The press has had a feeding frenzy over Sarah Palin’s emails and Anthony Weiner’s weiner, but giving only a passing glance at stories that are important. If the same media crew had been reporting on the late Roman Empire, they’d be all over some scandal about what Senator Maximus did with his horse and only mention in passing that the empire is being divided up into pieces and, oh yes, there are barbarians at the gates.
Example: Americans are being told that Medicare has to be cut to save money, but that’s OK, because their health care needs can be taken care of by private insurance companies. And that’s better, because the private sector is always more cost-effective than the public sector.
Except …
Krugman’s column today explains all the ways that privatizing Medicare, or raising the age of eligibility, would cost the nation more money that it saves. But unless you are a Krugman reader or devoted progressive blog follower, you’ll never hear any of this.
And then there’s the debt ceiling issue. Polls show a majority of Americans are opposed to raising the debt ceiling, and I continue to argue that most Americans don’t understand what the debt ceiling is and what will happen is if isn’t raised. And nobody is explaining it to them.
Josh Marshall says that some of the big banks already are planning for cutting use of Treasuries, adding, “Republicans are playing Russian Roulette with the US economy. But with like three or four bullets in the chamber.”
David Kurtz asks, “Is it too much to hope for that the GOP presidential candidates will be pressed in tonight’s debate in New Hampshire on their party’s gambit to drive the U.S. into default?”
The debate will be on CNN. I don’t know if I have the stomach to watch, but if anyone requests it I’ll create an open thread for those of you who want to comment on it.
I (briefly) watched a forum on presidential debates and about half-way through came to the conclusion that they should disappear into history, right along with published polls and political ads.
The reason? They are merely convenient venues for unadulterated propaganda. Goebbels, who practically invented modern propaganda said, “To be perceived, propaganda must evoke the interest of the audience and must be transmitted through an attention-getting communication’s medium. Credibility alone must determine whether propaganda output should be true or false.”
That last sentence makes it clear that whether something is true or false is of no importance, only if it can be made credible is what counts.
Oh, maha,
You Liberals with your fancy, elite, Liberal charts, and graphs a figures.
Well, we have our own fact and figures – and who’s to say we can’t have them? They “feel” right to us.
As for the debate, I’m not planning on watching it.
I’m planning on blinding myself with white hot knitting needles a couple of hours before, just in case I get tempted.
Nah, maybe I’ll just get blind drunk instead.
The candidates will be bad enough, but I just can’t take Wolf, and his “Worst Political Team on Television” anymore.
Besides, I’ll look around tomorrow for the video’s of them trying to top one another.
One will bite the head off a bat, ala Ozzy Osbourne, to show how leaderless we are with Obama in charge.
And after that, wll, no animal, whose head can fit into a big-mouthed politicians pie-hole, within 3 states will be safe from beheadings. Maybe one of them can fit Wolf’s head in there. Now THAT would be worth tuning in for!
I was thinking the same thing. Maybe I’ll get blind drunk and watch Bridezillas reruns.
Interesting comments, cund and maha. If you two political animals, and I include myself, are any indication, not only are the non-political animals not going to watch the debates (they never do) but those of us who, perhaps, once did are either not going to watch them or are going to get blind-drunk (good idea) and watch in a stupor. More fodder for my conclusion that they should disappear into history.
I recall the Nixon/Kennedy debate which, if one listened to it on the radio was won by Nixon but if one watched it, was won by Kennedy. Pundits attributed this odd outcome to Nixon’s five-o’clock shadow, which made him look like a thug. So much debates being a reliable source in the voting booth.
I’m a bit of a political junkie myself but, my gawd, 17 months before the election. Isn’t that a little too much? Do I dare say the Government should regulate it?
Felicity,
I’d watch if I thought someone were going to say something I hadn’t heard before – or at least something slightly interesting.
But they’re all going to go over the same old talking points, and all of them will be there trying to out-tough one another like a bunch of testoterone soaked teenage boys at a public pool – and yes, the women in the debate will act the same way too.
