The Professional Left Podcast with Driftglass and Blue Gal

Ep 828 Is Trump Dropping Out?

• Driftglass and Blue Gal • Episode 828

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Sir, many people have told us that Trump might drop out.  Several important people said that Trump should drop out of the race.  Some people say he should flee the country. I've even heard one person say he's a flight "risk," and that's what they call it, a "risk"- that he'll flee the country. 

Many things we thought would last forever didn't. 

Democratic messaging on housing, pollution, autism. 

Driftglass notes, "I, too, am in Hell."

Explore the critical role of media in shaping political narratives with a spotlight on Lawrence O'Donnell's blunt critique of media transparency failures. We compare the divergent coverage of the Hillary Clinton email scandal and the Trump campaign's secretive activities, underscoring the biased nature of media decisions. In addition, we touch on Hillary Clinton's compassionate engagement with autism issues and highlight the significance of urban planning initiatives, drawing lessons from the successful strategies in Arlington, Virginia, versus Chicago's past housing project failures.

Links for this episode:

Works in Progress:  How DC [Arlington VA] Densified: https://worksinprogress.co/issue/how-dc-densified/

Show artwork via "Break Your Own News": https://breakyourownnews.com/

More at proleftpod.com.

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Driftglass:

You can listen to the Professional Left wherever you get your podcasts on Netroots Radio or at our website, proleftpodcom, where you can also contribute to this podcast. There is a PayPal button at our website or you can mail us a letter and or contribution at PO Box 9133, springfield, illinois, 62791., this is the podcast for August 13th 2024.

BlueGal/Fran:

It's not safe for work.

Driftglass:

Recorded live from the cornfield resistance, where we're remembering the 17th anniversary of another big time democratic convention in Chicago.

Netroots Nation 2007 Clip:

Senator, as president, you're likely to face a lot of nasty Republicans on many of your issues, many of which will use any trick in the book to stop you or to make you look bad. Do you have a sort of Lyndon Johnson side to your persona? [Barack

Driftglass:

It's The Professional Left with Driftglass and Blue Gal. Hi, Blue Gal.

BlueGal/Fran:

So when was that Driftglass?

Driftglass:

That was 2007,. Blue Gal 2007. You and I were not on the regular at that point.

BlueGal/Fran:

No, we had not met face to face yet.

Driftglass:

But I was familiar with the works of Blue Gal and admired your writing, and I dropped in on a salon every now and then.

BlueGal/Fran:

You and I knew each other through the internet at that point. That's right.

Driftglass:

The internet has given me everything I've ever wanted. Blue Gal I won't tolerate people talking smack about that. And that was the year that Yearly Kos turned into Netroots Nation and came to Chicago and I know I've said this before it was a really big deal. It was a really big deal. All but one, as I recall, of the major candidates for president were there. All of them were there. All of them shook hands with the bloggers. All of them had breakout sessions. It was amazing. There was something like, as I recall, 250 credentialed members of the media from all over the planet. There. I was there. Yes, Blue Gala, it was my city.

BlueGal/Fran:

I had to go. Didn't you get a box of drift glass from certain people?

Driftglass:

Yeah, there was a small group of friends from the Steve Gilliard days who we had a little aside. They didn't know who I was. I didn't know who they were and I recall typing on my laptop F-T-F-Y in bold letters and holding it up and waiting for them, and we spotted each other. It was love at first sight except we all loved each other and we still stay in touch pretty much

BlueGal/Fran:

Fuck the fucking Yankees.

Driftglass:

Fuck the fucking Yankees. Which was?

BlueGal/Fran:

Steve Gilliard's Motto Hatred for the New York Yankees.

Driftglass:

It knew no bounds whatsoever, and it was delightful that, um, I saw, Markos Moulitsas, speeds past and I said you know, I'm driftg lass. And he said, who the fuck are you? And he, and he shoved me out of the way into a bunch of beer cans and, and it hurt badly, I believe digby was there, uh, or if she wasn't there, I think she was, but, um, they were flashing like famous slogans up on the screen that we would all know and, um, "what Digby said was one of them what Digby said.

Driftglass:

And this was a community. It was an actual, genuine community and I was there and it was 17 years ago. And the Republican Party let's see if this all sounds familiar. The Republican Party was a smoking train wreck. It was an absolute disaster of a party. It fucked up the Iraq war. It had you know it was plunging us it fucked up the economy.

Driftglass:

Yeah, it fucked up the economy. It was everything was bad. Everything was going really really bad, really really fast and we had torture, we had Hurricane Katrina I mean it was just. It was a disaster. The Republican Party was a disaster and, and most importantly, especially for today's discussion the media the mainstream media, the political media was broken, like badly broken, and we'd all been writing about this since the dawn of the blogging era and we really did believe that a group of bloggers could break the mainstream media monopoly and change the way we did politics. And for about a minute we did and it was a success. It was great. The reason all the presidential candidates were there is they recognized that there was a new force to be reckoned with. And when Markos Moulitsas shows up on Meet the Press only to be smothered, as I recall, by Harold Ford Jr and never seen again, but it really was kind of a high watermark for the blogger movement and we really did believe

Driftglass:

Yeah.

BlueGal/Fran:

So you know right.

Driftglass:

Exactly. But we really did think that we were going to upend the current system, not make a revolution in terms of, you know, proletariats lobbying Molotov cocktails in the streets, but really upend the mainstream media monopoly and get what, get our word out. That was always our big beat. No one was listening to what we were saying.

BlueGal/Fran:

What we were saying was right, so well, and I think one of the things we're talking about today is, uh, how impermanent things actually are. Yeah, that you know, you think some things are going to last forever and they don't. And I would say that, yes, at that moment, that was a high watermark for Daily Kos and the blogosphere, so to speak. But the Women's March was also another high moment, and all of these we talk so much about how it's the same Republican Party you know from 1973, the 1973 Republican Party is just as racist as today's Republican Party. And you know, starting history at 2015, 2016 is nonsense when it comes to the Republican Party, but I think it's important to celebrate and understand that the anti-war movement and the women's movement and the civil rights movement of the 1960s continues on today.

