Factual Dispatch #38: Coming Into View

Now that the talking news blobs have had a chance to react to the debate, the fallout, and the 25k strong #BerniesIsBack rally in Queens this weekend, time to dig in! Before But first, why are there still 12? The number of podiums should have been cut by half. We had too many moving targets on the stage, resulting in them fighting for time and further meme-ifying themselves. We also had no questions about climate, which is deplorable. First place marks for commentary go to Elie Mystal, who correctly diagnosed the problem that emerged. To quote:

Even with all of this, the CineScope of this fight is coming into view. This is the first time that Warren was the most immediate target of centrist/moderate focused fire, to the surprise and almost the exclusion of Sanders. With fundraising totals bearing out the “Warren & Sanders vs Everyone Else” meme, we’ve reached the giant robot battle part of the fight, so each candidate will be annotated with Gundams. Because we’re all adults here.

Klobuchar talking directly into the camera, asking Trump to explain himself, not only neatly summarizes her entire campaign, but does so while simultaneously missing the point about how much Trump loves shitposting. It’s extremely evocative of the incorrect understanding of how things work. Evocative in the same way when she tried to attack Medicare For All, pretending that she’d not used Republican talking points without even paraphrasing. The Minnesota response to the opiate crisis was better than some places, but talk of “should never have happened” or “It’s getting worse & worse” and trying to do an “autopsy” of why it happened is NOT A SOLUTION. The true capstone on her inability to understand her privilege was when she stopped and talked about how her dad, a lifelong alcoholic who got chance after change to get his life together, without ever spending time in jail. You know, that thing that’s not a right of essentially all poor white and black people consuming opiates.

Her equating a wealth vs income tax is full-stop wrong. She & Warren/Sanders are not “fighting for different ideas”, they’re materially different policies. Her repeated refrain of “Unite around ideals” means vote, ideally, one would vote for Bernie, so I’m very confused as to why she kept using it. She said straight up the wrong thing on Turkey, proving she has no idea what she’s talking about when she brings up Israel connecting to Turkey. Though, Yang getting dunked by Klobuchar when he tried to humanize Putin was well done. Additionally, her remark about “meddling in my daughter’s life” thing was very relatable and I think it landed well. Ultimately, I’m confused why Klobuchar is still on the stage. A former telecom executive (don’t remind us of that) who decided to argue with an empty chair Clint Eastwood style when tasked with answering Roe v. Wade, will be hopelessly outgunned and outplayed by Trump on his worst day. She should keep working in Congress and push back on the red influences (alt right not communist) in her state.

Castro is doing his best under increasingly hostile conditions to stay in this game, but he’s taking hits. He doesn’t get pulled into the Yang’s automation meme (fact check: automation is not the greatest threat to employment, it’s corporate monopoly & power), but he came across a bit parochial when it came to his solutions. His remark about “caging kids” vs. letting ISIS free was so good I think I audibly said to myself ““Bro you gotta open with that.” His correct take on Iran vs. North Korea, reminding us that North Korea would be idiotic to think America can negotiate in good faith after what’s happened, connecting the Kurds is a massively great point that will get nowhere near enough air-time after the debate is over, and most reading probably didn’t remember or hear he said it. Also, one small beef I had with his questioning, How come the Latin person was the only one that got a question about handguns? His invocation of Tatiana Jefferson, illustrating how cops can lead to death in four seconds, while equating police violence with gun violence was a huge win that I think the crowd really appreciated. Castro correctly identified the non-labor friendly aspects of big tech and monopolies without being pulled into the Yang traps of tech and UBI. He did competently as always, but at this stage in the game, I’m not sure he did well enough to continue being a part of the conversation.

Conversely, Mayor Pete is working hard to present as a neoliberal centrist that can mend all ills by shooting anyone to the left of Roosevelt out of the sky. His signature issue, fitting hand-in-glove with the CNN/NYTimes aggressive framing, was trying to get Warren to admit that “taxes” will go up if Medicare-For-All is passed. I don’t think this will go well for him, for a few reasons. Not only do most Americans care far more about their overall healthcare costs vs. their tax bills (given the standard deduction, most working class Americans getting a rebate, etc), but as the New York Times surprisingly points out, we don’t need to raise taxes to pay for Medicare For All, at all. Finally, as a consultant, soldier, and government worker he’s always had healthcare, so but his choice of healthcare was usually restricted. So his continued push for “choice” falls flat. Furthermore, Medicare-For-All-Who-Want-It has too many hyphens. Washington politicians saying taxing the rich is a thing that people won’t “believe” is fucking ludicrous, but given his finishing school and pedigree, it’s probably a thing a lot of his colleagues think.