One will scream ‘I’ll cut 11 trillion dollars,’ the next 12 trillion, and so on, and so on, until ‘The Insipid Old Wolf’ says, “Well, that’s all we have time for on this subject…”, and they go onto some other way to tear this country apart while posturing, preening, and positioning themselves to lead the starving rabble that’s left and that’ll be happy to take the smallest crumbs left to them by their Galtian superiors.
I’m 53, and I don’t want to waste a second of the precious time I have left watching a bunch of Christo-Fascist’s trying to out-brown shirt one another in front of their knuckledragging thug base.
The quickest, least-hangover-inducing approach to this evening is to Google up Kavafy’s poem “Waiting for the Barbarians” as a double-edged sword to cut through the bull and express deep disdain for the “debate” among the know-nothings.
I just finished Chris Hedges’ “Empire of Illusion”, which means I will be in a blue funk for a few days. I get upset when, my darkest vision of the world is echoed and supported with beaucoup endnotes, by someone who has so much greater intellect and experience. I can’t dismiss it so readily as advancing paranoia and dementia, or the lack of some essential medication.
But, the book does offer a plausible narrative of how we got here, that is how, fabrications eclipsed truth and how we are distracted by pseudo-events and celebrities, while our society crumbles. In the end, we’re just too stupid to survive.
One thing about having a disconnected TV is that I don’t have to consider watching a spectacle like this “debate”. We’re having a spectacular firefly season (hummingbirds too) and I think I’ll just watch them. It’s better for my mental health. Moderate use of alcoholic beverages, of course, would not interfere with the experience.
Adam Curtis’s BBC documentaries are also good for a dark but revealing insight. “Century of the Self” and a few others are available on youtube. You better check them out before President Bachmann has them removed from the internet.
“but if anyone requests it I’ll create an open thread”
No need really, I’m sure the debate will go much like this:
Wolf asks a softball question, None of the candidates will answer instead we will hear: Obama’s a socialist, Obamacare, Goverment takeover, small goverment, libety, Ronnie Raygun, etc – blah-blah-blah
Maybe what we need is a debate watching drinking game.
I think it would take incredible fortitude or some really great drugs (or both) to watch a GOP primary debate. The clowns will try to out-clown each other to their rabid base. Reality will be completely out the window, with or without drugs. Since I lack the fortitude and the drugs, I will not be watching. Now, the final debates, between the D’s and R’s chosen candidates, might be worthwhile.
“Maybe what we need is a debate watching drinking game”
Yeah, with more cow bell…………..
Well, to be sure we’ll hear things about “The founding fathers” we never knew with the added plus of Bible history re-writes, a gay time will be had by all,”specially when Sarah goes off on a tear; I can’t f’in wait. I’ll even be brave and dive in cold sober!
Since you opened this post with a graph about Medicare costs, there’s an article at DKos reporting that the conservative British Prime Minster Cameron is reassuring the British public that he will not sell off their NHS and replace it with an American-style insurance scheme. That’s the frightening rep our system has abroad.
How I wish we would get into a debate about the age of Medicare eligibility. The wingnuts can argue for raising the age, and some brave politician from the Reality Based Community could argue for lowering it to cover everyone – Medicare Part E. They could, if ObamaCare were not in the way.
Hey Goatherd, While up around Marsall N.C. last June, there was a spectular showing of hummingbirds followed with a performance by the fireflys at dusk.
The setting lwas magnificant on the mountain top with some special people.
Magic.
They should hold the debate in Sarasota.
“They should hold the debate in Sarasota.”
I attended CCCHS (you know what I’m talkin’ ’bout Swami) in ’69.
My science teacher(Mr. Cleary) was fond of saying “If you want to be a clown, move to Sarasota”.Mr. Cleary was as blind as a bat due to cataracts, and would stumble about to the delight of his students. Sad, but true……
@ Moonbat,
The new Medicare will be a Bible, a bottle of asprin, a roll of duct tape, and a Toby Keith cd.
That ‘ill learn’em!
“They should hold the debate in Sarasota.”
