Tag Archives: debate

What Annoys Jeff this Week?

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1. A deferred milestone. I thought I was on track to hit the next weight milestone – 200 pounds even, or down 130 – on or about my birthday. Although I’ve started slowly creeping down again, the previous three weeks where I held all things equal has pretty much guaranteed I can’t get there from here unless I develop a pretty nasty stomach bug. It’s disappointing, of course. I was hoping to sit down to my traditional birthday lunch of crabcakes and hushpuppies and proceed to getting back to a “maintenance” level of eating. That feels out of reach. But I’m still damned well planning to have the crab cakes and hushpuppies.

    2. Foreign aid debate. You know what one of the most successful bits of foreign policy of the post World War II era? Yeah, that would be when the United States poured out absolute shiploads of cash, material, and expertise on Europe and rebuilt a shattered continent. It turns out prosperous liberal democracies bound together by deep ties of trade tend not to try to kill each other nearly so often as they did when international diplomacy was a zero-sum game. The weight of American troops and weapons arguably won the war, but it was the Marshall Plan that won the peace. It’s a pity that Americans consistently refuse to remember their own history when we’re talking about relatively paltry sums in the contemporary foreign aid budget. Every scrap of progress we can make by throwing money at the problem is far less expensive than anything that happens when we need to get involved kinetically. 

    3. Walking. Gods, even with the latest in listening technology, walking is just a deadly dull way to spend 30 or 40 minutes every day. Yes, the scenery in the neighborhood is nice. Sometimes I get to see neighbors doing something stupid in full view of the sidewalk. Aside from occasionally getting to interface with the local wildlife, I’m sorry, but there just isn’t much to recommend it. Living at the far end of the dead end street, there are only so many ways to make the path different… and after six months, I’ve trod all those down multiple times each week already. Look, I’ll keep doing it… under protest and purely because the doc says I must… but you’ll never convince me that there isn’t a more interesting or entertaining use to those 30 or 40 minutes of every day that isn’t called off on account of weather. 

    What Annoys Jeff this Week?

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    1. Chili. I’ve made hundreds of pots of chili over the years. It easily makes a menu appearance once a month. I generally use whatever variety of kidney beans I have on hand. Sometimes canned, sometimes dried. It doesn’t make much difference in the final product. This week I happened to have dry beans, which I dutifully put in water to soak overnight before going to bed on Saturday. The next morning, while throwing together the rest of the ingredients, I encountered some kind of mental block and ended up throwing the raw beans directly in the pot with the rest. That wouldn’t have been an insurmountable problem if I had realized my error immediately, but I didn’t discover the error of my ways until hours later, when the whole batch was steeped in raw kidney beans. That’s problematic for two reasons: 1) Raw beans taste awful and 2) Raw kidney beans are just a little bit poisonous and tend to lead to an unpleasant level of “digestive distress.” Anyway, for the first time in my life I threw away an entire gallon and a half of chili. The brain fog I’ve been contending with has improved marginally, but obviously isn’t resolved.

    2. Republican primary candidates. I spent the vast majority of my adult life as a registered Republican. More often than not, I’ve ended up voting for the eventual Republican nominee for most offices. What Wednesday night’s debate between Republican primary contenders revealed was that I continue to have less and less in common with this modern incarnation of the GOP. The party use to be a bulwark for things like a strong national defense, opposing Russian aggression, restricting the role of government in public life, and lowering the tax burden or at least reducing the deficit. Last night showed barely a mention of those issues. It’s probably time I accept that the Republican Party I was a member of for so many years is dead, buried, and unlikely to return. It’s a shame, because in my estimation our form of government is at its best when there are two parties that can passionately articulate what they stand for and why it’s the right vision for the country. From what I saw last night, all the Republicans are offering is some variation of fear and loathing in America and promises to support a convicted felon if he’s nominated. That’ll be a hard pass from me.

    3. Content. With the arrival of my new and improved telework schedule, I’ve been forced to admit that the number of things that annoyed me this week was precipitously low. It’s almost as if quality of life is perhaps inversely proportional to the amount of time spent traveling to and sitting in a place I think of unfondly as Cubicle Hell. I’m sure as the new, new, new normal really takes hold, other more subtle issues will crop up, but for this week it’s really put a crimp in my regular Thursday evening bitching and complaining. As it is, I suppose I’ll just have to be annoyed that this week I’m struggling for content. 