He drives a Chevy Cruz? Was that sponsored content, was he paid by Chevrolet to say that? Alternatively, his round-the-world dunk on Gabbard and the Kurdish genocide was needed, but also frustratingly imperialist. That discussion needs to take place without soldiers, McKinsey consultants, colonialists or neoliberals driving. His point about America not being trustworthy anymore remains correct, important, and is being entirely ignored by the press gaggle desperately attempting to humanize Trump daily. He was given a wide berth this evening without being cut off like others, and used it to go after people. His push at Beto on gun buybacks given his police-involved shootings was kind of terrible in context. “I don’t need lessons from you on courage,” is a terrible thing to say to someone who spent the last several months grieving with his town, even if you’re a veteran. I’ll leave you with this report on how much cash he’s getting from pharma and healthcare interests, just in case you were wondering where his new-found hatred of M4A is coming from.

I’m somewhat concerned that Gabbard has gotten this much attention. I didn’t want to do a focused deep dive on her, but her positioning and this weird non-story about Hillary declaring Tulsi a Russian asset, has forced my hand. Her continued referencing of “hyperpartisan interests” while using boilerplate reactionary talking points was an immediate red flag for me. Her unswerving support of Modi, incoherent attempt to explain Assad’s use of chemical weapons, and peace-for-non-Muslims anti-war stance dovetail into a worrying summary of my deep concerns about her. She received donations from The Federalist last quarter. She’s also refused to speak ill of Modi, Assad, Sisi of Egypt, and Netanyahu, so that should be noted alongside the rest of her application. These surface level analyses of the issues she’s taken strong, sometimes violence-friendly stands on, shouldn’t be ignored now that she’s reached the playoffs. Syria’s “regime change” is not what’s responsible for Kurdish slaughter, that’s Turkey, Iraq, and our betrayal of those Kurdish people, to the benefit of both frenemy countries. Gabbard’s continued declaration that facts not to her liking are fake news vs producing deep analysis of how to disengage from the PKK and SDF, is hugely disappointing. The true veteran anti-war candidate knows the history of America’s tepid support for a Kurdish state, and confused protection of them. When she legitimately called for the sanctions to be called off against Syria I knew this was a bigger problem than I anticipated.

She gave Mayor Pete the platform to appear as THE American veteran and adult honored person on the stage, a huge unforced error. Later on, she contradicts herself and blames Trump for letting the Turks slaughter the Kurds after asking why we’re there protecting said Kurds, in the space of an hour. This flap was very problematic, and milsec voices noticed it immediately. One note, no Tulsi, you & the other candidates don’t get to ask other candidates questions hon, you’re not the moderator. My biggest fear is that she’ll be picked up by Yang, and that partnership will evolve from interesting idea to Jill Stein foil.

Why is Steyer here? Billionaire candidates that won radio call in contests are just distracting and stupid. “Need to Impeach” two years ago feels oddly forced, from someone this privileged. His “I shouldn’t exist” thing is weird, like a dodo advocating for their own extinction. I don’t really understand it and I trust it even less. Like, if he hates billionaires so much, why isn’t this dude just funding 5,000 local DSA candidates or something? Steyer has no idea how to deal with Putin, and I eagerly await the misinfo dig in on the dude’s industry ties. He has 100% no idea how to answer the opiate question and spent 100% of the time given not answering that question. He has no idea has no idea how to discuss taxes or big tech. Given that he’s spent $47 million on this fail of a campaign, the mind reels thinking of what could be done with that money instead.

Yang’s disingenuous representation that a Federal Jobs Guarantee wouldn’t affect child care workers or helping kids with special needs was a gross way to start. Self-serve kiosks don’t reduce retail/food service employee totals, so that meme can die. Trucking industry automation is not a proxy for general automation and it’s kind of a weird identity politics call out, which implies he’s at the end of his campaign rope. Yang opposes a wealth tax on implementation grounds, not because it’s wrong, which makes him sound like a billionaire. He’s right that election security and the wars of tomorrow are important to grapple with, and yes, decrim of opiates is a good idea. His support for safe consumption sites is HUGE, but his Opiate Crisis policy is still a nightmare. Restricting prescribing of opiates to hospitals and pain specialists will make pain treatment for rural Americans essentially impossible, driving them deeper into the underground drug markets. His comment that breaking up FB definitely helps kids use FB less, even if breaking up FB isn’t the answer, was a weird feint, that I’m not sure landed correctly. Turn the clock not left, not right, but forward is Yang’s “Thousand Points of Light.

Beto looks past his previous performance, trying to emulate Harris and maybe even Warren to speak directly to the people. Beto’s continued salt of the earth fusion with progressive value & trade plan ideas, is compelling. I have no belief it’ll get anywhere and I still think he should dunk Cornyn, but he’s earned the privilege to run out the clock on his campaign unfettered. His response to El Paso earned him that much. Wealth tax vs. “grand vision centrism” when it comes to income inequality was, however, pretty small-minded and myopic. Alternatively, his answer to Russia did come off very Kennedy-esque, including referencing diplomacy as a tactic. It seems like he spoke reflexively in Spanish while talking about two non-border/immigration related question topics, which felt like he was thinking in it. Mayor Pete and Anderson Cooper both tried to go after him about gun control and he ran out the clock in two languages. Don’t go at a man who has had to comfort families of mass shooting victims, and Pete tried quite capably. He still lost. Beto & Yang calling for getting cannabis at the VA is a weird partnership, but I’ll take it.

Oh hey, Harris is also here! She got less time than Mayor Pete, and handled her lack of time less well than Booker. Her answers were good when she got there, and she was a bit more surprisingly orthodox when it comes to gun violence. Homicide vs. mass shootings is a fraught line to walk, but she did reasonably well walking it. Harris’ hilarious dismissal of big tech “needing to be protected” landed well, but the “block him on twitter!” pestering at Warren is severe wine mom energy. The Resistance thinks getting a twitter acct taken down is a victory? I’m pretty solidly in agreement with Warren saying you gotta get him out of office vs. off Twitter. Her referencing of “Preclearance” sounds like a thing in Law & Order and a thing that some Alabama county magistrate will ignore about as much as NBC. Too little too late for Harris, though I don’t think CNN/NYTimes did her any favors this time around.

Booker’s idiotic insistence to talk over a moderator to start his evening was gross, putting him in the Delaney & Bullock tier, not the Yang tier.Calling out Mattis as a great general is classic Booker, mitigating the impact him reminding people Saudi Arabia is getting more troops, could have had. Duck & Cover vs. Fire Drills in the mass shooting discussion is an interesting point, but came when he should have already been quiet. Pharma to Farms is awkward , but saying “he’d enforce antitrust laws” and bringing up vegan things equal discussing how to hold big tech accountable? That was weird and bad. The gas is just about out of his tank, and I look forward to him being picked up as Biden’s VP in a few months.

Biden got as many softballs as possible from CNN, The NY Times, and fellow rich person Cooper, and still managed to not make it to first base. George Washington? You can’t get the story straight as to why Hunter wasn’t implicated in Ukraine and add the words “appearance of impropriety?” Literally calling something BidenPlan? Talking about the tax problems of people who make 50,000-94,000 a year? Who the fuck cares about middle income people when there are fewer and fewer people who are in that class every year? “I would eliminate the capital gains tax” Damn bro, Freudian slip. His reference to “ISIS folks” would be fucking hilarious if they weren’t terrorists. Biden really needs to not talk about ISIS, given his vote history in creating it. Even at the peak of his strength, when he was talking about gun control and assault rifles, he stumbled on his words. Biden remains unable to finish a paragraph unflinchingly, so his talk about being 80 as a positive is both foolish and provably false. “Every woman should have that right” in response to abortion is similarly foolish. Nah bro, they have it, not should. I’ll get into how he yelled at Warren shortly, but after that appearance, I do not see a path to a strong showing on Super Tuesday, much less the presidency.

Without the stupid vocal fry handicap, Sanders was able to remain stubbornly on message, even with NBC attributing a direct quote of his to Warren. His statement that taxes going up matters less when premiums go away is correct, but it was railroaded over by the moderators. It’s conceptually hilarious that everyone went after Warren for Medicare For All, when Sanders wrote the damn bill. It seemed almost repellent to him that they were getting into the minutiae and stupidity. While Biden tried to provide contrast between him & Sanders using the well-worn meme about “getting things done” it was neatly knocked aside:

A Federal Jobs Guarantee is the only smart post-automation plan we can deploy, as Americans will never stomach basic income until Protestantism dies. Don’t ask Bernie if Billionaires should exist, that’s activating his trap card. He was asked, then knocked that out of the park like Mark Fucking McGuire. Sanders was right to immediately say Turkey, while in NATO, might not be an ally, and to refocus immediately to Kurdish fighters along the lines of American leadership & trustworthiness. They really didn’t give Bernie a single second to talk shit about pharmaceutical companies? It felt like he wasn’t a priority because everyone was more afraid of Warren, which allowed him to shore up his messaging and sound adult.