BlueGal/Fran:

And we use different tools and we use different strategy and so forth, but we are a lot of it is a lot of the same values that carry us forward and that's not something we need to diminish in our thinking. We should celebrate that. So I appreciate that, as a blogger and you and I are bloggers that we sort of treasure that moment at 2007. But we also carry on and you know, what we're doing now may be very different in 10 years, but the cause remains.

Driftglass:

Well, I must disagree with you, blue Gal. Everyone knows that music ended at Woodstock.

BlueGal/Fran:

That's it, that's right If you weren't at Woodstock there was no more music after that. If you weren't at Woodstock.

Driftglass:

you just forget it, you just know, you're dead to me. No, no, yes.

BlueGal/Fran:

Things do change and they do move on, but you're right, you're right.

Driftglass:

The values, the values and things that we consider virtuous. The tools change and the values don't. Yeah, absolutely right, Right.

BlueGal/Fran:

Yeah, yeah. So and I want to thank everyone who has reached out to us inviting us to meet up with them in Chicago next week, but we're not going to be there. We've got young people coming home for back to school shopping because that's what they want to do before school starts and it just, it's just turning out to be not possible for us. And of course, hotel rates during a Democratic National Convention go up quite a bit and availability, so it just seemed a better part of valor for us to stay home here in Springfield. Also, you know, I was in Washington DC for Bill Clinton's first inaugural.

Driftglass:

Yeah.

BlueGal/Fran:

And my friend from high school, who lived in the DC area at the time, had me come down from Boston and stay at his place. We went to the parade and all of the seating was for, you know, elected people, democrats. It was all reserved. There was nowhere for anyone to sit along the parade route. So we went back to his place and watch it on TV, and I think a lot of people will be watching the convention in Chicago from their hotel rooms because it's easier and you're able to get in. Getting into that hall is going to be unless you're a delegate or a credentialed person and they're out of credentials now, you're not going to get in.

Driftglass:

Well, and one more thing. I mean I've heard a lot of bullshit, a lot of nonsense about 1968 and Chicago.

BlueGal/Fran:

Convention.

Driftglass:

The 1996 Democratic Convention was in Chicago.

BlueGal/Fran:

Right right.

Driftglass:

And I was there for that and mostly I remember it was a lot of traffic problems. Right, no, that's the point I got to get to work okay and a bunch of weirdos from out of town are taking all the parking.

BlueGal/Fran:

Well, but you know, JB Pritzker is doing a real good job up there.

Driftglass:

It's going to go great. It's a beautiful city. Chicago has a black mayor.

BlueGal/Fran:

It's a different city than it was in 1968 and 1996.

Driftglass:

Well, that's the thing about permanence that we were saying. Some things change. We don't have a daily anymore in Chicago running the city and we have a billionaire Democratic governor in Illinois.

BlueGal/Fran:

So you know, things do change. Listen, all of us, all of us Democrats Chicago is going to celebrate the nomination of another smart, energetic person, a mixed race woman, to run for president. Once again, we are facing a Republican Party that is a disaster and a political media that is broken beyond repair. That is all. In some ways, the same History rhymes right. It doesn't repeat, it rhymes. So let's talk about that Driftglass what succeeded, what failed and what we have learned.

Driftglass:

Well, we have learned that in 2004, the Republican Party was riding high.

BlueGal/Fran:

Yeah.

Driftglass:

In 2008, all the chickens that we warned about had come home to roost. And in 2008, the Republican party was demoralized and ashamed. I mean, they were. They were you know, they were back in John McCain, they were a hump in Sarah Palin's leg, but they, there was still this deep sense of we really fucked this up. And we have to go to the polls and we have to vote for McCain, because that's what you gotta do, but just this snarling angry. We don't want to be held responsible for this shit and we're not gonna be. We're gonna put on funny hats, we're gonna call ourselves a tea party, we're gonna skate.

BlueGal/Fran:

And there was plenty of money to help them do that oh yeah, when. Beck got paid a million dollars to promote it. Fox News promoted the Tea Party. They had money behind that. Rebranding was a well-funded machine.

Driftglass:

Yeah, oh, it was coast to coast. It was, as we noted, dick Army ran the thing. Yeah, there was a ton of money behind it and the purpose was get the Republican Party out from under the burden of being the Republican Party for the last eight years Right and bulldoze the entire Bush administration with the able assistance of the mainstream media, because they didn't want to remember how they rolled over for the Bush administration. They had a lot to gain for pretending the past never happened, for pretending the past never happened. And what Republicans learned was that being ashamed of fucking up and admitting your mistakes or running from your mistakes or whatever, never works. Nope, what you need to do is double down on everything.

BlueGal/Fran:

That's Roger Stone. That is the Roger Stone handbook.

Driftglass:

Double down on everything. Yell louder, scream louder. Scream the Democrats or communist baby killers louder, and then we'll win. So they learned to not have a conscience and not have any shame and not take responsibility for anything, while the party leadership kept pretending this was a normal Republican Party. We also learned that that Obama clip was much longer, shall we say, and I believe I was in that breakout session was much longer, shall we say, and I believe I was in that breakout session. So if you get the video, you might see me in the audience going. I'm Jeff Glass and I'm from Chicago and I know that guy.

Driftglass:

But one of the things was Obama bragging that when they do something scurrilous, we need to do something above the fray. We don't respond to scurrilous attacks with scurrilous attacks. The truth, the lies, the big lie being the big lie, requires repetition. The truth requires repetition too, and this basic sense that we have right on our side. We're right and we don't need to worry about these scurrilous attacks and all this bullshit they're throwing around and nonsense. We shouldn't stoop to their level. We shouldn't trade insult for insult. We should just rise above it. All that doesn't work. We learned the hard way that that kind of purity idealism. Going into the White House, Barack Obama was ready to deal with Republicans from Springfield.

BlueGal/Fran:

Right.

Driftglass:

You know the cigar filled room, drink a little scotch, play poker and cut deals. He was not prepared for the Republican Party as it exists today, and it's only gotten worse. So we've learned that the way you deal with the Republican Party is curb-stomp them until they can't stand up metaphorically, you do not let them up With joy and humor, if I may add, but you never let up.

