News, Notes, and Notions for 04Aug24
Responsible Adulting Frankly Sucks Sometimes, and other assorted thoughts plus my latest writing, media appearances, and Heard Tell episodes from the week that was.
Nothing really starts a day off like being offered your dream job and having to turn it down, at least for now, all before 7:35 am on a Friday.
To be fair, when it was offered to me the individual pitching it lead off with a variation of “I know you probably can’t but I wouldn’t feel right not at least talking to you about it.” There have been previous collaborations and there are future plans to work together, and the relationship is there to do something big in the future. But I did have to say no, and it did hurt. A lot. I had me a good sad for a while about it. But I made the right decision, and the groundwork for something better, or at least with better timing, is laid out for the future.
Learning to deal with having what you want in front of you and denying yourself that thing is base-level adult behavior. Toddlers struggle with this. Teens struggle with this. When adults struggle with this, their lives and the lives of those around them get messed up and complicated in a hurry.
The politics of the last few weeks have really highlighted how many folks project their dreams and wants on the news cycle as it spins, and how few can restrain themselves from revealing a whole lot of inner bad in their public hot takes.
You don’t get your dream country, community, city, or county in a big, diverse, pluralistic representative democracy. But the lie that you can is being peddled by candidates up and down the ticket. Folks from talking heads, to office holders, to bot/troll accounts endlessly proclaim to this group or that how if only magical - meaning governmental - force was brought to bear to force everyone who is “other” into the box of “just like me” the heavens would open and mana would rain down upon us all.
Such things are a particularly wicked kind of lie, since the base alloy is taking folks' inner dreams combined with their worst human impulses to forge a nasty shard of intolerance. Complex issues of race, class, identity, patriotism, community, family, all rendered down into a stinking hot mess of self-serving feels, ignorant demands, and universal loathing for anything different than one’s self. Self-restraint goes out the window since with politics, there is always “the other side” to blame and point to as justification for doing what the unrestrained was going to do anyway. But the politics of winning makes behavior otherwise rightly identified as unacceptable righteous, as long as your candidate, your party, your ideology, your tribe, win and put down those horrible them, they, and those over there.
Losing out on what you dream is a hard thing. Losing out on political dreams is even harder as far too many folks have untethered their politics from reality in the ether of social media. Giving up on the dream is hard. But it is necessary for personal growth, modifying what you want to fit the world you live in to be productive within it. It is even more necessary in electoral politics in a representative democracy.
But very few look at it that way. Thus, we have the mess we have. The sickness of political dreams turning into governing nightmares doesn’t have a universal cure, but prevention is always the best medicine. Regulate your own dreams, keep your fantasies away from politics, and maybe don’t let your worst human impulses find space to fester in the political discourse of your life.
There will be other dreams. There will be other elections. In fact, the next election starts the moment this one is done. Do not let a nightmare of self eat you up for the vapor that is a political moment that will quickly pass, lest you damage your one life to live before getting to tomorrow.
Latest Heard Tell Episodes:
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Your Heard Tell Show is turning down the noise of the news cycle and getting to the information we need to discern our times by talking about economics with our returning friend, economist, and writer Dr. Stephen Popick with plan spoken, grown folk talk about economic headlines, inflation worries and recession fears,answering what social media freakout over the Sahm Rule is about, why housing is a generational economic issue and warning, politicizing economic news, answering the "recession, not recession" question and more.
All that and more on this episode of Heard Tell.
Timestamps:
00: Intro/ What "Jobs Report" really means & how to discern headlines
7:55 Interest rate cut in September?
13:40 The value of "The Dollar" & the value of you, the consumers, dollar and the personal debt stats post-Covid, & carrying cost of personal and national debt loads
22:30 What the heck is the Sahm Rule, and recession indicators
26:50 How interest rates & inflation is compression housing market, and how housing affect all the rest of consumer economics
33:12 Grown folk talk on what young adults are facing in housing and economics, and debate of whether Gen Z has it "worst" than others
41:40 Are talking head TV economist and influencers keeping up with what is really going on, and how to discern our changing economy
46:30 Dealing with economic headlines getting hijacked into election news and partisan politics and Crypto creeps into GOP platform
56:50 Recession coming or recession not coming? and economic indicators are not economic rules.