They all came for Warren. Warren refused to play the head-ass CNN game about being pulled into “taxes will go up” referring to Medicare and healthcare spending. The insistence to refer to it as “costs” not taxes is the correct play and Warren is right to die on this hill. “It’s hard enough to get a diagnosis” is a powerful meme that she pushed out into the ether. Just a reminder that the research documenting 60% of bankruptcies involve medical debt was actually conducted by Warren and published in 2009.

Warren also correctly dunks on Yang’s meme-ification of globalization, so well that I expect we’ll see less of that from him in the future. Naming “Accountable Capitalism,” suggesting 40% of a Board of Directors be from/elected by labor was an interesting idea that didn’t get enough time. Putting the size of a financial tax in context, showing that it can pay for everything including student loan debt relief was smart. “Why doesn’t everyone ELSE support a wealth tax?” was a HUGE win for Warren. Warren knocked Gabbard’s super move away and shunted it back towards Trump. “We have been so close since 2013” on gun reform, was also powerful. “Or whoever the Republicans get stuck with” was kind of cute. Warren is learning quickly, with the idea of platform capitalism is something she’s learning and evolving on. Her explanation, “being the umpire or having a team” is a powerful metaphor, with her messaging on it iterating faster than Facebook can pivot. Her call for campaign finance reform instead of Big tech reform is the right call. Which also allowed her to avoid being ensnared by Harris repeatedly on a single facet vs. staying targeted on the larger issue. Warren’s reminder that the CFPB gets things done doesn’t allow Biden to get away with “we won’t get it done” nicely. Her handling of Biden literally yelling I GOT YOU VOTES and “You Did a Hell of a Job!” was iconic and will be what we’ll remember for months. Warren not relenting at Biden barking is an experience I think millions of women have had at one point in their lives, and you know what, it’s enough already.

My last note, the last question asked, about the Ellen/Dubya spate…was profoundly fucked up. Sharing laughs and nachos with Dubya isn’t bad because you might disagree about whether a calzone is a dumpling or whether the last season of GoT was disappointing. I don’t share laughs and nachos with people who are associated/who led the administration responsible for the deaths of 250,000-1,000,000 civilians who look like me, and allowed the destruction of a major American city populated by people darker than me. It’s the same reason I don’t bring up Henry Kissinger around my Cypriot relatives, as my extended family had its fair share of people tortured by the Turkish invasion he enabled. To be clear, genocide and war crimes are not differences of opinion, they are some of the most shameful mistakes we’ve ever committed as a nation, that we’re still paying for.

Eye-Watering Data Visualization of the Week: Washington DC’s topology, Joy Division-style.

Vaguely Dystopian News of the Week: Military naming people, please call it something other than “Skynet” and “Cloud in the Sky.”

Annoying-But-Correct Take of the Week: You’re not hallucinating, voters really do prefer the tax plans from Warren & Sanders. Also, the NBA bending over backwards to China was no secret to people in the industry. Also Also, Female CFOs brought in $1.8 trillion more than their male peers.

Huh, Interesting” Read of the Week: Laser scanning shows that ancient Mayan farms were far more expansive than previously thought.

Royal Sampler:

The New Yorker’s look at auto-suggest vs. auto-correct is great, if a little neurotic. 

The American Interest looked at AI and what we actually may have to fear. 

Fortnite solved downtime. If you’re not sure, just ask your kid about black holes and the beginning of Chapter Two.

One man’s fight for quiet, and the increasingly inescapable awful din.

Facebook isn’t taking down political ads for lying, but for a weird smattering of unevenly enforced reasons. Seems fine.

Foreign Policy produced an amazing report on how governments are failing women, called the Her Power Index.

Sylvester Stallone still has the turtles from Rocky. Also, goth cardinals.

Neolithic dildos are a thing apparently.

Trivium China published a fantastic deep dive on the Apps of China’s social credit system.

Morgan Housel does another long-read on how history affected the decision making of generations to come.

How big tech & social media is ending discussion or ruining political discourse, depending on who you ask.

Dunk of the Week:  

The chills bring the urge to hibernate. But make sure all of your stores are filled, it’s going to be a long winter.

Yours,T