Thanks so much to the Fif’ fans who came out to (and organized!) the boffo UATX panel on patriotism Saturday night. I do not recall being in an academic setting where the students were this engaged/smart/fearless. It’s always a pleasure being challenged on immigration & assimilation by dudes in full Halloween regalia.
These, of course, are not the limits of Austin’s pleasures….
* REMINDER: There are still tickets available to our Nov. 12 Fairfield University live show w/ Dem-strategist & Episode #579 guest Yemisi Egbewole. We also look forward to seeing some of you at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s Soapbox 26 conference in Philly Nov. 6. And I for one look forward to a looooong nap beginning around Nov. 13….
* This of course is happening Tuesday night, God help/damn us all. Have you taken our Hate Poll? Two of the candidates there, Abdul El-Sayed and Mike Rogers, had a spot of news today, what with El-Sayed’s vanquished Democratic primary opponent Haley Stevens going HAM today with an endorsement for the Republican. As a certified double-hater of both Senate candidates in Michigan, I associate with most of the sentiments voiced by my Reason colleague Robby Soave (veteran of episodes #332, #517, and Members Only #322):
[E]veryone slamming Stevens as some kind of traitor should know this: Unshakeable, ironclad loyalty to one’s own political party is not really a virtue. I would much prefer to live under a system in which Republicans and Democrats were more likely to buck their own parties and say that supporting such and such a person is outside the bounds of what can reasonably be expected. It’s encouraging that Karl Rove has refused to vote for Bo French, the nominee for Texas Railroad Commissioner and an unapologetic anti-Indian racist. It would be better for the country if more Republicans followed his example—and if they similarly punished their Senate nominee, the manifestly corrupt Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
The same is true of Democrats. El-Sayed does not appear to be corrupt or racist, and some of the allegations of anti-Semitism leveled against him are unfair: Criticisms of the government of Israel are not synonymous with attacks on Jewish people. That said, he is an extremely far-left political candidate—a socialist in all but name—who thought it was a good idea to campaign with [Hasan] Piker, a communist sympathizer with a long track record of evincing support for terrorist groups. El-Sayed previously derided President Barack Obama, who enacted an extremely progressive policy agenda, as “fairly centrist, middle-of-the-road.” Democratic primary voters are free to pick leftists to be their candidates, but normal Democrats should not feel bound by those choices. Socialism, even socialism-lite, should always be viewed as a bridge too far, because it is a ruinous ideology that produces poverty and authoritarianism.
* Speaking of commies, hope you enjoyed #581 with Bhaskar Sunkara! Here’s a mini-clip:
* Related Comment of the Week, from kategolden:
oh no he’s going to try to explain Sweden to Moynihan!
* To further brace yourself for Tuesday, including the gender-reveal of Moynihan’s Fun Board, I recommend consuming our pregame One-Hitter, then snacking on this curtain-raiser/belt-loosener, from our M.O. #352 conversation with Financial Times U.S. editor Edward Luce:
Luce had a big FT weekend blowout on “Donald Trump’s Endgame,” asking the question: “What will the US president’s last two years in Washington look like?” Among the quoted are past Fif’ guests (and potential 2028 presidential candidates) Rahm Emanuel (M.O. #311) and Chris Christie (#548). Excerpt:
Almost everyone anticipates that Trump’s obsession with monuments will only grow. In the past few months, more and more of Trump’s time, and that of his staff, has been diverted by the White House ballroom, his planned victory arch near Arlington cemetery (the “Arc de Trump”), failed plans to rename the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts after himself, a botched project to beautify the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, which instantly turned green, and an even odder project to remodel the East Potomac Golf Links, a picturesque public course on the capital’s riverbank. After felling 430 trees, Trump’s arboreal massacre was stayed by the courts. He plans a grand reopening of the golf course in early 2028. Trump disclosed last week that he had failed to persuade Sundar Pichai, Alphabet’s chief executive, to rename the Atlantic Ocean on Google Maps as the “Trump Ocean”. Pichai had apparently demurred. “Oceans are different, sir,” Trump related Pichai as having said. Renaming the Potomac golf course might be an easier lift.
Compared with other potential distractions, however, Trump’s architectural upheaval is low stakes. “If Trump checks out of everything else and just focuses on his buildings that would be the best outcome,” says Christie. It is also not a likely one, Christie adds. Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic House leader, who would become speaker if Democrats regain control, has promised that Trump corruption investigations will be his top priority. This would antagonise Trump even if Democrats refrain from embarking on a third impeachment. “He is going to lash out in ways that are going to get worse, not better,” says Rahm Emanuel, former chief of staff to Obama and a 2028 Democratic presidential aspirant. “Trump’s approach is that ‘if I can’t get something, then nobody else will get it’, whether that’s the Kennedy Center [now shuttered] or the Nobel Peace Prize.”
* Another recentish guest, Sen. Chris Murphy (D – Conn.), just had a stroke. That Fif’ Curse is getting real! Wishing him a speedy recovery.
* The Reason Roundtable this week talked hella-smack about California’s idiotic wealth tax(es):
* Speaking of, I wrote this week about the Golden State’s various teachers unions dumping gobs of money into a less-ballyhooed wealth-tax proposition, even while producing grisly results and squealing like stuck pigs when called out on their mismanagement. Excerpt:
In July, L.A. County Superintendent of Schools Debra Duardo designated the [L.A. Unified School District] as a “lack of going concern,” due to its ongoing operating deficits, exacerbated by fresh salary increases for unionized workers. The state’s longstanding school Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team (FCAMT) then issued a damning report in September, placing the district at a “high risk” for fiscal insolvency. Why? Because payroll was expanding while enrollment was collapsing.
“From 2019-20 through 2024-25,” the report found, “noncharter school enrollment declined from 440,365 to 369,830 students, a decrease of approximately 16.0%. Over the same period, total [full-time equivalent jobs] increased from 60,344 to 64,148, or approximately 6.3%. As a result, the number of students per total FTE declined from 7.3 to 5.8.” […]
United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), one of the most radical teachers unions in the country, reacted to the FCAMT “high risk” report with an innumerate defiance redolent of President Donald Trump.
“This fake independent analysis disparages the school board for rightfully addressing the needs of working people who face some of the worst housing and childcare costs in the country,” UTLA Vice President Julie Van Winkle told the Los Angeles Times. The union’s website called the report “a so-called ‘analysis’” that used “a rigged scoring system with a predetermined outcome.” […]
[W]hile the controversial Prop. 40 is looking wobbly at the polls, amid caterwauls over big money in politics, the much less ballyhooed Prop. 3, which makes permanent some wealth taxes that were sold as temporary in 2012, looks set to sail through without much resistance. Literally.
Spending on Prop. 3, L.A. Times education reporter Howard Blume concluded this week, “adds up to more than $81 million for and about $5,500 against.” For those keeping score at home, that’s a ratio of more than 14,700 to 1, brought to you primarily by teachers unions, who incidentally are lying about the initiative.
* Kmele and the Tanglers this week talked about the curious case of Alaska’s Dans Sullivan:
* This Date in Fif’ History: Speaking of Casanova Brown, Nov. 1 is a traditional hangover-session for our man of nuance & skepticism, on account of Halloween being his born-day. We talked about that in 2021’s Special Dispatch #91.
On this date 28 years ago, I published an okay survey that works as a new-media time capsule for an outfit called The Netly News, under the headline: “1998: The Year of Internet News: From Drudge to Salon to mega-media portal deals, the Wired generation became mainstream.”
* The Moynihan Report this week broke bread with the immortal/undead punk chronicler Legs McNeil, author of the new Resident Punk: How I Smoked, Drank, and Stumbled My Way Through the ‘70s Punk Scene (and Beyond). The two gabba-gabba-heyed about “the chaotic early days of CBGB, his bitter falling out with Punk cofounder John Holmstrom, and why he disputes Patti Smith’s account of the era in Just Kids. Along the way, he recalls his relationship with Sinéad O’Connor, his years investigating the porn industry, and his struggles with alcoholism and addiction. He also reflects on surviving a scene that claimed so many of his friends, finding happiness later in life, and why he eventually left New York City behind.”
* Neglected to mention last week that Herr Moynihan went on Dan Senor’s Call Me Back podcast to talk about the troubles in France:
* Sendoff: Imagine being a 17-year-old Brit in 1967, working part time at a co-op, then the band you sing in releases a single that knocks the Beatles off the top of the UK pop charts. That’s the story of Steve Ellis, who died on Hallow’s Eve at the age of 76, and his band Love Affair’s version of the much-covered Motown pastiche “Everlasting Love.” Americans may know the 1974 Carl Carlton version better (Carlton died in December at the age of 72), Love Affair wins the battle of the Spotify downloads, 84 million to 32 million. Ellis grew bored with band by 1969, tried his hand at several different combos during the ‘70s, and eventually settled into a dignified solo career where he damn well made sure to play the song that made him famous.
Lots to cover! Thanks for all of this Matt! 🫡
I think producer Jason and Rachel should start a podcast about the making of this podcast. Like an after episode thing like HBO does, but completely fictionalized. I’ll take an executive producer credit.