. Even Michele Bachmann, who's probably the runner-up to Santorum in actually believing we need to abolish Gay Marriage, seems more passionate about helping the wealthy get wealthier.

I would love to see some interviewer ask Santorum, "Let's say you get elected and you have your choice of two accomplishments. You can wipe out all forms of abortion and gay rights or you can eliminate taxes on the wealthy and on corporations…and Bernie Sanders will get his way on whichever option you don't select. What's it going to be?" I have the feeling that Santorum would be the only person who's been in a G.O.P. debate this year who'd opt for the former. Which is why he's at 3% and will probably never make it above 5.

He may be the front-runner today for the Republican nomination but Herman Cain has just about as much chance of being the nominee as I do…less probably because I'm not black and I'm not out there advocating his silly 9-9-9 revenue proposal. Bruce Bartlett explains why Mr. Cain's economic notion is ridiculous.

Kevin Drum on the legacy of Ronald Reagan. Kevin's right about his history…and about the fact that Reagan worshippers will never believe these or most other truths about the man. They love the fake Reagan who never raised taxes, not the real one who did.

Matt Zoller Seitz on the demise of the movie camera. I do not think this is the tragedy some will make it out to be.

One of the interesting things to me about the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street (and other locales) movements is that they have no leaders, no official spokespersons. There are folks who claim some sort of mantle to speak for the mobs but no one really does.

There have been attempts to discredit both crusades by quoting from the rabble. I mean, it's very easy for someone to take a video camera and a microphone out to one of either kind of demonstration and find a few protesters who'll say stupid or extreme things. It's simple to find idiotic signs with misspelled words, too…but none of this really harms the overall rally because the folks being interviewed aren't really speaking on behalf of anyone but themselves.

That's the good part of not having leaders. The bad part is that it enables anyone to say, "See those people massing in the street out there? They're demanding what I want to do." I could argue that both groups are demanding heavy federal subsidies for half-Jewish comedy writers and there's no Tea Party official or O.W.S. spokesperson who can say otherwise.

I'm a little fuzzy on what the Tea Party folks really do want…and I think most of them are, too. They seem to be objecting to U.S. debt and excessive spending (a fine objection) but throwing their lot with those who only hear the message, "Lower taxes on the rich." The Occupiers aren't yet to the point of being used to advance laws they won't like but that's only because they're new. Give 'em time. Eventually, they'll all get what they don't want…and probably declare victory.

Mitt Romney is promising to repeal and destroy "Obamacare" the first week of a Romney presidency. As Jonathan Chait notes, this is not as easy to do as Romney is making it sound. But more significantly, Romney is setting up a case where that election could turn on Americans deciding whether or not they want to see even the modest improvements in health care in this country undone. And I still think the only thing most Republicans object to about Obamacare is that it came from Obama. Most of them would love it if it had been called Reagancare.

Here are charts that debunk Six Economic Myths. Alas, they're six economic myths that some people find so handy to assert in pursuing their agendas that they they'll just ignore all debunking and repeat them anyway.

All this talk about whether Romney's ahead of Cain or Cain's ahead of Romney or if either is ahead of Perry…it's all missing the point. At this point in the campaign, the most relevant factor is that Romney's in the lead and even he's only tied with Undecided.

Ezra Klein on why the rich in this country are like Rodney Dangerfield. I think I agree with most of this article.

David Frum says Good Riddance to Sarah Palin's political career. What he says is cruel but I don't see anything in there I'd disagree with. And if I were one of the folks who recently answered the call to donate to SarahPAC to encourage her to run, I'd feel intentionally swindled…like she said, "Hey, before I announce I'm not running, let's see if we can get one last wave of money out of those suckers."

Fred Kaplan does not have very nice things to say about Dick Cheney. Does anyone these days?

Another good pal o' mine is blogging for The Huffington Post. Go read Daniel Will-Harris as he writes about his experiences doing something I wouldn't do for all the money Warren Buffett has or will ever have. And don't forget to click the "like" button and the ones where you recommend it to others.

While you're over there, also read a new piece by another buddy, Robert J. Elisberg, who covers new computer tools that might be of use to writers. And click in all the same liking places.

Michael Lewis did an interview with Arnold Schwarzenegger about his stint as the governor of my state. Here's the quote that a lot of blogs are noting…

If there had not been a popular movement to remove sitting governor Gray Davis and the chance to run for governor without having to endure a party primary, he never would have bothered. "The recall happens and people are asking me, 'What are you going to do?'" he says, dodging vagrants and joggers along the beach bike path. "I thought about it but decided I wasn't going to do it. I told Maria I wasn't running. I told everyone I wasn't running. I wasn't running." Then, in the middle of the recall madness, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines opened. As the movie's leading machine, he was expected to appear on The Tonight Show to promote it. En route he experienced a familiar impulse — the impulse to do something out of the ordinary. "I just thought, This will freak everyone out," he says. "It'll be so funny. I'll announce that I am running. I told Leno I was running. And two months later I was governor." He looks over at me, pedaling as fast as I can to keep up with him, and laughs. "What the fuck is that?"

I still find it hard to believe that Arnold ran and that he won…twice. His campaign, at least the first time, was incredibly lame. When he wasn't quoting famous lines from his movies, he was saying two things. One was that he would lower the cost of registering an automobile in California — which he did and which everyone, including Schwarzenegger, later realized was a mistake. The other was to address the financial crisis in the state by saying, "Let's open the books," which was utterly meaningless. Somehow, the name recognition got him into office…and he wound up being no better than the governor who was recalled and replaced. It all seems now like a bad dream…apparently even to him.

Read Will Durst about class warfare in this country. I'm getting a little tired of hearing wealthy people referred to as "job creators." If that's what they are, they clearly haven't been doing their jobs.