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Your Heard Tell Show is turning down the noise of the news cycle and getting to the information we need to discern our times by talking about one of the biggest IPs in all of entertainment, Marvel. Our friend and film critic Luis Mendez of the Mendez Movie Report returns to Heard Tell to talk about the huge success of Deadpool & Wolverine, and the announcement of the Avengers: Doomsday pivot to the Russo Brothers and Roberty Downey, Jr. returning to Marvel Studios. Luis and host Andrew talk not only about the creative choices, but how the changing landscape of the film business and streaming has affected Marvel Studios for good, bad, and indifferent. Plus, we talk through how vintage films, especially very early work like silent films have entered the public domain and are getting new life on YouTube, TikTok, and in memes as new generations are finding the foundational films that so many movies have borrowed from. Also, Luis gives his take on the current state of Oscar nominations and awards season as summer starts to turn into film festival time. We finish up with Luis telling us some of the movies to be watching for coming out soon, what he is looking forward to, and some under the radar titles you won't want to miss.
All that and more on this episode of Heard Tell.
00: Intro/ What Deadpool & Wolverine Success & Avengers:Doomsday announcment means for Marvel's future
16:40 How the business model of films & streaming changes affect Marvel
25:35 Vintage Movies finding new life on YouTube, TikTok, & memes and how to approach silent movies/vintage films for the modern audience
40:20 Oscar Race and Awards season as summer ends and festivals start
37:37 What Kind of Electoral Coalition Does Harris Need To Win?
48:20 Upcoming Films to Watch For in Theaters
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Your Heard Tell Show is turning down the noise of the news cycle and getting to the information we need to discern our times by talking about all the news that we should be paying attention to, but isn't making the headlines as the Trump v Harris campaign change has dominated news media. Eric Garcia, the Washington bureau chief and senior Washington Correspondent at the Independent returns to Heard Tell to catch us up on all the congressional goings-on that have been flying under the national political headlines such as the inside DC reaction to switching from President Biden to VP Harris, how JD Vance is perceived by his peers in the senate, VP pick for Kamala 2024, what would a winning electoral coalition for Harris look like, and heavy metal at the Olympics.
All that and more on this episode of Heard Tell.
00: Intro/ Metal At Olympics, Congress Taps Out Until September
09:14 Change in DC Democratic Mood From Debate to Harris Launch
15:20 How JD Vance Was Perceived Inside US Senate & VP Pick
23:20 Kamala Harris VP Pick, Who It Will Be, Who It Should Be & Why
37:37 What Kind of Electoral Coalition Does Harris Need To Win?
46:30 How Trump Can Blow The Election, Debate Preview, More VP Talk
Media Appearance:
The discussion is always spirited and far-reaching when my friend Brady Leonard and I get together on his No Gimmicks Podcast. We agree on some things, disagree on a whole lot more things, and always have a good time hashing out things.
My Writing This Week:
Starting with this piece, I am officially a commentary contributor to West Virginia Watch, the State Newsroom outlet in my beloved home state of West Virginia. Really proud to be a part of what is becoming the best news outlet in the Mountain State:
The state of West Virginia and its elected leadership does not have a track record of funds going where they are supposed to go in situations — emergency or otherwise — to take any declaration at face value. Millions of dollars of COVID funds ranging from clerical errors and misappropriation to criminal fraudulence. The disastrous aftermath of the deadly 2016 floodings that killed 23 West Virginians and created financial nightmares long after the waters receded. Thousands waiting for rebuilt housing or businesses, and thousands of school children waiting years on rebuilt school buildings, some of which are yet to be built eight years later.
The consequences of past funding and accountability issues creating present day trust issues is exacerbated by the lack of state government transparency in just about everything the governor is doing these days. Justice’s usual habit of not taking any challenging questions from the press, and often berating a reporter for daring to question him at all on the rare occasion he does, has not had any electoral consequences as Big Jim looks for promotion to the U.S. Senate. But the precedent of a state government whose leaders seek freedom from the press as opposed to the accountability of a free press, is set by established habits and lack of consequences.
Things that are tolerated in a representative democracy quickly become the standard. When a Gov. Morrisey does the same stiff arm to the West Virginia press and people of the state, but without the internet sensation of Babydog to deflect criticism, appear in tax-payer funded murals, and otherwise endear the masses, will there be any repercussions or meaningful pushback then? Or will the new normal established over the last eight years creep the transparency line back even further?
West Virginia’s farmers, especially the growing sector of homestead farmers, have been hammered by the drought as fall harvest looms and winter is coming. As with flood relief, tornado recovery or any other disaster, a state of emergency declaration that covers all 55 counties should be a rallying moment for all of the state government and the people of West Virginia. A tool that, when properly wielded by our elected governor, should be an automatic come together moment to bypass politics and get the task at hand done.
But trust in government is earned, and easily lost, and evidence demands a verdict. All declarations and emergency funding in the state of West Virginia should be an automatic trust, but verify, situation.
Read the whole piece here: