Where We Are This Week 06/01/23

Political ideologies, Paolo Nutini, and the real winner of the debt ceiling talks.

“Brutal,” was the one-word answer I got from my wife when I asked her how she would describe her political ideology this week.

We got a good laugh out of that one as we pulled our one-year-old out of her highchair to clean her up after dinner. Undeterred, on our walk shortly afterward, I asked again, realizing I hadn’t got an honest answer yet.

Just building off of last week’s opening, I think it’s a good thing to check in on the thoughts of the people to which we’re closest. I was pretty sure I could describe her belief system rather accurately, but it’s best to get the water directly from the well, right?

Plus, we’ve been together for thirteen years, and we’ve changed so much since we were kids; it’s difficult to pinpoint when exactly any of those changes happened so, who knows, probing every once in a while might reveal the very moment those tectonic plates begin to shift.

No dice this time. But, I’m not really complaining; solid ground is better than an earthquake after all.

I asked again, “In a few words, how would you describe your moral, political philosophy?” She thought for a few moments and as we waited at an intersection for traffic to clear she answered, “Progressive, conservative libertarian.”

The contradiction! The paradox! This triad of ideological descriptors isn’t supposed to exist and if you observe the political discourse in our country, it certainly isn’t represented. But why shouldn’t it be?

She, like all humans, contains multitudes. Why is it that our beliefs should be shunted into this contrived binary of right/left? I want to be antiwar, anti-corporation, pro-universal healthcare, antiauthoritarian, and pro-baby but, notice, there’s no political party seeking my membership.

It’s this sort of false dichotomy that forces millions of citizens to reluctantly prioritize their beliefs and millions more to become single-issue voters who then recede further into the comforts of partisanship. But by engaging the breadth of our beliefs and the variety of opinions we have, the likelihood of finding common ground is multiplied by several orders of magnitude.

Have you ever tried to enjoy a meal with your nostrils plugged? Not only is breathing through your mouth between bites laborious and miserable, you can’t taste anything either. When we employ our full array of sensibilities, we get a better understanding of the world in front of us.

What’s more, I’ve never seen those opinions of hers contradict one another. She takes a principled, measured stance on each subject presented to her. The horror.

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Round Up!

Something a little different this week: let’s check back in on some stories from the last few weeks to see how they’re going.

Turkey

This past weekend, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey won reelection. Erdogan retained the presidency after the initial election was sent to a run-off as none of the candidates had achieved a majority.

The incumbent is set to continue his two-decade-long reign as leader of the nation after eking a victory over his more liberal opponent. Erdogan has become increasingly authoritarian, and despite large swathes of the Turkish population being dissatisfied with his leadership, he was still able to garner 52% of the popular vote, securing reelection.

Thus, subjugating a little less than half of the country, about 40 million people, to live under the rule of a president for the next five years with whom they fundamentally disagree. Sound familiar?

Maybe, if anything, the 2020s will be remembered as the decade we realized democracy is a farce and doesn’t scale.

Twitter

Even when the dust settles, it will be impossible to know what effect, if any, Twitter’s compliance with the Erdogan government’s request to censor opposition journalism on the site had on the results of the election. The margins were slim enough to suggest that it could have made a real impact, but anything beyond the realm of could have is just speculative.

What can be said, however, is that the social media platform isn’t shaping up to be the stronghold for free speech Elon Musk was making it out to be. On June 1, The Daily Wire had an agreement with Twitter to air Matt Walsh’s documentary What is a Woman? The airing was set to coincide with the first day of Pride Month - those Daily Wire folks sure do like a kerfuffle - however, Twitter execs backed out of the deal after viewing the film. The executives in question said they wouldn’t be proceeding with the collaboration as there were two instances of ‘misgendering’ in the film.

They also warned that even if the video were to be posted, it would be effectively hidden from all users on the site, even those who follow the Daily Wire.

Previously, under the Musk reign, Twitter had rescinded its punishments for ‘misgendering’ on the site, but it appears they haven’t entirely given up the ghost - of whose pronouns I’m unaware.

The breakdown of the deal was detailed on Twitter by Jeremy Boreing of The Daily Wire. Later, Musk responded that it was a “mistake by many people” at Twitter and that the video would be allowed to be posted. The video has only been up for a few hours and already has over one million views despite it having its visibility throttled and a warning that it may violate the company’s rules on hateful conduct.

Watch the documentary for free until Friday night here.

The future of free speech on the internet is dubious and Twitter seems like a seat-of-your-pants operation. That said, Substack is great.

EDIT:

As of this morning, it appears that Twitter is no longer throttling posts of the film. Musk’s tepid approval of Walsh’s documentary graduated to full-scale endorsement as he shared What is a Woman? on his personal account saying that “every parent should watch this.” Fascinating how in only a few hours the social media site can go from a left-wing censorious hellscape to right-wing fascist hellhole. Marvelous times, indeed.

Debt Ceiling Negotiations

I don’t want to say I told you so because it’s currently midnight and everyone in my house is asleep. But best believe if the sun were still up, I’d have no reservations thumbing my smugness at the computer screen.

As of late Thursday evening, the Senate has passed the “Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023” - do they know what irony is? - and successfully avoided defaulting on our debts. Janet Yellen, the Secretary of Treasury, had warned lawmakers that the US may run out of money as early as June 4th, so it was imperative they shouldn’t him and haw much longer.

