Tendown, October 30, 2016

Tendown 247 is here. This is Tendown 248



Here's the millenial projection.  Good luck down the road, GOP.

1. The Piece You Read This Week.

 In 1974, young liberals did not perceive financial power as a threat, having grown up in a world where banks and big business were largely kept under control. It was the government—through Vietnam, Nixon, and executive power—that organized the political spectrum. By 1975, liberalism meant, as Carr put it, “where you were on issues like civil rights and the war in Vietnam.” With the exception of a few new members, like Miller and Waxman, suspicion of finance as a part of liberalism had vanished.

Over the next 40 years, this Democratic generation fundamentally altered American politics. They restructured “campaign finance, party nominations, government transparency, and congressional organization.” They took on domestic violence, homophobia, discrimination against the disabled, and sexual harassment. They jettisoned many racially and culturally authoritarian traditions. They produced Bill Clinton’s presidency directly, and in many ways, they shaped President Barack Obama’s.         

            

The result today is a paradox. At the same time that the nation has achieved perhaps the most tolerant culture in U.S. history, the destruction of the anti-monopoly and anti-bank tradition in the Democratic Party has also cleared the way for the greatest concentration of economic power in a century.

2. The 3rd Debate

 Chris Wallace was a stylistically credible moderator. The Fox News host kept both Trump and Hillary Clinton on topic, more or less, and he even asked a couple of follow-up questions.

But when it came to the austerity issues that have so clearly shaped the 2016 presidential race, Wallace got the substance all wrong; and, in so doing, he maintained the agonizingly low standards for economic discourse that have always characterized forums organized by the lamentable Commission on Presidential Debates.

Wallace’s questions about economics and fiscal policy featured wrongheaded recitations of false premises that were every bit as absurd as the Republican nominee’s repetition of discredited claims about “rigged” elections.

3. It's not a campaign - it's hat sales.

4. 

5. Black Jeopardy and How to think About the White Working Class

here.

here.

6. So hard to be on the same side with these people.

In mid-to-late 2016 a new form of political commentary emerged... pic.twitter.com/2xVbzT1IZu

— Will 🐋 Menaker (@willmenaker) October 28, 2016

7.

When cartoons come to life. pic.twitter.com/eR33KHTggk

— Billmon (@billmon1) October 29, 2016

8. 

9. 

10.

Every time I think this decade can't possibly get any dumber, I read a phrase like "beach privilege." https://t.co/1EPgJwQJG3 pic.twitter.com/XJ3MzTh4u5

— Marty Beckerman (@martybeckerman) October 29, 2016

And one more...

That's all for this time.  I'll be back next time....if there is a next time....

Your pal,

Jim