Wednesday, July 19, 2023
In bed at 10, awake at 4 and up at 4z;30, unable to sleep with bait bucket thoughts, backache and new sharp pains of unknown origin on upper right side rib cage, 'intercostal muscle' strain? 60℉, high of 77℉, sunny part of the day, cloudy other part, but no rain and none expected in next 10 days. The wind is WSW at 5 mph, 3-12/21. The sun will rise at 5:28 and set at 8:26, 14+57.
Hate radio and Schadenfreude TV. I've been thinking about the similarites between our current situation in the U.S. and the 1850s, thoughts prompted again by reading the excerpts of speeches by Daniel Webster and Henry Clay in connection with the Compromise of 1850 and prompted again by listening to right wing radio yesterday on my trip to Repairers of the Breach and watching MSNBC last night. I even heard a little bit of Sean Hannity's radio show when I put the car in the garage, the radio still tuned to WISN 'hate radio.' What struck me about the Webster and Clay speeches was that War was in the air 10 and more years before South Carolina's guns fired on Fort Sumpter. It wasn't just political or policy differences that separted the Slave and Free States before the Civil War. The differences were truly existential, i.e, whether the unitary State created by the Constitutiion would, could, and should continue to exist. The particular issue was the expansion of local economies based on slave labor into the Western Territorities and the altering of existing power blocs in the Congress that would occur if more Slave States were admitted into the Union. Most of the North, but by no means all, said no and most of the White South said yes. There were deep feelings of grievance on both sides, but especially in the South.
What is unmistakeable in listening to right-wing talk radio, and on Fox News and other right-wing outlets, is that sense of grievance, that "we" are being treated unfairly by "them." That Hillary Clinton's email problem with a few classified documents in it and the '33,000" deletions, was just as bad as Donald Trump's classified documents in the ballroom, bedroom, and bathroom at Mar-a-Lago. That the 2020 presidential election was 'stolen' by Democrats. That the January 6th storming of the Capitol was just a "demonstration" by patriotic citizens fed up with this, that, and the other thing. The profound, persistent feeling that "we" are being screwed out of what is rightfully "ours" by "them," Democrats, liberals, progressives, socialists, Marxists, communists, globalists. A deep, deep, sense of injustice and unfairness and catastrophic change occurring with confirmation biases leading to a readiness to listen to and believe conspiracy theories.
What we are seeing on MSNBC is not the same kind of lunacy just coming from the Left, but rather a cloying schadenfreude as the walls close in on Trump. I confess to sharing the schadenfreude with a conviction that Trump deserves all the trouble he's experiencing and a lot more but even I have become weary of Nicolle Wallace's, Lawrence O'Donnell's, et al., manifest delight in endlessly focusing on the travails of Trump, no matter how unimportant. Am I remembering accurately the brouhaha, or was it a kerfluffle, when CBS moved its news programming into its Entertainment division? OMG, the legacy of Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite as entertainment? The news operation at one time was an important public service and was expected to and deserved to cost money, not to make money. No longer. And cable news has disrupted everything, with corporate ownership mainly interested in generating profits by catering to the interests of audiences. The big shake-up at CNN after Jeff Zucker was forced out reveals the tensions within the news industry. What is the mission, other than generating profits, of televison news in our era? Giv'em what they want? Like Donald O'Connor's great number in Singing in the Rain? "Make'em laugh, make'em laugh, . . .You can study Shakespeare and be quite elite / And you could charm the critics and have nothing to eat / Just slip on a banana peel, the world's at your feet / Make 'em laugh." Or make'em fear and hate. The more audience you attract with entertaining 'news', the higher the rates you charge to corporate advertisers and the more lucrative the bottom line. So we get fear and hate and conspiracy theories on the Right and schadenfreude and vengeance-seeking on the Left.
More particularly, I think the gleeful attitude of O'Donnell et al., fails to credit the risks the nation faces from these multiple prosecutions of Trump and his co-conspirators. At some point, the fury and hatred being constantly amped up by Trump and his media allies will result in shootings, bombings, and burning. In nuclear physics, "critical mass" is the minimum amount of fissile material necessry to sustain a nuclear chain reaction, including an atomic bomb blast. I suspect we are near the critical mass of fear, hate, and grievance socially and politically necessary to generate some sustained political violence. Right-wing zealots will exact a price in blood for the schadenfreude we are enjoying. There will be blood. (I need my dear sister Kitty to tell me to "SNAP OUT OF IT!")
Exchange of email with CBG
To: Charles Clausen Wed, Jul 19 at 8:07 AM
Chuck, Thank you so much for your beautiful message. I feel most grateful and blessed to have met you that nervous day in Bob’s office some 38 years ago or so and to have had you in my life ever since. From our talks in the office, to laughing and choking on lunches in the blue conference room, to Goldman’s and Hooligans and Hollander, and to our seasonal dinners over the past couple decades, I always look forward to our time together and cherish the time we spend. We are off to LA today for a birthday dinner and then to take care of grandchild #1 in Santa Monica for 4 days while my daughter and son in law take a little vacay in Malibu. We’re looking forward to it and plan to come home exhausted! See you for our next dinner, if not before. ❤️
On Tue, Jul 18, 2023 at 10:02 AM Charles Clausen <charlesclausen2003@yahoo.com> wrote:
Hi, Dear Friend, I think I am a day early but if so, all to the good. Perhaps I'll be the first to wish you a happy 65th birthday. I'm thinking back on the first time we met which I think was when you interviewed at the firm in Bob's corner office. I liked you then and the warm feelings have only grown over so many years. So many of the people we work with, most of them in fact, never become more than acquaintances and fellow workers while some fortunate ones become personal friends, enriching our lives 'where we live,' so to speak, not just where we work or worked. I am thankful that you have been such a person in my life. It's a little bit hard for me to believe that that beautiful young law school graduate nervously sitting on Bob's sofa so long ago is now a bubbe and about to receive some benefits from all those Medicare taxes you have paid so long. Mazel tov! 💖
Camille
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