Midrange Weekly November 23
Your Weekly Round Up Of What’s Got The Midrange Staff’s Attention
Midrange Staff @midrangeyvr
Welcome to Midrange Weekly, a new (hopefully recurring feature) where the MR team share their thoughts on anything that caught their eye over the last week. We might have a few hot takes and opinions…so buckle up, grab a cookie and follow along.
image via NBC
Trumps Plan Of Attack Is A Mess
As people approached the election and traded predictions, worst-case scenarios, and neurotically hysterical fears, there was a lot of ways to consider how things could go bad. I maintained with a fair bit confidence and consistency that Biden would of course win the popular vote (a sentiment echoed even by many in Trump’s campaign), and likely even the electoral collage- but that it wouldn’t matter insofar as to who would occupy the White House come Jan 20 next year. My biggest fear was Trump and his team finding a weak point to exploit in our collective legal systems and normative understandings of how elections “should” work. In doing so he could end up overturning the election results through extra judicial fuckery and manipulation of the media echo chambers to bolster his no doubt spurious claims.
Trump is well documented for exploiting the feedback loop vulnerabilities of our media ecosystem. Should he lose the election, he would complain and say his usual bullshit about the election being rigged or voter fraud. His sycophants and surrogates pick up on it and retweet it. Out in the wild Trump encounters one of these echoes and purports it as proof of his own suspicions. The media repeats his claims, not as legitimate, but merely that he is saying it; he too sees this as confirmation of foul play, to which the media picks up on, tying themselves in knots and further reinforcing dubious claims through their own lack of editorial finesse. With the narratively now firmly implanted in the opaque haze of the unsubstantiated but who-the-the-hell-knows, there could possibly be a line up of sympathetic judges (ie Trump/McConnell appointees) that would feel a mandate from growing conspiratorial public pressure to at least consider these alleged malfeasances. Ballots could be tossed, recounts allowed or denied on specious reasoning. If it got kicked up to a now firmly entrenched conservative Supreme Court, a judicial behemoth that Trump erroneously believes owes him in perpetuity, I could easily see some shady shit going down.
None of this really happened! Turns out I was mostly wrong and that’s just great. Biden’s win while not a historic landslide was decisive enough to garner more eye rolls than curious intrigue at Trump’s cries of shenanigans. The media did a much better than expected job of simply ignoring Trump’s lies (cutting away from speeches when he goes off on invective rants), or emphatically calling his claims un true. As a result his inchoate narrative of aggrieved wrongdoing has proved much more anaemic than many of his viral stunts. Concurrently, the judicial branch in most swing states is simply not having it, a welcome if cynically unexpected development. As of this writing, of the 30 lawsuits his legal time has filed in swing states, only one has been ruled in their favour, tossing a minuscule number of ballots in Pennsylvania so inconsequential they hadn’t even been formally counted yet. Trump’s lawyers have mostly been laughed out of the courtroom or admonished with the threat of formal censure for bringing such laughably unfounded claims to the courts. Trump has formally requested a Georgia recount- a state Biden won by roughly 12000 votes. No recount ever in US elections has ever changed the vote by nearly that much, assuring this will be an exercise in futility. That Trump has put Giuliani (who is currently melting) at the tip of the spear of his legal insurrection is an apt metaphor for how incompetent and down right incoherent his post election strategy is. Such a move indicates that he is conflating a media strategy with a legal one, woefully unaware of the idiocy of such a move. In other words, legally speaking- he’s fucked. -Tristan
America Made The Correct Choice in 2008
Like many of you, I’ve admired Barack Obama ever since he took office in 2009. His new book A Promised Land is fantastic. On its first day of release, it sold nearly 900,000 copies in the US and Canada. Since learning of it’s existence a few weeks ago, I’ve been eager to delve into his story. How he came to become the 44th President of the United States. What willed him to join politics? How was the journey? Does he have any regrets? How did he handle the Presidency and life as a father of two young girls?
I had many questions, many of which I assumed would be answered the minute I picked up his (“holy shit, it’s 701 pages!! ) memoir.
Undeterred by its size, I dove right in and have consumed over half of his opus these past 4 nights. So many moments stand out, from Michelle’s resistance to him running for the Presidency (she was not for it at all), to the gentle and close relationship he had with his grandmother Toot, to his competitive zeal when facing Hilary Clinton in the Democratic Primaries. It’s a page turning read and a revealing look into the mind of a compassionate, patient and brilliant man.
However, to echo a moment many felt back this month on November 3rd, when Americans overwhelmingly chose Joe Biden over Donald Trump as their new President, I was reminded of a section from A Promised Land that revealed to me, that like this year, back in 2008, American voters too were being asked to weigh their futures during a time of high unrest as The Great Recession was taking hold.
The country was on the brink of collapse with no clear path to upheaval. It was during this time that both Senators John McCain and Barack Obama were asked to join President Bush in the White House to help discuss, with his staff, the economic recovery bill that was being tabled. It’s on these pages (188-90) where Obama’s leadership and readiness emerged as he depicts the scenario between himself and McCain as two warriors in battle, only that one of them is prepared while the other is lost in the wind, hoping a gust will carry him aloft to dance with the stars. From this meeting, Obama relays his thoughts, of which his candour couldn’t be more insightful.
“As the discussion wore on, it became increasingly apparent that none of the Republican leaders were familiar with the actual content of the latest version of the TARP legislation - or for that matter the nature of their own proposed changes. They were simply trying to find a way to avoid taking a tough vote. After listening to several minutes of wrangling back and forth, I jumped in again.
“Mr. President,” I said, “I’d still like to hear what Senator McCain has to say.”
Once again, everyone turned to McCain. This time he studied a small not card in his hand, muttered something I couldn’t make out, and then served up maybe two or three minutes of bromides - about how talks seemed to be making progress, how it was important to give Boehner room to move his caucus to yes.
And that was it. No plan. No strategy. Not even a smidgen of a suggestion as to how the different positions might be bridged. The room fell silent as McCain set down his not card, his eyes downcast, like a batter who knows he’s just whiffed at the plate. I almost felt sorry for him; for his team to have encouraged such a high-stakes move and then sent their candidate into the meeting unprepared was political malpractice. When reporter got wind of his performance that day, the coverage would not be kind”
This scenario sounds all too familiar. America made the correct call on November 3rd. They also did back in 2008. Obama’s legacy is profound. His new book is a charming and insightful read into one of the most accomplished and respected politicians to have come around. I highly encourage all to read it. I’m nearly finished.
A page after he wrote this, Obama summarizes the meeting to his head of staff.
“It went fine for us,” I said. “But based on what I just saw, we better win this thing or the country is screwed.”
Luckily he did. So did Joe. There might be hope yet for 2021.
A Promised Land indeed. -Jamie
Obama’s New Playlist Is Not Good
President Obama has a recently released memoir, where he apparently just drags Lindsey Graham at one point, so that’s awesome. He also celebrated its release by curating a playlist of meaningful songs emblematic of his time in the White House and his generally sanguine view of the American electorate. This is objectively a very fun and cool thing for an ex-president to do. Indeed, Obama has made a habit of releasing year end play lists in the past, and while the normative restrictions of being a head of state has always prevented him from espousing the merits of say Death Grips or Rico Nasty, he’s displayed a modicum of edge in his picks in the past. In 2019 his year-end playlist included the likes of Sharon Van Etten, Solange, and Big Thief- I like of all of those names! His summer 2020 playlist included stuff like Disclosure, Nas, and Princess Nokia. Maybe not the most ground breaking (Princess Nokia is actually cool as hell), bit still a lot better than watching Bill Clinton play the Sax, and do we really think Trump is even aware of an artistic medium beyond interpretative twitter threads?
So it’s with a great deal of dutiful sadness that I must admit his new playlist, billed as summation of his presidency and his ever optimistic opinion of America, is not great. I hate to be so unabashedly cynical and I can appreciate a Springsteenian slant on American optics to an extent, but this is an aggravating mixture of playing it safe and saccharine. I read it referred to somewhere as the playlist you’d hear in a Gap changing room and yes it is exactly that. Yes I understand it’s a taxonomy of American idealism in all of its attendant forms, the kind of things presidents don’t really have the institutional freedom to interrogate or challenge, but still. A lot of it, from Frank Sinatra to Bob Dylan to Beyoncé (twice!) seems a little too on the nose. Less of an honest expression of this person’s musical experiences over the last decade and more of an algorithmic extrapolation based on running a bunch of his speeches through remedial neural AI. Also he picked the most over rated and not at all edgy Eminem song- Lose Yourself- in the artist’s collection. Without Me Was right there! Furthermore, any inclusion of a U2 song, let alone a modern U2 song, after the Apple Music debacle is tantamount to a war crime. You could put a Beatles song on any presidential playlist ever, further resigning what could have been a vector for unique insight into an exercise in banality. I do like Rhiannon by Fleetwood Mac. Playlists are of course subjective and what the hell do I even know anyways and these are his personal preferences in theory so I should probably shut the hell up; except they don’t seem all that personal- rather a focus group approved collection curated by an intern with more years of social media experience than should be possible. At least there is no Kanye (don’t worry I double checked). -Tristan
Vox And The New York Times Find Themselves In The News
Ever since I read Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft a few years back, I’ve tried diligently to remain consistent with reading as much as I can on as many topics I find interesting. King was emphatic in detailing how important this is for any would be writer. Hard to argue with this logic, especially from someone as accomplished as King.
