A Protest Vote
December 12, 2019
Last night Daily Pnut’s Tim attended “The Atlantic Presents: How to Stop a Civil War—Impeachment at a Time of National Fracturing” at the 92nd street Y in NYC. A few thoughts and notes from that event:
- This month’s issue of The Atlantic is just fantastic as the ideas are insightful and interesting and delve into the history and future of the United States. I first read the issue at the library and was delighted to be able to attend the event. Here are a few articles from the issue that are exceptional and will help refine or change how you view the USA:
- Adam Serwer who wrote the link right above mentioned that he writes because he wants to be honest. He cares less about whether it’ll be embraced. And it got me thinking that indeed the best writing is one that is honest. And that’s why investigative journalism is usually the best type of writing. A friend who I shared this idea with texted me back: “I once heard someone say that the best writers are as honest/clear as possible, while in politics the objective (sadly) can be to be only as clear as necessary, and no clearer (since otherwise you needlessly upset people who would otherwise be your allies) — so that’s why good honest writing is such a breath of fresh air”
- Daily Pnut’s Tim: “I’m more convinced than ever that some to perhaps a majority of Trump’s voters viewed it as a protest vote (similar to Brexit voters)”
- The Atlantic’s editor in chief noted that good news practically never drives clicks/traffic. And jokingly that “no one ever publishes story that all planes land safely at JFK” and that “conflict drives attention.”
- We have three extra copies of this months’ Atlantic issue. If you can’t afford to pay for the issue, then please email editor@dailypnut.com with your address and we will randomly select three readers and mail them the magazine.
- One last note from Tim: I rarely write essays anymore because I don’t have the time to really think, reflect, be creative, and write thoughtfully. I hope that changes in 2020.
One more note from Daily Pnut’s Team: Yesterday the headline for our coverage of the White Island volcano eruption falsely stated that 47 individuals died in the eruption. Our article writeup was in fact correct and at the time of writing it, six people were confirmed dead. We will ensure that such an oversight does not happen again and we apologize for any confusion this may have caused.
“The true New Yorker secretly believes that people living anywhere else have to be, in some sense, kidding.” – John Updike
“A hundred times have I thought New York is a catastrophe, and fifty times: It is a beautiful catastrophe.” – Le Corbusier
“The Eyes Of All Future Generations Are Upon You”
Ever since 1927 Time Magazine has devoted its cover to a Person of the Year, someone the magazine believes most influenced the world in a given year. Tuesday the editors presented a 2019 short list of five candidates: President Donald Trump, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, The Whistleblower, The Hong Kong Protesters, and Greta Thunberg. Wednesday morning the decision was announced live on Today: 16-year-old Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg, the youngest person ever to earn the title.
Thunberg was 14 when she began protesting outside Sweden’s parliament to call attention to a climate crisis she contended older generations weren’t taking seriously enough. She started organizing school strikes and protest marches that ultimately involved more than a million students across the planet. She unabashedly called out world leaders for debating scientific facts and failing to stop a global warming trend that will affect the world’s children more than it affects anyone who’s currently in power.
In August Thunberg traveled to New York for a UN climate change conference being held in September; she chose to sail from England rather than fly, which is harmful for the environment. Her fiery UN speech, in which she accused leaders of stealing her dreams and her childhood with their inaction on climate change, drew world-wide attention.
Wednesday morning Thunberg was speaking at a UN climate conference in Madrid. She told her audience she was seeing encouraging signs for the future, adding: “But it does not come from the governments or corporations. It comes from the people.” When told of Time’s selection, Thunberg said she was “a bit surprised” to be chosen, and dedicated her recognition to other young activists.
A Millennial Crosses The Finnish Line
- 37-year-old Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg is a millennial. Some people think that’s a negative, but others think the world needs more youthful leadership. Take members of Finland’s coalition government, for example. The Social Democrats and the Center party have just elected 34-year-old Sanna Marin as their prime minister.
- The current transport minister and second term member of Parliament will be the youngest serving prime minister in the world. Not only that, her four fellow government party leaders are also women.