Driftglass:

You never give an inch and you never give them anything, never accept their frame on any question, never accept the predicate of their attacks, go after them all the time, every day, and never stop.

Driftglass:

And that's the thing that Obama had to have basically pounded into his head by his second term, which was oh every time. And this is the lesson that the media learned, which was oh every time. And this is the lesson that the media learned, which was wow, we can really roll this guy. We can get everything we want. We can burn the place down and blame it on him for not preventing the fire from starting in the first place. We can go eight years demanding why won't Obama lead? And that's a really hard lesson for us to learn over here on the left. That being in the right and having the right policies is just not enough, and having a media that's complicit in the right wing tax on our democracy is something we have to sort of have as a separate conversation. It's not enough to understand the Republican Party is a shit pile of bigots and imbeciles. It is equally important to understand that the media is in on it.

BlueGal/Fran:

Right.

Driftglass:

They are part of the problem and they need to be taken apart brick by brick, with every, with as much vigor as we take apart the Republican Party to the best of our abilities.

BlueGal/Fran:

If I can add, one thing, that actually did work for Obama was humor, yeah, and the times that he was able to particularly at the correspondence dinner, white House correspondence dinner just make fun of them. And I know that making fun of Trump had long-term consequences for the nation, but it did work. That worked for him and it's working for us this year. Making fun of Republicans and calling them weird is working Because they are weird. It is because it's true. It's funny because it's true. Meme.

Driftglass:

And the devil cannot abide laughter.

BlueGal/Fran:

No, cannot abide laughter and we nominated a genuinely funny vice presidential candidate with his dad jokes and his Midwest aw shucks persona. Yeah, and Tim Walz is a FUD, by the way Driftglass, I learned this word this week. Fud is from Elmer Fudd and it is the casual hunter who hunts pheasant wabbits, wabbits and ducks right as a weekend hobby, not having AR-15s in their basement, treating their firearms responsibly, locking them up when they're not in use, wearing the right equipment. And may I say that camouflage Harris Walls hat with the orange embroidery on it is apparently just selling like hot cake. Multiple different constituencies, like that hat. Apparently, there's some rapper or something that wears camo. I'm not familiar with any of this. I'm sure that youngest child and middle child, if they're listening, would roll their eyes and go oh mom, you don't even know. But but apparently it is not just you know blue dots in red states who are fuds. And, by the way, I I told you during our rehearsal you know most, most of the deer hunters in Pennsylvania are actually FUDs. Yeah, and you said Illinois too.

Driftglass:

Right, absolutely no. Six blocks from here, four blocks from here Springfield this area is set up kind of weird. There are all these little there's, there's these little carve out towns around here that are white flight towns that are encompassed entirely by Springfield, but they're their own thing because they didn't want to have integration. This was, you know, in the 50s and 60s. Yeah, but there's also little tracts around here that are unincorporated. They're not part of anything except the county.

BlueGal/Fran:

Because they wanted to burn their trash in the 70s also. That was the thing.

Driftglass:

Yeah, and it's this weird overlapping jurisdiction thing. But you know, five blocks from here you can have your deer dressed professionally if you want.

BlueGal/Fran:

Yeah, you can go past there. They have a sign out in front of their house for deer dressing.

Driftglass:

And you can see a deer carcass, you know, getting ready for getting prepped in somebody's, you know, in their garage as you drive by. It is not a shocking thing around here Unincorporated Springfield? No, that's right and some of my I mean I have dear friends and colleagues who are very good liberals, who are also very strong proponents of 4-H and very avid hunters, and they don't hunt for because they like murdering animals. They hunt for the sport of it and they eat what they kill because they like murdering animals.

BlueGal/Fran:

They hunt for the sport of it and they they eat what they kill, and there are some people who shoot foxes on their farms because they like their chickens. Yeah, so it's, it's really a question of I have a shotgun because my, my livestock is threatened by a wolf or a fox or a whatever, and so, yeah, my very my, the, my late and very right-wing uncle, who I don't think he'd be voting for Trump.

Driftglass:

But I'm not sure, he sure loved Reagan, though he thought Reagan wasn't quite conservative enough, but he was a fun too, but he walked the talk. He had his own gun room. It didn't have a million guns, it had a couple of rifles, a shotgun and a pistol or two. He pressed his own ammo. He went on pack rides with his friends who were like cardiac surgeons, because he was rich and they were all rich. But he hunted ducks and when we'd go out west and visit his ranch we'd ride the horses and shoot the guns. He taught us gun safety and he would have to hunt varmints on his ranch because it was 80 acres and he doesn't have plastic explosives like they have in Caddyshack. He used, you know, shotguns and he had his dog, terry, and he and his dog Terry would go duck hunting and he'd come home and his wife would prep the duck and they'd eat it for dinner.

BlueGal/Fran:

Yeah, that's not the kind of person we're talking about.

Driftglass:

when we're talking about responsible gun legislation, we're talking about the people who think you have to walk into a fucking 7-Eleven strapped to the hilt with AR-15s and a gun in each pocket and dare anyone with your big dumb t-shirt to come and make trouble. Those are the people that are not fuds.

BlueGal/Fran:

They're assholes, anyway. Yeah, talk to me about Lawrence O'Donnell this week. Yeah.

Driftglass:

Yeah, you all I'm sure everyone listening to this probably remembers Lawrence O'Donnell taking the media to task last week. We saw it via the internet, since we are currently not watching MSNBC, but we heard about it and it was a big deal. I actually I might've seen a bit of it and might've brought it to your attention and let's watch this and it went off everywhere. It was by, let's say, 2007, yearly co-standards pretty basic stuff, you know, stuff we've all been writing about and know about for years. But for what you're likely to see on television standards, it was astonishing. It was, like you know, volcano in Iowa. It was completely unexpected and wild. But then Lawrence O'Donnell follows up with this and this is from social media quote literally the last thing I want to do is criticize the news media. I could do it every night for an hour. So when I do it, please understand you're hearing 1% of my complaints. Follow Professor Jay Rosen, friend of the pod, for consistent, wise media criticism. Unquote.

Driftglass:

Okay, there's a lot going on in those two or three sentences I would say without reservation. We are in the middle of an epidemic of media failure across the board. Newspapers, magazines, television, cable news, radio, media everywhere is just an epidemic of failure. Now can you imagine, during like peak COVID, dr Fauci coming out and saying, sure, I could talk about the dangers of COVID every night and what you've just heard from me is just 1% of the shit I know? But really that's the last thing in the world I want to talk about, so instead, let's hear some banjo music instead. That is disturbing to me because what it tells me is if that's 1% of what you know, 99% of what you know is going on behind closed doors. It's worse than any of us thought. There's no transparency, interest slash, threat to your career with a gun to your head, telling you you cannot talk about this shit on the one media where you should be talking about it.

BlueGal/Fran:

Yeah, yeah, I mean, it's not the same life or death as COVID and Anthony Fauci, but it's pretty damn important to our democracy to understand what the pressures are regarding telling the truth. And I'm deeply I don't say the words, deeply disturbed because I think that's melodramatic. But this week I am deeply disturbed that the media is not releasing the hack, when they clearly chose to follow WikiLeaks to the depths of the ocean in 2016. And that's a decision in favor of Trump and I don't understand it except I do. I understand that this is a money, this is a business, it's a money making business, business, and somehow exposing what is going on behind the scenes in the Trump campaign is that decision. To not do that is being made at a very high level.

Driftglass:

Well, I remember that. I mean I'm sure we all remember that the Hillary emails were all nothing burgers. There was nothing there, yeah.

BlueGal/Fran:

My colleague, carolee Kunz read every single one of them.

BlueGal/Fran:

I think she was the only person in media who actually read every single email that was published by WikiLeaks and what and what she found was a genuinely kind person who followed up with people over and over again on issues on whether they had any needs after someone in their family passed away. A kind friend and a competent manager of her career and understanding that her career was to find issues that mattered to people, find solutions to those issues and follow up with people who could actually do something. Or that she could do something for them.

Driftglass:

I know you're going to die mad over her autism proposals.

BlueGal/Fran:

Yeah, oh, I'm, I'm, I. Anytime we talk about this I start crying. Because she met in New Hampshire. She met in New Hampshire. She met with scores of parents, elderly parents of adults with autism, who had nowhere to go because their children had aged out. High school can stay in high school until they're 21, 22, depending on the state and the school district, but when they age out of that, there aren't enough. Group homes there aren't enough. And then there's those of us who have a child who is and they used to use the term high functioning they don't say that anymore but who is capable of independent living, right and tremendous skills in one area, whether it's computer programming or geography or whatever it is, they have encyclopedic minds and will learn everything about a subject and be incredibly reliable because they live on a timeline and so showing up for work on time is just.

BlueGal/Fran:

It wouldn't occur to them not to show up for work on time. I'm supposed to be here at eight o'clock. I remember Maybe I've told this story before Getting a call from junior dude school and he was not at the assembly when he was supposed to be at the assembly. He had signed out and I said to them his diagnosis doesn't allow him to not be at the assembly. Check again, Double check that, and ask him to look at where he signed out. And sure enough, some other kid had signed out with his name, knowing Junior Dude wouldn't get in trouble. And so I'll use that name and put that name on the sheet instead of my name. And then I haven't left and I can go have a smoke or do whatever. When they see Junior Dude's name on the sheet, no one will question it Anyway. But yes, Hillary Clinton, autism knew that there was an opportunity to tap into a reservoir of talent.

Driftglass:

Right.

BlueGal/Fran:

That would benefit our country and our economy. Yes, and and yes, there are private companies that have also figured this out, particularly with tech. Yeah, absolutely with tech.

Driftglass:

Yeah, absolutely half the people I worked with in my tech career um had either autism I swear or aspies.

BlueGal/Fran:

I mean, I'm asking myself, and that's how I both are.

Driftglass:

That's how I, that's how I. I was like. I was the bridge between the ones who were severely anti-social, but geniuses yeah and management who didn't understand anything, thought it was all dark magic.

BlueGal/Fran:

They called me the travel agent Between the translator. The translator between talking to tech people who did not want to talk to you except about their obsessive interest and the managers who really needed them to do a certain amount of work.

Driftglass:

I am a child of both worlds, blue Cat. But back to the emails. The content of the emails was benign. Right, it was the existence of them. It was a screaming headlines.

BlueGal/Fran:

The's what I really like, though, about Project 2025 is progressives are reading it and pulling stuff out. Like you know, they don't want to regulate baby formula anymore.

Driftglass:

Right what that can't be right, oh.

BlueGal/Fran:

Page 322 right there in black and white.

Driftglass:

That's what it says. Yeah, but the email issue was how can we take this innocuous thing that was maybe a mistake, but not malevolent and turn it into something to beat the crap out of Hillary Clinton with every day in the New York Times? The exact opposite is happening in exactly the same circumstance with Donald Trump, which is we have hundreds of emails and texts and videos and all sorts of shit. We're not going to tell you anything.

BlueGal/Fran:

We're not going to remember anything of stuff we aired or stuff that was on Twitter, stuff he said Right, stuff he said yesterday with Elon Musk, we're just going to move on to the next thing because that's just a misstatement.

Driftglass:

Well, as you mentioned when we were talking earlier, one of these components is going to die out sooner or later. Well, as you mentioned when we were talking earlier, one of these components is going to die out sooner or later.

BlueGal/Fran:

Well, and this is the thing that you and I have been having a conversation about, which is things that are gone, that we never thought would be gone in our life, times are changing over and over and over Shopping malls. We thought those would. You'd always go to, the have a shopping mall, to go to A mall, a mall somewhere. Script mall somewhere right Landlines newspapers.

Driftglass:

Yeah.

BlueGal/Fran:

Local newspapers would have lots and lots of coverage and lots and lots of reporters. But here's the deal Cable television is dying. Dirk Glass. Yeah, you know that it absolutely is.

Driftglass:

Cable television is dying.

BlueGal/Fran:

Dirk Glass yeah, you know that, it absolutely is. Cable news is dying. The one that I brought up with you was when I was a child. My parents had all the books by John Updike Rabbit Run, Rabbit is Rich. You know those were classics, instant classics, and we were going to be reading John Updike well into the 21st century.

Driftglass:

Sure.

BlueGal/Fran:

When you're 90 years old, you'll be reading John Updike to your kids. Fran, you know that's what will happen. It's like no one reads John Updike anymore, and he was a fine writer for the time. He encapsulated post-war white male America and the need to tell that story has diminished in the way that he did it. Yeah, and so here, looking at this, with cable news dying, our role in providing context for what is going on. That may change in 10 years. There might be something better than podcasting that we don't know about.

Driftglass:

Going door to door and telling people what we think.

BlueGal/Fran:

Bang, bang, bang. David Brooks. Oh no, the David Brooks guy is here again.

Driftglass:

No, make him go away. We're not home. Slip five bucks through the mail slot honey and make him go away.

BlueGal/Fran:

We thought blogging was the peak of our influence. Yeah, and it was for a while and it was for a hot minute, but there's other opportunities and so I just want to be open to whatever it's going to be. And we're here, we're going to stay here and do this and I love doing this and I know our audience loves us doing this, and whether we're talking about our grandkids or talking about the media revolution, you know we'll figure it out, but, um, you know things, things change.

Driftglass:

You know, what we learned a couple of weeks ago is if there will always be an audience and there'll always be a stage and there'll always be performers who will put on Macbeth.

BlueGal/Fran:

Right.

Driftglass:

Hundreds of years later, there will always be people who want to know what's going on or, more accurately, want to understand what's going on. Why are things this way? What the hell is going on here? This seems to make no sense to me, and there will be people who can explain that. Now, sometimes the explanation is give me all your money and pray to my God and I'll let you in on the secret After you die. Everything's going to be awesome.

BlueGal/Fran:

Let me ask you a question, though, Driftglass. Sure, you and I saw Macbeth at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival, and then the next day we watched the tragedy of Macbeth with Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand right, we did, which is awesome. I've watched it four times. I could watch it Once a month.

Driftglass:

Let's go watch it now.

BlueGal/Fran:

It's the it. It is it. The one of the Coen brothers made it. Joel Coen made it great. One of the greatest movies, one of my top 10 favorite movies of all time, for sure. Okay, but what do you think would have surprised William Shakespeare more Macbeth being played by one of the leading black actors of our time or Lady Macbeth being played by an actual woman?

BlueGal/Fran:

uh, the second one yeah, I think so too the second one, absolutely, yeah, no, um, I mean, and finding out that that Frances McDormand has a tremendously celebrated career as a talented actress and has influence, and had made a speech asking all of the women in the audience who had any nominations to stand up, and all of the women that stood up at the.

BlueGal/Fran:

Oscars and she said don't talk to us tonight at the parties. Talk to us in your office or our office in two days. And you know, inclusion rider. We're going to have an inclusion rider in our contracts, so be ready for that. And advocated for women's place in Hollywood. That would shock Shakespeare, yeah.

Driftglass:

Yeah, well, generally, the idea of actors being treated well would shock him.

BlueGal/Fran:

Yeah, yeah, making money. Well, that would have shocked Alfred Hitchcock too.

Driftglass:

Yeah, well, I mean the acting profession being treated as a profession that was worthy of respect, as opposed to one step up from prostitute.

BlueGal/Fran:

Yeah, oh, and, by the way, shakespeare, there's this thing called Apple TV. Let me push a couple buttons here and you can watch your play.

Driftglass:

Yeah.

BlueGal/Fran:

What.

Driftglass:

Yeah, oh, and the guy who played your play last time did four of the movies and he made $50 million last year. Yeah, just FYI, he's got his own island, so you know, these things happen. But the basic, basic human thing of needing to understand the world and having storytellers tell you what the world is like never changes it. We're just wired that way. Yeah, and so the need for context and the frankly, the, the, the draw of grifters who will sell lies to you, who will feed you bullshit to get your money in vote make you feel good about being white and uneducated, and yeah, to scam you, I mean, and to scam you for money.

Driftglass:

Yes, you're hungry for answers. They will provide. The right-wing evangelicals will provide you a vision of hell where all the liberals are burning forever. And that's what you want, so send them money. So there will always be a competition among storytellers to tell you some version of the truth and some version of some comforting fairy tale that you wish to believe.

BlueGal/Fran:

Yeah, and you are really the one who's being persecuted. You are the truth and some version of some comforting fairy tale that you wish to believe. Yeah, yeah, and you are really the one who's being persecuted. You are, you're the sufferer.

Driftglass:

The discrimination is against white people. Oh my God, You're so right.

BlueGal/Fran:

Look, we're going to take a little break from all of this for a minute. Now I want to talk about a hopeful article that I read today in a website called Works in Progress. I'm very interested in how planners and people in power work on things like housing, and this article was about Arlington, virginia and Arlington Virginia. This website called Works in Progress was writing about a bullseye plan, which is where planners engaged residents and developed this bullseye plan for permitting dense development around five public transit stations. And they're all in a row.

BlueGal/Fran:

You know where the trains run, know where the trains run, and a quarter mile of land surrounding that station in a circle was permitted to build um buildings over 20 stories. Just a quarter mile, half a mile in diameter around these stations. And so there's this boom, there's this circle around this station. Then, a little way down the the train, there's another circle around the train station, or another circle, and there's five of them, and these quarter mile of land closest to the stations was intended for the most density.

BlueGal/Fran:

Now, if you're a quarter mile from a train station that's going to take you into DC, you don't need a car and you can live in an apartment. You don't need a car and you can live in an apartment. And this article says today, several buildings stretching over 20 stories stand within these very narrow radiuses, or radii. It should have been radii but, yes, radiuses. The exact density permitted in the county's transit corridors isn't spelled out in its zoning ordinance, because projects may purchase transferable development rights from nearby property owners or earn bonus density for providing income-restricted housing. So you can build more housing if you make it affordable housing, and you talked to me about this, about Cabrini Green and Robert Taylor Holmes.

Driftglass:

Especially Robert Taylor, especially Robert Taylor Holmes.

BlueGal/Fran:

Completely isolated from any services, from downtown, from transit on the other side of a highway in Chicago.

Driftglass:

Yeah, that was the point, the point was to keep them penned in, keep the black population who lived there, who had their neighborhoods bulldozed to make room for highways, uh, hemmed in um on on one side by a highway, by like nine lanes of highway, which they couldn't possibly cross and feel like they're in. They could see downtown from where they live, but they never went there because it was far away and and unreachable in in a lot of ways and so you're so completely isolated that you know the business that you turn to is drugs or violence or whatever.

BlueGal/Fran:

And I think about this that if you can build these apartment buildings within near transit, what happens when you build an apartment building near transit? All of a sudden, there's a laundromat, there's a bar, there's a restaurant. There's a bar, there's a restaurant, there's a coffee shop and there are stores, right.

Driftglass:

And these things are built for working people who will be commuting to the city.

BlueGal/Fran:

Right. And they might want coffee to take on the train Right. Or they might want to drop off their suit to be cleaned after work.

Driftglass:

Well, you know, the place where my parents moved after we moved back from the Philippines was this concept, but it was the sprawling yards and curvilinear streets of Park Forest, built for the white man who's going to go to the city every day and his wife who's going to be at home baking and taking care of the kids. And so the elements don't change the elements of. I need a place where my family can be raised in safety around some neighbors who I get to know and are friendly with. That is within striking distance of a job that I can pay for it all, and that is such a wonderful plan that you've found about these Arlington developments that you've found about these Arlington developments?

BlueGal/Fran:

Yeah, and these ideas can be replicated other places. And AOC did a video this week about an apartment complex in Brooklyn. I believe it was where it's an apartment complex, a playground, a street, and then right across the street from the playground is a drop, and at the drop, in the bottom of the drop, is a drop. And at the drop in the bottom of the drop is a massive highway where 18 wheelers are going 24 seven because it's New York City 24 seven. You've got 18 wheelers going 60 miles an hour literally across the street from a playground.

BlueGal/Fran:

And she pointed to that building and she said you know, a large number of children living in that building have asthma and it's because of this they're playing in this playground and they're breathing in the spew from these trucks. And what she wants is to build an overpass, a green space, overpass over this highway so that the smog and filth can be redirected away from the children and hopefully collected in some way, but also so that the children will have green space across from their playground rather than trucks. And she said you know, is this overpass going to cost a lot of money? Yeah, asthma costs a lot of money too, and this is about human beings living a better life, absolutely so these plans and these housing and making incremental improvements to people's lives is what brings hope and what hope brings joy, and joy brings a better life for all of us, and that's the class. Did I just do Democratic messaging?

Driftglass:

You did really well too, I might.

BlueGal/Fran:

I might add. Oh, and then the other trend I saw this week and I think it must have been some sort of AP story that local people then plugged in a man on the street interview from someone in their community. Because I saw an article from California, I saw an article from Oregon, I saw an article from Texas and they all had the basic, same theme, which is here is a couple that is making six figures and can't afford a mortgage, couple that is making six figures and can't afford a mortgage. And the thought is people are told to that one third of their income, 30% or so, should go to the mortgage and 30% of these people's income even though in the case of the Oregon couple, that was the specific one I read, even though in the case of the Oregon couple, that was the specific one I read the wife, I think, was a operating room nurse, so she was making six figures, and her husband was also a professional making six figures they made over $300,000 as a couple, which is way more than we make.

BlueGal/Fran:

They couldn't afford to buy a house. They couldn't afford to buy a house. There were no, there were no, there was no housing that would allow them a mortgage that was one third of their income and so. But I saw this article in several places and I thought, oh, this is something interesting. And this reminded me of something that Chris Hayes said many years ago and I know we've talked about it before of something that Chris Hayes said many years ago and I know we've talked about it before, which is the French Revolution wasn't started by peasants, it wasn't started by the lowest income or the low class. It was started by upper middle class people who thought that and thought correctly that the extreme elite wealthy were taking their birthright.

Driftglass:

Yes, absolutely.

BlueGal/Fran:

And the upper middle class people had the media attention and the electoral skills and the privilege that allowed them to make changes, and I think that's what we're seeing with the Kamala Harris campaign is a recognition that things have to change. Yes and uh, John Oliver, noting that you know, most of Hawaii is owned by 36 billionaires who are wrecking it? Who are wrecking it and the. Army is wrecking it. That Army guy had a speech didn't he?

BlueGal/Fran:

Oh God, yeah, he did yeah we're not going out and unburying all the mines we laid for safety.

Driftglass:

Yeah, all the unexploded stuff you know for safety.

BlueGal/Fran:

But Native Hawaiians have been given land grants and the land grants have live mines on them, mm-hmm have live minds on them and they're waiting 19 years to get their birthright as a Hawaiian, as a native Hawaiian and I have to brag, you know, middle child and youngest child were all over this. I was talking, I was fantasizing with them about a trip we could take after they're both graduated from college. The three of us could go on some fantasy trip. What about Hawaii? Oh, no, mom, we would never trample on native Hawaiian land. Okay.

Driftglass:

Okay, then Okay.

BlueGal/Fran:

So they were way ahead of John Oliver on that one. But, as you noted after we watched that episode, John Oliver's staff is made up of middle child, youngest child yeah, and and he's and he does, he does a lot of stuff that apparently only comedy central can do yeah, um, he will say you mean hbo hbo with hbo money and comedy central can do.

Driftglass:

One of the things is um constantly mentioning how ironic it is, that's that a british person is bringing the story to you of colonial exploitation yeah. But the other thing he notes, which we're actually going to get to in just a second, is how much corporate daddy hates him. Yeah, how much he pisses off. His show pisses off and the stuff they cover pisses off the corporation that owns the network.

BlueGal/Fran:

Yeah.

Driftglass:

And that advertises, and they don't care.

BlueGal/Fran:

And it's only his success that keeps it network, yeah, and that advertises, and they don't care, and it's only his success that keeps it going.

Driftglass:

Yeah, and Jon Stewart did the same thing in his day, the same thing. Make a point of the fact that, yeah, you know what the person, the people we're talking about, are, the people who own this network or advertise with us. I do want to mention sort of a net to that, something I've talked about before, which is a story by a guy named Jerry Pornel. Jerry Pornel is a science fiction writer. He wrote a whole bunch of cool stuff. He was wrote a lot of novels with his friend Larry Niven, and half of you are going to give me a long list of reading that I haven't done yet with livin and pornell. Um and their, their, their series about global or galactic empire or solar empire got it, I understand this. I'm doing this on the fly, my reading list is not in front of me, but uh, inferno is about science fiction.

Driftglass:

Writer goes to hell and doesn't believe that hell is possible. Therefore, he keeps finding scientific explanations or theoretical possibilities for everything he sees around him. But he's got a guide through hell, as one does in the original Divine Comedy, and he finds out at the end that his guide is Mussolini. So that's, you know that's a kick in the ass, but he's constantly bitching to his guide about how unfair this all is and and and what. Why is? I knew that guy in life, he wasn't so bad. How come he's burning a lake of fire and this guy it's, it's, it's ridiculous, it's overkill. Why is he being drowned? Why is he being diced into pieces? And his, um, his guide is like very calm, sort of like, explains how things work and and finally, our, our, uh, our protagonist loses his temper. It just starts berating him, as I recall, and his guide finally turns to him and says look, I'm in hell too. I'm here as well. This isn't a party for me and he says it more eloquent than that but I too am in hell.

Driftglass:

So when we talk about the media and we do, and we talk about among our friends on social media and the people who write us, the people who listen and people who are higher up the food chain than us, who are just like beating their head against the wall and you know all the same names that I do on social media, who are just what the fuck is wrong with the New York Times?

Driftglass:

What the hell is wrong over there? Here's the thing. You and I don't have media access, but Chris Hayes does and Norm Ornstein does and Stuart Stevens does, and Tim Miller and Bill Kristol and James Fallows and Mark Jacobs and Bruce Bartlett to a certain degree. Lawrence O'Donnell certainly does, keith Olbermann does he's the only one who tells tales out of school practically Rachel Maddow does, david Frum does, and all these people have in common is they have vastly greater access to the executives and power brokers inside the Beltway media who are making these horribly destructive decisions than you and I do, because we have none. I might be able to get the former editor of the local paper to talk to me for 10 minutes about how local media works.

BlueGal/Fran:

At the grocery store If you bump into her at the grocery store. She's not going to return your phone call.

Driftglass:

No, no, and she's a very nice lady and when she worked for the local Republican rag you could tell she was in great discomfort the entire time because she had to work against her own principles to work for that shit place. But we have no access. We've been firing our pea shooters at the dark tower of the beltway media for like 20 years now and everything's gotten worse.

Driftglass:

and yet the people with real clout have proved they can actually make noise when it happens, when it counts, witness the fate of rana romney mcdaniel yeah, who was hired and fired in like two minutes because a whole bunch of people with actual clout at MSNBC and NBC stood up on their hind legs and said oh fuck, no, we're not doing this. And then things changed. But here's the thing there's Peter Baker and there's Susan Glasser, and there's.

Driftglass:

Maggie Haberman and Chris Saliza and Ross Douthat and Brett Stevens and Kristen Welker and Andrea Mitchell and Katie Turr, and on and on and on that. And and brett stevens and kristen welker and andrea mitchell and katie chur, and on and on and on. All these really awful people with jobs for life in the media and everyone is quiet about them. No one says, or do you remember on when we used to watch, a million years ago morning, joe blue gal? Yeah, and somebody said something mean about david yeah.

BlueGal/Fran:

Remember that yes, I do, yes, I do.

Driftglass:

And it was hedged with a lot of. Well, he's a great guy and he plays.

BlueGal/Fran:

He's got a foot-long dick and he's big as a house and he's like a superhuman in every way. He's wrong in this one area. He's just completely wrong, and you could hear Mika Brzezinski just gasp.

Driftglass:

Yeah, but you know, nobody was wrong about the Iraq War, the David Brooks you just heard. Everyone went quiet and there was this gasp like you've slapped the czar, you've touched the holy thing you're not supposed to touch. And there is that attitude towards people in the media by their colleagues who fucking well know better that we cannot talk about them. We cannot call Crystal as a name because he might be working in our network in a minute or he might be our boss next month. And so my example is, for example, the useless hack Bill Crystal. Bill Crystal who exists only because he's Irvin Crystal's kid, so he's a Nepo baby and he got his son-in-law a job in the media, which is second generation Nepo baby. Bill Kristol was invented by Rupert Murdoch.

BlueGal/Fran:

Yep.

Driftglass:

He was given a bunch of money by Rupert Murdoch to run a thing called the Weekly Standard. He was given a charity job at the New York Times and another wing that well for gig at Time Magazine and at Fox and ABC News and MSNBC. He used to make the rounds of all the Sunday shows lying his ass off and nobody ever called him on it. He used to be David Brooks's boss at the Weekly Standard. Now you cannot tell me that Bill Kristol couldn't make three phone calls and just like that we would have the inside scoop on why the hell Peter Baker still has a goddamn job.

BlueGal/Fran:

And the thing is he wouldn't need to make any phone calls. He could tell you he knows.

Driftglass:

So there is this thing happening among people and I despise Bill Kristol, but even people that you might like or admire or have good feelings toward, and I understand that. Why is their loyalty to their job higher than their loyalty to the country? What is it about?

BlueGal/Fran:

them Because they want to feed their kids and pay their mortgage.

Driftglass:

I have a nice park, slope, condo and I got three kids and I want them to go to a nice school, and if I say shit out of school, I'll say things on social media. Chris Hayes. Like can you believe? What's wrong with the New York Times? Are you telling me you don't know anyone from the New York Times? You have no friends working for the New York Times? You can't call the New York Times. Say just tell me off the record who the fuck is doing this.

Driftglass:

And if you say AG Schultzberger is doing it, give me some details and I'll do it on the air tomorrow. But I can't do that because then I'd be gone. Right Because none of these people are self-employed, right, even Mark Halperin. Mark Halperin was given a make work job by somebody at no labels like doing accounting or something to keep his health insurance.

BlueGal/Fran:

He did not have to keep paying Cobra Right.

Driftglass:

No, he did not when he was rousing off the big time thing for being a creepy sex pest. And in fact, this week, Blue Gal, this very week, we saw the triumphant return of Mark Halperin as an off-screen character, like a Greek chorus.

BlueGal/Fran:

Yeah.

Driftglass:

On the Morning Joe show.

BlueGal/Fran:

Well, we didn't see it because we don't watch Morning Joe.

Driftglass:

But we were made aware of it and video was sent along to us.

BlueGal/Fran:

Many alert listeners. Let us know. Did you know they mentioned?

Driftglass:

Mark Halpern's newsletter. You know Mark Halpern has a newsletter. You know Mark Halpern reported this week because they're just desperate to get their creepy sex pest friend back on the air. And that was overshadowed by the triumphant return of Chris Silliza, who was sacked by CNN and has now showed up on MSNBC as the head of some kind of consulting company and some K Street consulting company has given him a senior position.

Driftglass:

Yeah, and to wrap up this portion of my tirade, I did some deep research, people, this is what I do for you. This is Rachel Maddow level shit.

Driftglass:

So, let's all have a little respect. Dr Robert Sobel, who was an associate professor of history at Hofstra University, said that the British created a civil service job in 1803 for a man to stand on the cliffs of Dover with a spyglass, and his job was to ring a bell if he saw Napoleon coming. And that job was abolished in 1945. Wow. So generations of people were told, stand on the cliff, look out at the water, ring the bell if Napoleon's coming. We'll serve Napoleon's dead, doesn't matter, doesn't matter. That's the job. The king, the government, has created this position. The powers that be have decreed this shall be so, and so, even though it's mindless and useless, keep doing it.

BlueGal/Fran:

And the money's in the budget.

Driftglass:

Yeah, so what's happening in the media? Eons ago, the mission was, I believe, fairness, to be fair to people, to tell a story fairly. That is the Walter Cronkite era.

BlueGal/Fran:

Edward Armour, walter Cronkite, fred Friendly. Yeah, be fair, yeah Be fair.

Driftglass:

But that was the mission. That mission became kind of a ritual. The ritual became balance. We must have a balance of both sides of the story we must have. Each side needs to be represented fairly in service of fairness. And then, somewhere around the Iraq War, or maybe 10 years before that, the ritual became a farce. It became both sides do it. Both sides do it. Everything's to both sides, everything's to blame for both sides. And bless you all, all of you, for turning both sides do it into a farce, into a joke. That is now a punchline. But here's the thing they're still doing it, and they're still doing it for the same reason. That poor, dumb asshole was standing on the White Cliffs of Dover in 1930 looking out for Napoleon. Because nobody has ordered them to stop. This is all they know how to do. This is what has come down from on high. And since we have no will of our own, no judgment of our own, our job is to tell the story the media wants us to tell.

BlueGal/Fran:

Yeah, yeah, two more things before we end.

Driftglass:

Okay.

BlueGal/Fran:

I want to reiterate what Charlie Pierce has said About sports writers that sports writers realize that these guys don't need to talk to you. The star pitcher Of a baseball team Doesn't need to talk to you. You need him to talk to you For your job, but he doesn't need to talk. All he needs to do is pitch. And Kamala Harris doesn't need to talk. All he needs to do is pitch. And Kamala.

BlueGal/Fran:

Harris doesn't need the press. No, the press needs Kamala Harris to do their jobs, but she doesn't need them. And this whining when members of the media are on her airplane. It is not as if she has shut down all conversation with members of the media. I've seen two instances in the past week where she's walked up to reporters on the tarmac saying what you got and answered questions from them.

Driftglass:

And all the questions are about Donald Trump. Yeah, I know, I know, but having a sit down with the New York fucking Times is completely unnecessary, especially when she's only got you know three months left if that about her not doing more press releases and more press conferences and interviews are the same people who spent the last nine years shrieking that it's all fake news.

BlueGal/Fran:

It's all fake news.

Driftglass:

Well, if it's fake news, what does it matter what she does?

BlueGal/Fran:

Right Asshole, I'm sorry I interrupted. That's all right. And the second thing is this is something I came up with this week. Is this is something I came up with this week Whenever Donald Trump decides to do some fake grab of media attention with a press conference. I'm going to have a press conference tomorrow at two o'clock, thank you, or I'm I'll be doing an interview with Elon Musk on Twitter. I'm back on Twitter 8 PM. Thank you. Put that on social media and say is he dropping out?

Driftglass:

Some big announcement is coming.

BlueGal/Fran:

Is he dropping out? Wow, Maybe he's dropping out. You know, he really should consider dropping out. I think he should drop out. What do you think?

Driftglass:

Drip Glass you think he should drop out. He seems impaired and he can't talk.

BlueGal/Fran:

I think that he has to drop out. He's very old. I maybe he's going to drop out.

Driftglass:

Yeah, sharks and batteries. Sounds like a man who should drop out of the race. Maybe he should listen to his political advisors all the people on the right who are telling him to drop out. Maybe he should listen to them.

BlueGal/Fran:

I've heard many people say he should drop out.

Driftglass:

Many people, people come up to me on the street all the time and say, sir, sir, is there any way you can use your influence to get Donald Trump to drop out of the race?

BlueGal/Fran:

It would be for the good of himself and the country.

Driftglass:

Right.

BlueGal/Fran:

We've got a lot more to talk about. That we'll talk about on Thursday and we hope you'll listen then.

Driftglass:

Yeah, thank you for listening. Please support the show. Let us not end the show without telling people that you need to support the show at proletpodcom. There's a Patreon over there. Go ahead and click on it. Dump all your money in there and all your problems will go away. It's just, it's miraculous how that'll work.

BlueGal/Fran:

Hey Drew Glass. How are the internet kitties doing today?

Driftglass:

Well look, the internet kitties are still very impressed by this young Tim Walls kid. The Professional F Podcast is recorded under a Creative Commons license.

BlueGal/Fran:

Copyright 2024-25. Dgbg Productions.