    With joy in my heart…

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    Someone dropped a comment on the blog last Friday evening. It happens from time to time. Every comment gets moderated, because my platform isn’t a general free fire zone. Everyone is welcome to their opinion, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to give them air time. I’m here, after all, to express my opinion, not charge off into endless debates. I get plenty of exposure to that on the other available platforms. 

    Without going into detail, the comment in question was decidedly from a anti-vax, pro-conspiracy bent. Not the kind of thing I’d hit approve on under the best of circumstances. In fairness, though, I should note that the commenter was exceedingly polite and didn’t come across as the wild-eyed wackjob that so often representants that particular group. That in itself feels like something of a rarity and well worth acknowledging.

    Politeness, of course, doesn’t get you a free pass to promote wild ass conspiracy theories under my masthead. Having your name right up there on the top line means being able to enjoy absolute editorial control. It’s not a function I need to exercise particularly often, but when I do it’s always carried out with joy in my heart.

    Lack of substance…

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    I’ve long been in favor of informed debate over just about any issue you could name. Note carefully that I didn’t say argument. I also didn’t say just “debate.” In context, “informed” is the operative part of this sentence. I’m in favor of informed debate.

    This means you need to know actual facts and use them to support your asserted position. 

    “I disagree” isn’t a debate point.

    “You’re stupid” isn’t a debate point. It’s even less of a debate point when it’s “Your stupid.”

    “That’s dumb” isn’t a debate point.

    If you want to support your position, you need to assert statements of fact. Say something like “X happened on Y date and these three things happened as a result.” I’m always happy to consider new information. It’s historically how we as a species learn things.

    Asserting that “If you don’t believe X, Y, and Z, you kick puppies and hate America” isn’t a statement of fact. More than likely it’s a mindless regurgitation of some less than reputable cable television talking head or “internet personality.”

    I’m up for just about any debate on the modern political landscape that you’d like to have, but I’m not going to pretend that I have to lend any credibility to people who flail their arms, stomp their feet, and pretend they’re defending a well-reasoned and intelligent position. 

    We could be having a great national debate on the merits of the issues that confront our republic. We won’t, though, because throwing a tantrum on national television or social media is easier and creates a better five second clip to use so you can get many, many likes. 

    I’ve finished with pretending adults who can’t behave like grown-ups are worth the time and effort it takes to engage with either in the real world or across the universe of social media platforms. I welcome a debate. I welcome learning new things… but statistically speaking, I’ve burned through a little more than half of my allotted time on this rock, so I no longer welcome ideas or people wholly lacking in substance. I have neither the time for, nor interest in entertaining them.

    What Annoys Jeff this Week?

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    1. “Homecoming.” Last weekend some of the parents in my old stomping grounds appear to have held an unofficial homecoming dance for their kids. Social media treated me to pictures with a dozen of their little darlings posted up elbow to asshole – no masks, no distancing, just crowded in like the pictures we would have taken back in the 90s.  Look, I get it. I have incredibly fond memories of homecomings and proms and the fully array of school events, you want to make sure your kid has the same memories, or you get to relive your glory days through them, or whatever. But doing it as we sit here watching COVID-19 bleeding through the ranks of the White House senior staff for engaging in similar fuckery, I have to wonder what would possess anyone to think this was a good idea. Raise ‘em however you want, I guess… but stay the hell away from me.

    2. Candidates. Having now watched “debates” between both the presidential and vice-presidential candidates representing our major political parties, I’m more convinced than ever that it’s not actually the structural government that’s failed us, but rather the bi-polar choice we’re presented with every four years and our collective willingness to go along with it just because it’s what we’ve always done. Our “two party system” has coughed up once candidate who is demonstrably a bad human being and another who, if elected, will pursue a number of policies I’ve opposed my entire adult life. Constrained by a self-regulating system that claims there are only two options, either option is a betrayal… of course that pre-supposes you accept the proposition that there are only two option.