- Marin’s age and socio-economic background play a part in uniting this coalition government, which has seen its support sliding in opinion polls. Both parties have lost supporters to the nationalist Finns party, which is currently leading in opinion polls along with another opposition party, the center-right National Coalition.
- So here’s the question: Will the rise of a young woman as prime minister scare the rest of their middle-aged, not-so liberal supporters away? Stay tuned. (Guardian)
Zelensky Isn’t Red Scared
- Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky was under a lot of pressure when he met Russia’s President Vladimir Putin face-to-face for the first time on Monday in an effort to begin ending the 5 plus year conflict on Ukraine’s eastern border with Russia.
- Putin’s a former KGB officer and seasoned master of no-holds-barred global intrigue, and Zelensky’s a former comedian barely six months in office, with no experience in international power politics and battered by encounters with President Trump. Opposition groups in Ukraine were worried Zelensky might give in to Putin as Trump did in Helsinki in July 2018.
- But Zelensky held his own, and made it clear there could be no movement on the political and constitutional changes Russia wants until security issues, including control of the border, had been settled. He also said Russia’s previous demand that Ukraine become a federation instead of a unitary state “will never happen.”
- The two leaders did make small steps forward, including agreeing to a “full and comprehensive implementation” of a cease fire in Ukraine’s Donbass region before the end of 2019. How the promises translate into action remain to be seen. (NYT, CNBC)
Hate Leads To Suffering
- The two suspects in the Jersey City shooting started their deadly attack Tuesday by murdering a veteran police detective before driving to the JC Kosher Supermarket and killing three more people: the store owner, a bystander and an employee. The shooters, a man and a woman, later died after an hours-long gun battle with police.
- Jewish leaders were quick to call the attack an act of hate, and both Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio made public statements condemning anti-Semitism. Authorities believe the kosher market was targeted; the male suspect had ties to the Black Hebrew Israelite movement and had published anti-Semitic and anti-police posts online. (WaPo, NBCNews)
The Right To Ban Arms
- On December 6, a 21-year-old member of the Saudi Royal Air Force who was studying in at Naval Air Station Pensacola carried his recently acquired Glock 45 9-millimeter handgun into a classroom and opened fire on classmates, killing three and wounding eight. Firearms are banned on military bases, yet the Florida shooting was the second one in a week. Two days earlier a sailor shot two civilian Defense Department workers dead at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard in Hawaii before killing himself.
- The Saudi national and others like him who travel to the US on a nonimmigrant visa are prohibited under federal law from possessing a weapon or ammunition, but with exceptions. In July the shooter obtained a Florida hunting license, which allowed him to purchase the Glock just days later. President Trump’s first reaction to the shooting in Florida was to make sure no blame fell on the Saudi government, even before learning the results of an FBI investigation into whether the gunman acted alone or had allegiances to Al Qaeda or terrorist groups.
- The Pentagon has suspended operational training for all 852 Saudis enrolled in all military training programs in the US, indefinitely halting all operations outside the classroom. The move was praised by lawmakers as it comes at a time when the president has declined to hold the Saudi government to account on an array of issues. (NBCNews, NYT)
RIPC
- Tech pundits have been predicting the death of the personal computer ever since January 27, 2010, at 10:00 AM Pacific Time, when Steve Jobs stepped onto a San Francisco stage and unveiled the iPad. The precise moment was documented by noted Big Thinker Nicholas Carr in The New Republic with this memorable headline: “The PC Officially Died Today.”
- A few months later, CNN Money added their own obituary, complete with charts and graphs: “The end of the desktop PC (seriously).” In 2013 Forbes Magazine was still looking for a pulse: “The Death of the PC Has Not Been Exaggerated.” But by 2017 The Inquirer conceded the patient was apparently alive and well: “The PC still isn’t dead and the market is ‘stabilising’,” they wrote.
- Now here we are a full decade after the PC’s untimely (or so predicted) death, and a funny thing happened on the way to the funeral: the industry is still selling more than a quarter-billion-with-a-B personal computers every year. (ZDNET)
- This edition of Daily Pnut was completely written and edited on a PC. And no animals were harmed. And it’s also keto friendly and gluten free and a bit longer than normal.