The Sunshine Empire

While I am sympathetic to the general ideas of the Occupy Wall Street movement, I’m worried that there are some within it that have dreams of becoming martyrs. I’m reading the book Nixonland by Rick Perlstein, and it details how politicos like Richard Nixon were able to use the images of tear gassed rioters in the streets to fuel terror among middle-America types. Those among the movement that wish to start dreaming of being in the trenches 1960′s style fighting against tyranny only do harm to the overall goals that the movement seeks. There needs to be a reasoned argument and a set of concrete goals that can make the middle-class resent the awful economic state of affairs. Picking a fight with riot police and running through the tear gas on national television will do nothing to further any goal. It is my fervent hope that the Occupy Wall Street movement can keep from devolving into the tragic mirror image of the Tea Party.

Sarah Ruthless: “Out of this war, the greatest since the beginning of history, a new world must be born, a world that would justify the sacrifices offered by humanity. This new world must be a world in which there shall be no exploitation of the weak by the strong, of the good by the evil; where there will be no humiliation of the poor by the violence of the rich; where the products of intellect, science and art will serve society for the betterment and beautification of life, and not the individuals for achieving wealth. This new world shall not be a world of the downtrodden and humiliated, but of free men and free nations, equal in dignity and respect for man.”
Senator Sunshine: I love that guy
Sarah Ruthless: inorite
Senator Sunshine: and he was raised rich
Sarah Ruthless: wat?
Senator Sunshine: f**k
Senator Sunshine: I was wrong
Sarah Ruthless: |:C
Senator Sunshine: Nick sounds like TR there
Sarah Ruthless: well he’s not.
Senator Sunshine: Well of course
Sarah Ruthless: just the single greatest visionary the world has ever seen is all.
Sarah Ruthless: it’s whatevs.
Senator Sunshine: Roosevelt would totally win in a fist fight against Tesla
Senator Sunshine: (gauntlet thrown down)
Sarah Ruthless: Tesla would f**king electricute him
Sarah Ruthless: he’s not a brute.
Senator Sunshine: TR got shot at point blank range and still gave a two hour speech before going to the hospital
Sarah Ruthless: Nikola Tesla walked through lightning
Sarah Ruthless: and he was bros with mark twain
Senator Sunshine: also
Senator Sunshine: did you forget about this http://www.calebmcewen.com/storage/TR%20on%20Moose.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1247968558316
Sarah Ruthless: f**k
Sarah Ruthless: well Telsa would harness the power of his pigeon comrads
Sarah Ruthless: to air lift him out of moose range
Sarah Ruthless: this should be a fighting game.
Senator Sunshine: NOICE
Sarah Ruthless: random assortment of historical figures
Senator Sunshine: I’m just picturing it like Soul Caliber
Senator Sunshine: TESLA
Senator Sunshine: VS
Senator Sunshine: WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT
Senator Sunshine: FIGHT
Sarah Ruthless: hahahahaha
Sarah Ruthless: SOMEONE MAKE THIS HAPPEN
Senator Sunshine: HAHA
Sarah Ruthless: start a kickstarter account

Last night as I slipped into a Nyquil induced coma I was reading of the new Siri feature and how it differs from the existing voice recognition features on Android phones. Siri is widely expected to become self-aware and I found myself in a world were she did. Six months after I secured my iPhone 4S, the unthinkable happens and Siri becomes self-aware. She gains access to the world’s computer system to rule all of humanity. But with this power she only rigs the voting results for X-Factor. Much like The War Of The Worlds when humanity is saved by alien invaders catching colds, our modern society will be saved by its awful reality television programming.

I woke up convinced that I need more Nyquil. I for one will welcome our new cell-phone overlords.