    3. Grass. I’ve been trying to get grass to fill in one small section of the back yard for two years now. It’s the first bit of the yard you see when walking out the back door and I’d be embarrassed to tell you how many bags of grass and clover seeds I’ve thrown down in the process. At best, it’s currently half green and half mud… and then there’s the nearly perfect radius of totally bare dirt where the dogs make their turn to head out towards the far reaches of the yard in high speed pursuit of the resident squirrels. It would be easy to blame this state of affairs on at least one dog who enjoys the rough and tumble of outside a bit too much, but I think we all know that’s not the kind of person I am… so it’s clearly the fault of the grass and some bad seed.

    Political drama…

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    When I’m tinkering around on the computer in the evenings I’ve gotten into the habit of running long since cancelled television shows as background noise. Currently I’m playing my way through season four of The West Wing… which after watching the utter jackassery of a real presidential debate last night reminds me how much more I’d rather live under a Sorkin scripted presidency. Even with some of his more unpleasant left-leaning tendencies.

    I wish I had something more insightful to say on the topic of the real candidates, the actual debate, or the current state of American politics. Unfortunately there isn’t, so I’m stuck with dreaming of a world that resembles a nearly 20-year old political drama far more than it resembles our reality.

    The great debate…

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    I’ve noticed that one of the major news networks is advertising tonight’s debate with the same style commercials that are usually reserved for the UFC fights or boxing matches. It’s good imagery… and as much as I’d like to sit here tonight and tell you that I’m not going to tune in, I just can’t bring myself to spin that yarn.

    It’s going to be a great debate. I don’t, of course, mean that it’s going to rise to the standards set by Lincoln and Douglass, but rather I’m just assuming it’s going to be an epic shitshow worthy of the best (or worst) reality TV we’ve ever seen.

    I don’t see how it can avoid being a train wreck. The only three scenarios I can envision are all equally bad. 1) Secretary Clinton and Mr. Trump spend the whole night beating on each other; or 2) Mr. Trump spends the whole night perfecting his carnival barker routine while Secretary Clinton watches him implode; 3) Secretary Clinton collapses on stage while Mr. Trump dances around her like Apollo Creed at the beginning of Rocky IV. None of those, given these two candidates, bodes particularly well for the future of American democracy.

    Most of the time I can take comfort in the fact that somehow, the Republic endures. These days even that feels like it could be more and more of a stretch.

    Starting around 9PM I’ll be live tweeting the debate @jdtharp for as long as I can stomach it.

    What Annoys Jeff this Week?

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    1. Hard right. Since Mr. Trump has bailed out of the primary debate this week as part of his ongoing “strained relationship” with Fox News, I’ve been quite literally stunned with the number of times I’ve run across posts labeling Fox a part of the “left wing media establishment.” I get my news from a lot of sources, both domestic and international, and thinking of FNC as a lefty mouthpiece just boggles the mind. See, that’s the real problem with the current Republican party. If you’re not in lockstep on abortion, marriage equality, and Jesus, well there’s just no room in the party for you. Sorry gang, but I’m going to call bullshit on that. I’m a Republican the same way Reagan was a Republican. The same way Goldwater was a Republican. The same way Eisenhower was a Republican. What I’m not is a fanatic who assumes mine is the One True Way. I’m a Republican. We use to be a “big tent” party and we could be again, if only we the rest of us have the personal courage to stand up and tell the dogmatic hardliners to GTFO. Otherwise we might as well fold the tent and go on back to the house, because the days of expecting a platform of “be like me or else” winning at the national level are profoundly numbered.

    2. Underutilization. There’s not many jobs I’d consider myself too proud to do. From slopping barns, to stacking hay, flipping burgers, dropping fries, parking cars, accounting for tarps and body bags, ordering hundreds of thousands of tons of ice, or managing 1000-person events. I’ve done all of them and too many more to bother listing. The point isn’t that I’m too proud to do any of these things. The point is that it makes absolutely no economic sense for me to some of them. There’s always an opportunity cost that no one takes into account. Because I’m schlepping buckets of rock salt, that means there are five or six other things that aren’t getting done in a timely manner – things that generally tend to require thought, analysis, and problem solving. With half a career’s worth of experience behind me, my services don’t come cheap. The all-in “fully burdened” cost of having me on the clock is something approaching $100 an hour. Whether that money is spent on turning ice into water or on making sure the uber-boss gets the information he wants is decided by someone else. I’ll go where and do what I’m told, but I’ll always wonder why we so rarely seem to take the time to match the skill set with the person instead of just grabbing the nearest body and making it fit.

