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Politics Anyone?
🕑 Added 2023-09-23 15:24:36 +0000 UTCGood morning! First, let me send all my thoughts to the Chapo Trap House gang. I don't know if you saw this but apparently, Matt Christman has some kind of very serious medical emergency this week, days before he and his wife are due to have their first child. I just can't imagine anything worse. I really like Matt, having done their show several times and talking with him afterward and at a few parties we were both at, I just generally like his brain. In person, he's a very affable and sweet dude. His wife Amber is a very lovely person too. Shit. I hope it all works out.
Haven't talked politics in a while, but whadda think? Seems like a real mess out there. I think this is where I'm at:
I've heard this floating around there in a few places, but I think the best way forward in the near future would be for Joe Biden to address the American people and in a dignified way announce he will not be seeking a second term. Come up with some reason... the scrutiny over his son, Hunter... his desire to pass the torch to a new generation, whatever... but ask the Democratic Party to allow for an open primary starting immediately. It would immediately draw out a group of contenders and suck up a tremendous amount of coverage, competing with and sometimes overshadowing the daily dump of Trump Trial news. Outliers like Williamson and Kennedy could take the debate stage with more traditional candidates like Newsom or Whitmer... or names that aren't even on the radar... I don't think anyone was paying much attention to Bill Clinton when he started running... I think the contrast between those debates and the news they generate with whatever the other side is rattling on about ("Should a convicted felon be able to GOVERN from prison, your thoughts Gov. DeSantis." would be extreme and really take the wind out of the right.
Do I think this will happen?
NO. I DO NOT THINK THIS WILL HAPPEN!
But it could happen, right? I mean anything can happen and sometimes big things like this DO happen. LBJ in 68, anyone? What did Lenin say? "There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen" If it doesn't happen I do think we're on a road to chaos next year. Joe Biden is deeply unpopular and even though a lot of those reasons are a bunch of bullshit, I think it's just a fact. Right now, he's NOT in a position to win. I guess there's a lot of time, and a million things can change, but I don't time is on Joe's side. Here's a not-very-well-written opinion piece that makes my point with a little more data in it. Anyway, what do you think?
Weekend recc - Maybe it's old news but the Telemarketers doc series on MAX is a real winner. We were supposed to have them on the show but it fell through, I can't remember why... It's great!
Hey, we are about 40 people away from hitting 7,000 Patrons! Do you think you could tell a friend or uncle about how much you enjoy being a Patron of Office Hours? You could do it in a very casual way when someone asks, "What are you watching these days?" You say: "Who me? Oh, I get a lot of great entertainment value from the Office Hours Patreon. It's only 5 bucks a month and it's just a lot of fun." Try it!
Have a great weekend and G'mar chatima tova to my Jewish brethren.
P&L, T
Comments
mingyjongo
I'm like Lenin!
Anthony Brunetti
V good lenin quote
Eric Boman
Not a good time to be quoting any Russell's
Mostly a good take, except I wouldn't quote Lenin. Knowing the ordered murders he's responsible for all throughout the early USSR, you'd distance yourself as much as possible. Read Bertrand Russell's "The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism": https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/17350/pg17350-images.html As you know, Russell was a socialist – he travelled to the USSR in 1919/1920 and was quite shocked/disappointed with the policies he saw and the leadership he met. Lenin was described as being "religious" about Marxism, which is completely missing the point of a scientific application of Socialism (which was successful only after it was filtered through Eduard Bernstein, giving us contemporary Social Democracy). It is precisely because it was applied from zealotry/idealism rather than from empiricism/materialism we received a degeneration into the Red Fascism of Stalin.
Christian
Christ I’d love to see Biden and Trump both out of the picture.
Brock Judkins
Loving Telemarketers, and I'm one episode into it. Near the end, one of the CDG owners is in a douchey rock band ... something straight out of the On Cinema universe!
Mike
V.I. Lenin. Vladimir Illanich Uleninov!
Mike
Great strategy idea re: dems primary changing the news cycle in a way that could undercut Trump. Do I think it will happen? Nope. On the plus side, Biden gave a well-delivered speech to the UN this week. But the GOP congressional shit show crowds out news about that too... The road to 7K--My brother is an uncle to my kids. Would he count? He actually turned me on to the Holy Trinity and came with me to Two Tims at Webster Hall. But he doesn't do patreon (yet). Play a solo for Ringo!
