Thursday Required Reading

Posted on February 25, 2021 by Ron Byrnes

1. Hiking Is an Ideal Structure for Friendship. Love stories like this.

“As soon as we complete one hike, we immediately establish when the next will be. We rotate the organization and planning duties, eeny-meeny-miny-moe style.

That person has complete authority and responsibility to organize the hike, select the location, provide the beer and other refreshments, and make any other side-trip plans. We’ve done breakfast, dinner. We sometimes hit various local watering holes, or we just plop down with a cooler in the woods somewhere. The organizer is responsible for setting up all the logistics, soup to nuts, and is not questioned on the decisions made.”

2. This game has surpassed League of Legends, Fortnite and Valorant as the most-watched gaming category.

3. 2021’s Best States to Retire. I know, I know, how can any state known for the blog ‘PressingPause’ be ranked 31st? Spurious methods.

4. Inside a Battle Over Race, Class and Power at Smith College. Don’t know where to start on this one.

5. Mean tweets may take down Biden nominee. If only Neera Tanden had shown the same tact and diplomacy as The Former Guy. Has nothing to do with “civility” and everything to do with political power. It’s a tad bit ironic that the R’s are channeling Malcolm X. “By whatever means necessary.” (credit: DDTM)

6. The most important Western artist of the second half of the twentieth century. (credit: Tyler Cowen)

Tweet Of The Week

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Maybe He Got Tired Of Winning

Posted on February 19, 2021 by Ron Byrnes

The Wall Street Journal explains why Trump lost the election. Bears repeating, the Wall Street Journal:

“Much of this erosion in support was based on dislike for Mr. Trump personally and the way he handled the Presidency. ‘While a majority of voters said they didn’t find either Presidential candidate honest or trustworthy, Biden held a double-digit advantage over POTUS,’ especially in the five states that flipped to Mr. Biden in 2020, says the Fabrizio analysis.

Mr. Trump was favored 6 to 1 or more among voters on the economy. But the coronavirus was the top voter issue in both groups of states, and Mr. Biden carried those voters 3 to 1. Mr. Trump’s eroded credibility and inability to maintain a consistent Covid message may have been decisive.

More startling is that Mr. Trump ‘suffered his greatest erosion with white voters, particularly white men in both state groups,’ according to the Fabrizio analysis. This offset his double digit gains with Hispanics while he performed about as well with blacks as he did in 2016. The former President also lost ground with nearly every age group in both sets of states, and he ‘suffered with white college educated voters across the board.’

We rehearse all this not to rub an open political wound. The point is to remember, as time passes and Mr. Trump blames everyone else for his defeat, that 2020 was a winnable race. Mr. Trump had many accomplishments to tout, and voters recognized them. But Mr. Biden’s consistent campaign message of a return to a calmer, more unifying politics resonated with millions of voters who had tired of the constant Trump turmoil.

Mr. Trump didn’t lose to Joe Biden. He lost to himself.”

In hindsight, he defers to the scientists, wears a mask, advocates for masks, he wins. Those of us who desperately wanted to send him packing have his ego to thank.

Imagine

Posted on February 18, 2021 by Ron Byrnes

You’re a Senator. And your constituents are experiencing unprecedented electrical blackouts as a result of an unusual one-two punch of snow and freezing temperatures (and deregulation and blind faith in markets). Many of the people you represent are at 62 hours and counting with no electricity. 36 people have died. What do you do?

The answer is obvious. Fly to Cancun with your family. If you answered differently, you probably aren’t cut out to be a Senator from Texas.

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Where the hell is the bottom with Ted?

‘A Divisive Style of Mockery’

Posted on February 18, 2021 by Ron Byrnes

It’s been over 24 hours. My suggested “let Rush Limbaugh lie in silence” moratorium is over. Or borrowing from The New York Times, the moratorium on criticizing the Right-Wing Attack Machine is over.

Last night I listened to several of his AM radio descendants gush over him so that you didn’t have to. The refrain? He was a patriot, he loved the United States more than anyone, and he loved Americans.

Bullshit. His love was extremely conditional. He loved the parts of the country that loved him. He loved Americans who looked like him, who thought like him, who were afraid of the same things. He didn’t love people of color, he didn’t love feminists, he didn’t love the physically disabled.

The New York Times put it this way:

“He became a singular figure in the American media, fomenting mistrust, grievances and even hatred on the right for Americans who did not share their views, and he pushed baseless claims and toxic rumors long before Twitter and Reddit became havens for such disinformation.”

A highly destructive legacy.

Rush Limbaugh Dead At 70

Posted on February 17, 2021 by Ron Byrnes

Too many lefties lustily celebrating. Sign of the times. Lost in the cacophony, not saying anything is a statement.

San Francisco Symbolism

Posted on February 12, 2021 by Ron Byrnes

Paragraph to ponder:

“San Francisco is about 48 percent white, but that falls to 15 percent for children enrolled in its public schools. For all the city’s vaunted progressivism, it has some of the highest private school enrollment numbers in the country — and many of those private schools have remained open. It looks, finally, like a deal with the teachers’ union is near that could bring kids back to the classroom, contingent on coronavirus cases continuing to fall citywide, but much damage has been done. This is why the school renamings were so galling to so many in San Francisco, including the mayor. It felt like an attack on symbols was being prioritized over the policies needed to narrow racial inequality.”

Take-away. . . almost anything is easier than narrowing racial inequality.