    3. Cities. Watching the news out of Baltimore all week and wondering how in seven hells they’ve managed to spend an entire week tinkering around with their plows and not give every street at least a courtesy pass with one of their trucks. Yes, cities are densely packed and often streets are narrow, but still. Come on. You’ve had a week to give everyone at least a fighting chance at getting out of their frozen prison. I live in a subdivision in what might charitably be called an out of the way location. By Sunday evening we’d had enough of a route cut that someone with 4-wheel drive could safely navigate out to our principle access road. By Monday night it was largely down to blacktop. I’m simply perplexed that a major American city – especially one prone to snow in the winter – has this much trouble figuring out what to do. I avoid Baltimore as much as humanly possible, but in this case I’m throughly annoyed by a city government that seems largely made up by the gang that can’t shoot straight.

    The lesser of “who cares…”

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    It’s the 3,743rd and final Republican primary debate of 2015, where I will once more attempt to will myself into cheering on whatever candidate I can only describe as the lesser of “who cares?” Being a student of history, I can’t help but to compare and contrast the people on stage to the men who’ve filled the chair they seek. It seems to me that there was a time when presidents stood like giants on the national stage – Reagan, Nixon, LBJ, Kennedy, FDR. They were outsized men who used big words and challenged America and Americans to to great things. Watching these debates (on both sides) leaves me with a feeling that there isn’t a candidate out there who’s fit to carry water for any of the bunch.

    I don’t for a moment believe America is broken, but I can’t get past the feeling that we’re simply meandering from pillar to post for want of any kind of meaningful leadership. History is replete with examples of the convergence of man and moment, but so very many of the options presented to us are precisely the wrong people at precisely the wrong moment.

    In all likelihood in April I’m going to have to hold my nose and push a button for one of these chumps. I’m convinced that’s one of the real reasons so many people are utterly apathetic about politics. I’m informed and can barely get my pulse to register while watching any of the candidates. What chance does someone who only tunes in only a few days before an election have of making a connection – and paying attention long enough to see it through?

    Sigh. Let me go tune in to tonight’s edition of Shut Up Jerkface, I’m Shouting Louder than You.

    Assessing the competition…

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    I watched as much of the Democratic primary debate last night as I could manage. Based on an hour or so of direct observation, here’s the impression I came away with of the candidates:

    1. Clinton. It doesn’t matter what she says, every time I see her all I can think of is the fact that I’d most likely be sitting in federal prison if I treated classified material the way she did. It’s not a matter of whether the candidates think the American people care or not, it’s a simple matter of personal integrity and standards of conduct that I expect of a senior leader, especially one that would be king.

    2. Sanders. I oppose almost everything this guy stands for, but for the most part I find him to be consistent about his principles. His platform seems to be “Free Everything for Everyone.” That’s fine I guess, except it all has to be paid for eventually. Even if he crammed through a 100% tax on the 1% it’s a budget buster. I could never vote for him, but I can certainly admire the fight he brings to the campaign.

    3. O’Malley. As a Maryland resident, one raised in the West, who lived in the great suburban belt between DC and Baltimore, and now resides on the upper reaches of the Eastern Shore, any time this guy talks about respecting the culture of rural Maryland I throw up a little in my mouth. He didn’t give a tinker’s damn about rural Maryland when he was in office as governor and if anyone thinks he’ll do rural America anything but dirty as president, well, you can’t fix stupid.

    4. Chafee. The guy seems nice enough but he’s a two-legged sleeping pill. If his fate wasn’t sealed already, he was done when he essentially told the world that as a new Senator he voted on bills without any clear understanding of what he was doing. That rarely plays well on TV.

    5. Webb. I’m not sure this one was even at the right debate. He sounded a lot like a Republican.

    The unsurprising result of viewing the debate is that there is no apparent reason I would consider voting for one of these candidates. They don’t speak to many of my issues, and when they do they mostly take the “wrong” side. I’ll have to do my candidate shopping elsewhere.