Scripting News: Sunday, June 29, 2025
- Benjamin Wittes: "It's remarkable how many non-New Yorkers seem to care who the mayor of New York City is." #
- They do and they're right to, the same way we were concerned how the Governor of California and Mayor of Los Angeles would react to the invasion of the Marines and hijacking of the National Guard. #
- Right now the NYC mayor is a hostage of the US govt. Not in a position to help. An inexperienced first term NY mayor, have we seen that before? How does the NYPD respond to that? #
- Then there was the snowstorm that derailed John V Lindsay, a heroic and transformative mayor. NY is a tough place to govern even when the US government isn't aiming to regime change the place.#
- Local government is our last line of defense. #
- "Think of voting as a chess move, not a valentine."#
- You all fell in love with a candidate, I do it too. #
- But think about the context the next mayor will govern in.#
- The thing about NY that people might not understand is that the politics are dirty and fucked up. Dems tend to elect handsome young heros who when they have to deal with NYPD and the sanitation workers, the teachers union, and the federal government, also the ancient infrastructure, melt.#
- Now that we know the outcome of the 2024 election, not just in numbers but in what it's doing to our beloved country and the rest of the world, it's interesting to revisit the campaign that journalism ran last year to force President Biden to step aside. That's one of the functions of Facebook, they play back your posts from years ago, so you can see how things changed, or didn't. #
- Anyway, last year on this day I wrote this on Facebook: "Why don't journalists cover the Biden base? Do they even consider the possibility that there is one? Or do they think they are the base? I thought they weren't supposed to care who the nominees are? Why do they feel entitled to say one candidate should withdraw but not the other? Have any of them even thought this through?"#
- Nick Arnett, a former tech journalist, said in a comment: "Until I read this, the madness of the Times calling on Biden, but not Trump, to withdraw didn't dawn on me." #
- I had followed his metamorphosis over years from a journalist to a worker who goes where there are fires or other natural disasters, for the government, to support the effort to save people's homes and lives. I watched him via Facebook, in awe, as he went around the country, not being paid very much I imagine, but doing good. #
- I learned something important when my father was in the hospital many years ago, in a coma, after losing a lot of blood and being unconscious for hours before he was found. He was in a ward in Flushing Hospital, along with a lot of other comatose people. All were unconscious, unable to feed themselves. Hard to know if they had any awareness. From an outside perspective they, and my father included, were lost. Some had been there for years, probably weren't ever going to come out of it. We were lucky, my father survived, after a month, and had seven more years to live. #
- I visited him every day, and got to know the flow of the hospital. Workers came in and out of the room to attend to these comatose people. Imagine the kind of support they needed just to keep their bodies functioning and not wasting away for lack of movement. I thought these people must have the worst jobs imaginable, imagining myself in their shoes.#
- I got to know them, asked about what else they do, how they got here, where they live, etc. Somehow I got up the courage to ask one of them if they liked their job, imagining I'd get a New Yorker comment like "You know, it's a living." But what I heard was a complete surprise. "It's the best job in the world," he said, because I can see so clearly how my work helps real people. He was looking right at me. It hit me, this man is doing what I can't do, what my father's parents, who were long gone, couldn't do. Caring. Caring for my dad. Then I got it. #
- Back to Nick, who was and still is, and probably always will be doing things to help other people, no matter what he does. #
- He was canned in one of the DOGE purges this spring. #
- Now you tell me whether the "Trump base" deserved a chance you wouldn't let us have with Biden? Why journalism felt entitled to make this decision for all of us? When are you going to get the idea that you're supposed to help us. Do the right thing. I get so angry at journalism for getting in the way. Once informed of the facts, it was their job to get out of the way and let us, the voters, make the decision. #
- PS: In the very next post on FB, I wrote an HTML hack that makes the same point, more concisely. #
Linkblog items for the day
What if LeBron James went home to the Cavaliers? Why a Cleveland trade could actually make sense for everyone. cbssports.com
A Win for Fair Use Is a Win for Libraries. blog.archive.org
2016: The 2000 Election Unleashed Disaster on the World. We Can't Let that Happen Again in 2016. thenation.com
G.O.P. Bill Adds Surprise Tax That Could Cripple Wind and Solar Power. nytimes.com
Louisiana hospitals warn Mike Johnson of 'devastation' from megabill. politico.com
Senate rulekeeper deals blows to revised 'Big, beautiful bill.' politico.com
President says he has a buyer for popular TikTok. bbc.com
Defense Dept. pulls plug on key hurricane, sea ice satellites amid record heat. mprnews.org
US sees spate of arrests of civilians impersonating Ice officers. theguardian.com
A case-study in APIs. Welcome to what's under the hood in the open social web. Lots of different formats being converted to other languages to try to create a seamless experience for writers and readers. ;-) github.com
One former senior official called it "mind-boggling" that the Drug Enforcement Administration is "just getting orders saying, 'This is what Stephen Miller wants and you've got to give it to us.'" propublica.org
Room for One More on Mount Rushmore? politicalwire.com
I totally don't understand why Krugman has a paywall. Once he started putting things I wanted to read behind it, I stopped getting his stuff via email, because I don't like being pitched via email. Every word feels like spam. Heather Cox Richardson doesn't have a paywall. I don't have one either. paulkrugman.substack.com
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