President Biden: The NEW one and only politics thread

Also, it's essentially a lie because she's not the Secretary of Health and Human Services, she's the assistant secretary. Xavier Becerra is the secretary.

And we have no idea who Harris would pick at this point.

I would also point out that the guy making the point had SIX people in that position in four years, five if you account for bringing the first hire back at the end. So his judgdment on someone running that department isn't great

As a side note, yes I'd probably pick the person who went to Harvard, got a master's at Tulane, did a residency at Mount Sinai Medical Center in NYC, taught at Penn State College of Medicine for more than two decades, led the Pennsylvania Department of Health for four years before the current role as assistant health secretary and is an admiral in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.

 

The New Yorker profile of RFK Jr. all but said he was on steroids.

 

They're going to be banned from schools entirely in 5 years, I predict. I can't even believe schools have allowed it up to this point.

They're arguably the most detrimental thing to hit schools outside of teaching whole language as a primary reading method. (Which still persists.)

Whether America can get a minimum age law on phones of 16 - like driving - I don't know. It should.

 

Ban the damn Chromebooks and tablets while we are at it.

 

Agreed. Plus their asshole fathers probably can’t get past the fact that a black guy with a funny sounding name was elected President twice with relative ease.

 

This is an interesting discussion.

I'm 40, male and single. (Thanks journalism!) And my unique contribution to this debate is that I was introduced to the works of Jordan Peterson by a woman, of all people. And before you cluck your tongues, she fought lung cancer for 3+ years and died a year ago last week in her 30s and though I didn't buy into any of Peterson at all, I miss her a ton every damn day. Anyway, my appraisal of it was that his oeuvre is about 1/3 Boy Scout Manual pablum (make your bed, pet friendly animals), 1/3 semantic gobbledygook and 1/3 right-wing grievance. To some degree that whole worldview felt like church with all of the God and Jesus parts stripped out somehow. Discipline for the sake of one's own selfish benefit. Acting like a Neanderthal to garner the attention of others and gain the affection you crave but are too masculine to admit.

And I don't need any of it. I govern my conduct the way I do because I want to serve God and be an effective representative for God in my community and represent my family well, full stop. It has not made me more attractive to women or put much money in my pocket. My faith teaches me that doesn't matter. So much of what sucks about modern American right-wing Christianity is that they believe that by imposing their faith on others they can claim status or earthly benefit by making both the world and God in their image. To some degree, I give Peterson and some of the other cementheads out there credit for not trying to co-opt God in their charade. A lot of "muscular Christianity" types don't have that kind of restraint.

What I will say is that a 21st-century man does carry a lot of responsibilities my predecessors didn't. For example, a couple weeks ago I was doing my usual weekend run/walk in the neighborhood and came up on a pair of girls, probably high school age, walking on the sidewalk. I was the one who crossed the street, even though I couldn't catch the goddamned ice cream truck much less lay hands on these people if I were so inclined. And though we are working toward equality of opportunity between the sexes, there is not an equality of threat, for lack of a better term. Poin threads notwithstanding, the overwhelming majority of sexual assaults are done by men on women, as are the overwhelming majority of workplace sexual harrassment, discrimination and intimate partner violence situations. And because of that, I, as a 40-year-old single, straight man, have to account for that in my conduct. And though it's necessary, sometimes it's mentally taxing. When I go to the Y and some 20-something shows up in tight workout pants and a midriff-baring top, current convention dictates it is my responsibility to avert my gaze or risk being branded a creep, much less react viscerally. If I do find someone I am comfortable making a move on, it is my responsibility to determine if she is single, sober, willing to be hit on, of appropriate age and that I am not improperly abusing any potential power over her to initiate that conversation, lest I risk my reputation and potentially my employment. I don't think those responsibilities fall very often, if at all, on my female peers. Probably about 10 years ago, Tom Brady was on SNL and he was in a one-joke sketch that satirized 1950s workplace training videos and the one joke basically was "It's not sexual harassment if you look like Tom Brady." So, I do think in everyday life, average looking dudes who are just being dudes do often get treated like a suspect class, but probably for good reasons.

I have been directly accused in my shop of contributing to our organization's problems recruiting and retaining female journalists because "the sports guys" (and some of my superiors) discuss sports too loudly and too frequently in the office in casual conversation. If I am getting a rough ride, so to speak, from a fellow female employee, my toolbox of potential defenses of my self and my work is much smaller because I am a man. And that's just the way it is. More often than not, I can get over it. One of the great things about journalism is there's always a job to do somewhere, especially when you need to cool off. But not everyone can process their feelings that way, nor do they have things like personal faith (or even strong family or professional role models to emulate) to put those kinds of things in perspective, and I don't totally blame them if they view it as oppressive. I view it as necessary responsibility, but there are guys who are just trying to live their lives and be honest about their feelings and motivations who get treated as threatening because women who have suffered at the hands of their peers since time immemorial do not have the luxury of treating them as innocent until proven guilty.

 

No matter how many times people post the Harris family Christmas card and video, these anssholes are going to believe it.

 

Shock!

 

His red complexion and rice paper skin concur

 

Thoughtful post and a lot to unpack. Thanks.

I think there's been a major correction since #MeToo and trump's cultural influence. And probably in certain situations there's been a bit of an overcorrection. But from a good place I think? Hopefully at some point it'll all settle down into a normalcy. But we might be a ways away from that.

I am absolutely certain that in my 20s and early 30s, I went over the line and didn't even know it. I likely made women feel uncomfortable in the newsroom with a comments I didn't know were over the line.

The sports talk you referred to seems like it could be an overcorrection.

 

The law firm that I work for does a lot of great pro bono work, including a heavy emphasis on environmental issues. I advise a few organizations on their employment law concerns (which isn’t exactly combatting climate change, but we all do our part). A number of senior people worked with RFK, Jr. back in the day and said that he was an incredibly passionate advocate and are disgusted by what he has become.

 

Appreciate it.

To some degree, it's an unfortunate coincidence. Both our No. 1 editor and our publisher are former SEs. The No. 1 editor and I went to the same school and like the same pro teams in everything except for football. The publisher played D-2 baseball and is down the rabbit hole enough that he's in an NL (or AL, I can't remember)-only fantasy league. As far as I know, she doesn't participate in any sports at all. Also, my voice carries uncommonly well.

I don't mind truth-tellers. In fact, I've often been at my best when there was a person, usually a woman, in the room to call me on my sloppiness, neutroticism or other reasonable shit. The challenge is that when that truth-teller starts making it personal, it's very hard to defend yourself without playing the "B-card," if you get my drift. Personally, that's somewhere I'm not willing to go.