I try to find good news but...
good news is hard to find.....
I still haven’t decided whether I will do this seriously. My guess now is “no,” but in the meantime I will use to get things off my chest and offer free advice, which I hope is worth the price.
The Good News:
Ok, so Syria is good news, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/12/23/syria-after-assad no matter how it eventually turns out and South Korea https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/12/14/world/south-korea-impeachment-president-yoon is even more definitely good news, democracy-wise.
Eric Adams getting denied matching funds after proving to be a corrupt liar is also good news
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/16/nyregion/eric-adams-matching-funds-campaign-finance.html
Trump is still legally guilty at least of this,
But sorry to say good news is hard to find in this country at this time.
The Times tried to find some for its politics page the other day, reporting on a Democratic Party conclave that was trying to do the same. You can find that story here Democrats Argue That the 2024 Election Actually Had Its Bright Spots https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/13/us/politics/democrats-harris-trump-2024-election.html
This is, however, not really good news. I mean it’s so small next to all the bad news that it’s silly to pretend that it’s important. The biggest problem with the Democrats is that they put governance ahead of politics and, in combination with this, they trust the mainstream media to tell their stories sympathetically. This strategy worked for the first half of the century before civil rights became an issue and racist Southern Democrats became racist Southern Republicans, enabling the party to win elections by appealing to racism and fear amongst all Americans, beginning with Nixon.
Today that is just about all they do, though it’s not just racism anymore, it’s the fear and hatred of anyone who does not look, act or think like them. Democrats are seen as the party of Blacks, gays, amazingly trans people who are a tiny number, Jews, immigrants (though this is increasingly less true), college professors and childless cat ladies. One of the most amazing things about our elections, over time is that without exception, since John Kennedy’s time, the economy has performed better by almost any measure. https://www.epi.org/press/new-report-finds-that-the-economy-performs-better-under-democratic-presidential-administrations/ But most particularly growth, unemployment, inflation and the deficit—than under Republicans and yet people, again, almost without exception say they “trust” Republicans more than Democrats on the issue of the economy, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/30/us/elections/trump-harris-economy-poll.html. Sure they are ignorant and ill-informed but it’s also true that Democrats have no idea how to reach them or to speak to them if they could.
There are two major reasons for this, I think. First is that mainstream reporting cannot be trusted to tell the truth about this or much of anything else that smacks of controversy and benefits from people’s ignorance and prejudice. Owing to a combination of bothsidesism that refuses, or cannot be bothered to get to, the truth of any matter, they simply print Republicans’ false claims alongside Democrats’ or economists’ true ones. Again, part of the reason is an adherence to an outdated form of objectivity and part of it due to a half century of intimidation by conservatives to the point where the immediate tendency of reporters, editors and especially headline writers is to try to pacify the right-wingers who are going to complain (and lately, threaten) news organizations that fail to pay heed to their spin, regardless of where the truth may lie.
Then there is the problem of actually trying to govern. This is a complicated thing to do and involves all sorts of compromises with countless interests and stakeholders and rarely leaves anyone happy in the end. It might end with a better result than it began with: see under “Obamacare.” But it presents an easy target for critics who are not parties to those compromises. They can attack it on behalf of their constituencies without any concern
Second is the racism and fear thing. Trump and the Republicans have proven that as long as you lean into racism and fear and blaming the Other, nothing else matters \. You can lie with impunity. You can show evidence of dementia. You can be a proven criminal; a rapist; a traitor; an insurrectionist. You appoint fellow sex criminals, lunatics, pathological liars, drunks, traitors, even people whose brains have been eaten by worms, who are also sexual predators, drive their wives to suicide, to say nothing of their weird relationships with bears and whales and it’s all cool because they are blaming the people it’s ok to hate. The MSM is partially to blame here for all the normalizing they do of these pathologies, but to be honest, it’s the non-mainstream media on Fox, Twitter, Facebook YouTube and those lunatic right-wing networks normal people have barely even heard of that are spreading these monstrous lies for fun and profit.
However, I read this essay after I wrote that but it’s worth pondering:
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-weekend-essay/have-the-democrats-become-the-party-of-the-elites
Meanwhile, a question: How is it that a real newspaper like the Guardian can employ editors who sign off on an article this self-evidently stupid?
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/dec/14/this-is-how-we-do-it-now-that-were-having-sex-can-i-still-call-myself-asexual
Alterman gift giving guide. (I will do books in the near future) I recommend all of these for people predisposed to them, save where I made comments.
Alterman approved presents of physical media, most music, released in 2024. (I have bought all of these. I am still that guy) If you want to know where any of the more expensive ones can be purchased most inexpensively, write me and I will see what I can find. We are an all-purpose substack for now.
CD Box Sets.
Joni Mitchell Archives, volume 4 six cds
Neil Young Archives, volume 3, 17 cds
Beck, Bogart & Appice Live in Japan, 1973, Live in London, 1974, 4r cds
Lee Morgan, Live at the Lighthouse, Complete, 8 cds
George Harrison, Living in the Material World (just the two cd version)
Pushing Too Hard, American Garage Punk, 1964-1967, 3 cds
Looking for the Magic, American Power Pop in the 70s, 3 cds
The Grateful Dead, Dave’s Picks, 50, 3 cds
The Grateful Dead, Dave’s Picks, 52, 3 cds
(I did not keep 49 or 51, due to unmanageable GD live inventory)
Blue Ray and Cd Box sets I bought this year:
Eric Rohmer, A Tale of the Four Seasons, Criterion Collection, four discs
Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Concert 2023, four cds, two blue rays (This is only for completists and enthusiasts. It’s really not so great)
The Rolling Stones, Live at the Wiltern, 2 cds, one blue ray
Single cds I bought this year and like:
David Gilmour, Luck and Strange
Johnny Cash, Songwriter
Crosby Stills, Nash & Young, Live at the Fillmore East, 1969
Jack White, No Name
Jenny Muldaur and Teddy Thompson, The Great Country Duets
Peter Gabriel I/O
New Riders of the Purpose Sage, Hempsteader, Live 1976 (This would be great if it did not sound like it was recorded on a $25 cassette player from back then. If that is ok with you….)
As I mentioned above, I will do books soon, but since we’re talking presents, this one is still great. https://www.amazon.com/We-Are-Not-One-Americas/dp/046509631X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2UZACNL9P0OY&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.U4jV6J0LqKrGBO1OnzG-c2ShK_I4xdoffVFqFiHVzjM.3NMVe9glaMdoohKRHzWLiso6bRwZLoYVtJWuLtteD6Q&dib_tag=se&keywords=we+are+not+one%2C+alterman&qid=1734215934&sprefix=we+are+not+one%2C+alterman%2Caps%2C115&sr=8-1
And this one is, sadly, newly relevant and also sadly, remarkably cheap:
There are a multitude of reasonable people willing too join in your search for good news... if it is any consolation & please take this as encouragement, most of those people have missed your commentary since you've been away...
I don't know what the future holds but there are overwhelming odds against honest journalism where the truth supercedes partisan interests. One can only hope you don't succumb to the feeling that your contribution has no benefit to public education.
Please continue banging the drum, loudly........
And, Eric, wasn't it you who coined the phrase "working the refs"? It's been widely adopted, even by the MSMers. Credit where credit is due.