In case you’re wondering, I aim for 4hrs of reading per day. Some days it’s more, some less.
Anyways…while I was cruising along this week, a common thread kept emerging between two of my favourite news sources, Vox and The New York Times. It started last Monday while I was listening to the Press Box podcast from The Ringer as Hosts Bryan Curtis and David Shoemaker were detailing the recent exit of Vox editor and co-founder Mathew Yglesias to Substack. I’ll explain what this means in one second.
Then, in the latter part of their episode, Curtis and Shoemaker talk with New York Magazine editor Reeves Wiedeman about his new book Billion Dollar Loser: The Epic Rise and Fall of WeWork as well as his most recent column for the magazine Inside the New York Times’ Heated Reckoning With Itself.
Coalescing with all of this was the news from Friday that Ezra Klein, editor-at-large and also a co-founder of Vox was also leaving to…wait for it...join The New York Times as an Op-Ed Columnist for their Opinion page.
There’s so much to unpack here it’s crazy.
First, Yglesias and Klein are two of my favourite columnists. The fact that Vox is losing both - at the same time - is insane! In an expose by The Atlantic’s Conor Friedersdorf about Yglesias’ departure, he details his struggles with management as well as feeling like he had a constrained voice as the determining factors for him wanting to leave.
“…Yglesias felt that he could no longer speak his mind without riling his colleagues. His managers wanted him to maintain a “restrained, institutional, statesmanlike voice,” he told me in a phone interview, in part because he was a co-founder of Vox. But as a relative moderate at the publication, he felt at times that it was important to challenge what he called the “dominant sensibility” in the “young-college-graduate bubble” that now sets the tone at many digital-media organizations.”
The fact that he left because he clashed with management with regards to how challenging a writer he wanted be I found to be somewhat eery while I was reading Wiedeman’s New York Magazine piece a few days after. It’s a lengthy feature about the new world order at The Times in which a large swath of young journalists and tech employees clash and alter the vision of what it means to work for such a grand newspaper. The section I highlighted in the above quote is essentially what Wiedeman’s article details.
Ironically, the idea that this has become such an issue in news media is startling but not surprising. There’s a reason Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt’s 2019 book The Coddling of The American Mind was such a big seller when it debuted. We’re living in world where we’ve embraced safetyism. The gears of institutional change have forced media organizations to reckon with how their younger staff see and want to be treated. Coddling is a perfect word for this new reality.
I just find it strange that one of Vox’s most prominent writers left the magazine to go on his own with Substack while their other star left to join The New York Times Op-Ed section, a place clearly in turmoil as it tries to find out who it is in 2020. Says a lot about both writers viewpoints and journalism in general.
Finding an avenue to showcase your work has never been easier. What you’re willing to put up with, however, is another story. I’m curious to see how both outlets shake out over the new year. Hopefully neither loses their backbone. - Jamie
David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet
David Attenborough’s new documentary “A Life On Our Planet” is now fresh on Netflix and although I don’t support a F.A.A.N.G. stock company telling me what to watch, I DO support any and all things BBC Planet Earth. So dig into this one and while your getting primed to snug up to Mr. Attenborough’s soothing tones, here is BBC’s top five moments from the Planet Earth series. - Mick
Support Electronic Artists And Gear Up At Bleep
Looking for some fresh winter hoodies but tired of all the brand names? Check out Bleep’s online clothing store and help support the artists making damn fine electronic music. Bleep is also a great resource for new releases, vinyl pressings, nick-nacks and all things boutique. And hey you can’t go wrong with a classic Aphex Twin or Fly-Lo T- shirt either! - Mick
Things From The Internet That We Liked
Shygirl- Slime
The Uk producer has a new and slightly ridiculous video for the excellent track from her new EP, ALIAS
The Fascism Is The Point
IO9 has an excellent article about how right wing supporters are taking up ironically fascist and militant symbols of American exceptionalism in disturbingly un-ironic ways.
What Was Pre Covid Life Like Again?
Twitter comedian (possibly real life comedian!) Kylie Brakeman shares her memories of life before the pandemic which we can only assume are completely accurate