DL Open Thread: Thursday, July 4, 2024
Typically one of the least-read Open Threads Of The Year. Will this year be different? I write, you decide.
Every columnist everywhere has weighed in on whether Biden should step down or not, with every imaginable permutation as to what should happen if he does. Haven’t read them. Won’t read them. Won’t link to them. They’re ubiquitous. And omnipresent. Spoiler Alert: If he steps down, it won’t be today.
Looks like the Labour Party, which is even weaker than the Democratic Party, will sweep the Tories out of power in England. Raging centrism will abound:
The trend in Britain can be explained in part by voters being fed up with the center-right Conservatives. But it is also a result of Britain’s first-past-the-post voting system, in which smaller parties are at a disadvantage. For example, the Conservative Party polled at 18 percent and the right-wing Reform U.K. party at 17 percent in the latest survey of likely voters by Survation. But the same pollster predicted that Conservatives would win 64 out of 650 seats in Parliament and Reform would win seven seats — or 10 percent and 1 percent, respectively.
“There’s nothing to suggest that Brits are more left wing, or less populist or love immigrants more; they are very similar” to voters on the European continent, said Sara Hobolt, a professor of politics at the London School of Economics. “The core difference is the electoral system … and it’s translating differently because of a cyclical difference in what they are voting for and against.”
Who’s behind those ‘papertarian’ commercials that are all of a sudden everywhere? :
Comedian and actor Retta might be best known for her role on the TV show Parks and Recreation, but she’s already making waves in her new role: The Paper and Packaging Board’s “papertarian” marketing campaign that launched in April.
P+PB is a commodity checkoff program, a national marketing initiative that promotes and provides information about an agricultural commodity without referencing specific producers or brands.Industry funds the program and the U.S. Department of Agriculture oversees it. The goal is to promote and create public preference for paper, especially by highlighting paper products’ sustainability and recyclability.
I was convinced the Koch Brothers were behind this. Looks like I was wrong.
Been watching a lot of Fernwood 2Nite episodes in the wake of the passing of Martin Mull. I can report that I find them every bit as funny now as back when I was watching them ‘under the influence’. If there is a Smarm Hall Of Fame, Barth Gimble belongs in it. Hey, ya might as well start with Episode 1.
Hey, might as well close by treating you to my two favorite 4th of July songs:
“What a waste of gunpowder and sky”:
“Hey, baby, it’s the Fourth of July”:
What do you want to talk about?
You won’t read and link but I will — read and excerpt anyway, without the link.
Robert Reich, who Joe probably reads, has a great essay on aging posted today on Substack, explaining why he decided to stop teaching at age 78.
He concludes:
“Getting too old to do a job isn’t a matter of chronological age. It’s a matter of being lucid enough to know when you should exit the stage before you no longer have what it takes to do the job well.
It saddens me that I won’t be heading back into the classroom this fall. But it was time for me to go.”
I knew Biden was screwed when I saw John Carney on CNN defending him.
The White House had to go way, way, way down their surrogate list to get to ol fuddlesticks.
That’s what happens when you can’t get Coons to go on the record supporting him.
P.S. — Just got an email from the Biden-Harris Merch Team. 25 percent off for the next 48 hours. I’m going to wait a week. Should be 50 percent off by then, or maybe even 75 percent.
Or maybe they’ll pay us to take it off their hands. You know–warehouse lease running out.
Could boost the hometown economy by bargaining for a low-rent warehouse lease in Claymont.
Brilliant song by Amie
When Robert Christgau coined the phrase ‘semi-popular music’, he could easily have had Aimee Mann (and Dave Alvin, for that matter) in mind.
Artists who create brilliant music, but enjoy just a modicum of commercial success. But the people who love artists like Aimee and Dave REALLY love artists like Aimee and Dave.
I play “Fourth of July” every Fourth of July. John Doe and Robert Earl Keen also have good versions.
Well, when Dave left the Blasters, he wrote the song while a member of X, who also recorded it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhu807VUY24
What gets overlooked is that this song, like the Aimee Mann song, are both suffused with sadness. As in ‘we forgot all about the 4th of July’. It’s a song about a fracturing relationship. Check out this version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhu807VUY24
Since John Doe sang it on the X version I associate it with him.