The deal was prolonged by the lengthy negotiations taking place between Speaker McCarthy and President Biden. I use the phrase ‘taking place’ loosely as the negotiations were on-again-off-again and lacked the sense of urgency one would have assumed a situation like that should have warranted. If Congress had let the debt ceiling go unresolved, it would have sent the American economy further into a recession which could have had serious global ramifications.

But maybe, the lack of urgency makes all the sense in the world, maybe a resolution was never really in doubt. I will say this though, despite the negotiations feeling more like theater than reality, McCarthy pried more concessions from Biden than I would have previously expected - but it’s not necessarily a giant win for the Republican Party either.

The legislation caps 2023’s spending to 2022’s expenditure levels which while it does prevent an increase, it’s nothing to really celebrate as we doled out untold sums of money at home and abroad last year. The bill passed through bipartisan effort but plenty of Democrats will be wishing Biden had stayed steadfast in his promise to not negotiate, and Freedom Caucus members of the Republican party will criticize McCarthy for not extracting enough from the President.

But here’s the thing. No one really cares about the budget and our debt ceiling - not anyone in Congress, that is.

Politicians only care about the amount of money the government is spending when they’re not the ones in charge of the pocketbook. Under Trump, the Republicans had control of both legislative bodies and the White House. Guess what they did. Spent more than anyone had before them, of course!

Granted, while Democrats and Republicans don’t see eye to eye on much, they can pretty much agree to give the Pentagon whatever it wants. Discretionary spending and some SNAP programs received some budget cuts in the bill, but defense spending was untouched.

In 2022, the DOD survived on a paltry $767 billion in 2022 but is expected to actually get an increase to $868 billion after Biden signs the bill. Who are we kidding? You really can’t get any good drones or bombs for under a trillion these days.

Remember, this is the organization that literally cannot pass an audit. Last year, it was revealed that the Department of Defense had failed its fifth consecutive audit. Can you imagine if you or I failed every audit we’d been given?

It’s worse than that - last year, DoD Comptroller Mike McCord admitted they’d only been able to account for 39% of their $3.5 trillion in assets. 39%. That’s 39 cents to the dollar. Thirty-nine percent.

And over half of that $868 billion will be allocated to government contractors like Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics. Companies that, thanks to this report from 60 Minutes, we know were extorting the American taxpayer for unbelievable levels of profit.

Shay Assad, a former weapons-deal negotiator on either side of the industry, gave an example of an oil pressure switch that NASA used to purchase; what should have cost about $328 cost the US government $10,000. Through mergers and pressures by the DoD to ‘save funds’ since the 1980s, what used to be a market rife with competition is now dominated by a handful of companies reaping the profits of war. And boy, do they - unilaterally, and with bipartisan support.

Forget Dunkin’, America runs on Raytheon!

Freedom Fries

Bud Lite

I underestimated the conservative ire against the light beer brand. I thought right-wing drinkers would cave the moment it was time to barbecue something, but I was mistaken. Anheuser-Busch’s stock continues to plummet, I was wrong.

I mean it’s not currently college football season, so nothing is a given, but it’s looking like this movement has some staying power.

Now, Target is feeling the pangs of running afoul of this new, empowered boycott movement of the right due to the Pride selection of products they revealed last month.

Great! Now, that you’re on a roll, do slave labor next!

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Through the Echoes

So, I listen to Ben Shapiro pretty regularly - I think I might be the only person in the world who listens to him and Jimmy Dore. As it turns out, I must contain multitudes, too. He has a couple of segments these days where he talks about things he likes and things he hates.

Sometimes he discusses about things that aren’t politics during that part of the show, which I think is great, but I have a problem with it: the asymmetry of emotions. If you’re going to talk about things you hate, you should at least counterbalance that with things that you love, right?

I realized that some Fridays my posts are in a similar formulation but I think - I think - I rarely use the word hate, and when I share something that I like, it’s really something I love. So, without further ado, here’s something I love.

Paolo Nutini’s album Last Night in the Bittersweet was released in July of 2022 and the singles of the record, Through the Echoes and Lose It, were put out only a few days after the birth of our daughter in May.

The Scotsman holds a special place in our hearts - we danced to No Other Way at our wedding - and had long-awaited his first release in eight years. Before the album’s debut, however, we watched the video for Through the Echoes almost nightly as we held our baby on the living room couch in the quiet postpartum of our home.

The song itself is a masterpiece. Nutini at once captured the artist he was and hinted at where he was going with his somber, soulful songwriting and performance. It’s not just the single, however, the record itself is about as near-perfect as it gets.

There are plenty of pop-forward tunes but in the sprawling 72-minute enterprise, Nutini explores punk, folk, and psychedelia. If you have a few minutes, watch this recent performance with Rosie Danver Orchestra.

The record wasn’t released stateside so I had to have a friend order it for me. When I came home with the album, I waited until dinner to put it on.

I remember standing up, looking at our baby in her swing as Through the Echoes came on and I looked over at my wife, halfway through the song, with tears in her eyes as our takeout Thai food sat on the table. It’s incredible how that song will have a meaning for us that the artist never intended and how, like our baby, it feels like it’s been with us forever.

By all counts, millennials and Gen Z’ers are sad which I think is sad. If you’re going to hate anything, make sure you love a million things more. Find those things that you love, hold on to them, and celebrate. And while time will still pass and some memories will fade, what lingers with you will be enough to sustain you.

You can’t remember everything - I know, I’ve tried - but I’ll be damned if that summer evening isn’t burned into my brain somewhere.

To a better next week.

Cheers,

~FDA