Swami, erinyes, I hate to admit this, but, I graduated from Riverview HS in Sarasota. I think Pee Wee Herman’s sister was there at the same time, but I didn’t know her, Pee Wee went to Sarasota HS, I think.
But, remember the good people of Sarasota were in Katherine Harris’ district. They’re probably tough enough to survive Palin and Bachmann, but haven’t they suffered enough?
“I’m a bit of a political junkie myself but, my gawd, 17 months before the election. Isn’t that a little too much? Do I dare say the Government should regulate it?”
I think in France, they are limited to a month. But, then they wound up with Sarkozy instead of Royale. Big mistake. I get so tired of the horse race and the constant dialog about political advantage and strategy when both parties have a country to run, theoretically. Of course, now we have a party that has a country to ruin. If they devoted half as much time to clarifying the policies and fact checking, we would at least have a fighting chance.
Goatherd,
I spend a lot of time working in Sarasota / Manatee counties, beautiful area.
Pretty water, nice people, great beaches, but come November, the hoards descend from the frozen North bringing death from senior citizens with bad driving skills.(Canadians!)EH?
Oy, friggin’ vey….
BTW, PeeWee got the shaft…..
My time is too important to me to listen to a bunch of Republicans spout Republican talking points for however long the debate will last. That is what all the televised debates are these days. A debate between parties and independents could possibly be worth my time; but, not a debate among Republicans. I can read about it tomorrow in the Republican MSM.
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Here’s an idea for a drinking game. Any time a candidate doesn’t answer the question asked (in the opinion of the moderator) they have to take a shot. Options will be Smirnoff, Southern Comfort, Jim Beam, Johny Walker.. What have I left out? About halfway through, the candidates will be too drunk to keep their lies and pre-packaged answers straight, and might start telling the truth.
Wouldn’t that be interesting?
Great article handicapping the Republican field. A couple nuggets:
It should be interesting…There’ll be more clowns in attendance than there usually are in a three ring circus. The Hermanator is the one to watch if pure entertainment value is your draw. And Newt is the guy to watch if you’re doing an understudy in the art of weaseling..I’m sure the other candidates are going to serve up a generous portion of Paulie Ryan medicare crow for Newt to eat as the debate progresses.
I’m hoping it develops into an all out slug fest and they turn on each other like the rabid jackals they are..
Felicity nailed it in the very first comment! I had an attack of schadenfreude and tuned in for the last 20 minutes. Lies, fear and dishonesty filled all spaces not taken by ignorance. And to make it worse, I’ve seen Huckleberry’s anti-Obamacare commericals twice this evening. I wonder how much money he is making from it.
Thankfully I didn’t see the clowns engaging in their so called debate..I hear it was just a pile on to blame Obama for our shit economy…Here’s a little something of an old story that might jar some memories in understanding how our economy got to be in such bad shape.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110613/us_yblog_thelookout/more-than-6-billion-in-iraq-reconstruction-funds-lost
I know it’s been a gradual process since Reagan that brought us to the point where we are today, but the Bush administration pushed us over the edge with their economic malfeasance. It bothers me that these GOP bozos are trying to hang the failings of Republican policy around the neck of Obama when it’s been all their doing.
Swami,
In all fairness, the Republicans have had a lot of help from the Blue Dogs in both Houses.
If they didn’t go along with the Republican schemes willingly, they turned their heads and made goo-goo eyes at Wall Street for donation money.
Now some of this is because since the late ’60’s and Nixon, and especially St. Ronnie of Hollywood, Republicans have worked on convincing people on Main Street that anyone to the left of Jack Kemp was a DFH, an anarchist, and a 5th Columnist; so the Democrats lost a good chunk of their blue-collar base.
This of course is all overly simplistic, but I’m practicing “simplistic” in case Republicans get both Houses and the Presidency. Anyone too complicated may find themselves in trouble.
Speaking of simplistic, or is it simpletons, NO, I didn’t watch the debate
We have 17 months to go, and I want to preserve my sanity as long as possible – at least what little there left of it at this point.