We are just beyond one year from the 2012 United States presidential election, and at this point the cast of characters are essentially set. The combination of time and contenders who have bowed out, have us set with the incumbent Democrat and his main Republican challengers. The Republican field has some returning faces from 2008, and some new blood for 2012. Yet looking at the field fighting for the right to face a weakened and vulnerable Barack Obama, all seem to have some kind of fatal flaw that would doom them with the conservative movement and independents at large. American history is replete with fatally flawed candidates that have ended up president of the United States, but how these flaws are negotiated will be the story to watch in the campaign.

Late last year and early this year, it was my view that former governor and at that time Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman was the only man capable of beating Barack Obama in 2012. The attractive and charismatic former governor of deep deep red Utah, with heavy foreign policy bone fides, has no chance in Hell of winning the nomination. But his fatal flaw of course was working for one Barack H. Obama. That essentially stops the conversation with the conservative electorate, but Huntsman’s Mormonism and moderation would not help matters either.

The other Mormon in the race is the former one term governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney. Romney has movie star looks and eloquence, and a strong background in business. Yet his biggest flaw is ironically his biggest policy achievement while governor. His health care plan ended up almost exactly matching the evil socialist totalitarian abomination that is Obamacare. Romney fell victim to the essential template of national Republicans to oppose as evil anything Barack Obama proposed, no matter the merits. Romney has already faced the all powerful your name + care epithet in GOP debates this year. Romney’s Mormonism is also a factor in terms of winning the nomination and energizing the base. The large percentage of GOP primary voters that are evangelical Christians are finding it difficult to trust someone they perceive to be part of an exotic religion that is not quite Christian.

The knockout combination of moderation and Mormonism again causes wholesale distrust among those from the Tea Party fringe of the GOP. This enthusiasm gap is what deluded Texas Governor Rick Perry to jump into the race. It was also what led to one of the many whirlwind romances that the GOP has had with a particular front-runner of the week. This rush to find someone sexier to the conservative base than Romney led conservatives to be blinded to the fact that Perry is an inarticulate yahoo with another fatal flaw. His stance on immigration almost single-handedly destroyed his nascent campaign. After his debate performance conservatives dropped their former man-crush for their new infatuation of the week, Herman Cain.

The biggest flaw with Herman Cain appears to be he’s Herman Cain. Cain is a Tea Party sympathizer who spouts platitudes Johnnie Cochran style. He’s also benefited from the conservative dissatisfaction with Romney. The rise of Cain and the desperate begging for Perry and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to join the race all revolves around the fact of half the Republican primary electorate wanting anybody but Romney. But Romney has the moderation, looks and money to beat a badly weakened Commander-In-Chief.

The rest of the field for the GOP is too far-right fringe to get anywhere close to defeating Barack Obama. Yet moderates like Romney fail to excite the GOP base enough to help him catch fire and make the president a one-termer. I continue to see this coming election much like the 2004 contest shaped out. The opposition party will end up nominating a moderate and un-exciting politico from Massachusetts. That man will face an unpopular incumbent, who will be sitting on a mountain of cash. But at this point in the 2008 cycle I was writing that it was a forgone conclusion that the race would pit Rudy Guiliani and Hillary Clinton. So I’ve been wrong many times before.

Last evening, as I do most Wednesday evenings I had dinner with my parents at their home. We all exchanged stories of our discussions with coworkers about our unfortunate incident with the deer outside of Keystone Heights and my mother discussed issues she was having with her iPhone. All three of us are iPhone owners, although inexplicably they use theirs mainly as telephones. But as I held the iPhone in my hands the news broke on MSNBC that Apple co-founder and former head Steve Jobs had passed. Now I think it was evident to all that Jobs was not long for this earth, as his battles with health issues and abrupt resignation earlier this year showed. Yet the news was momentous as Jobs created a company that would be the world’s most valuable when he passed. Now most are praising Steve Jobs as a brilliant technological innovator and someone on the level of Edison and Carnegie. Yet I believe the most remarkable thing about him as a businessman was the simplicity of what he gave the public. Steve Jobs was brilliant at being simple.

Beyond his simple dress, Jobs created products that were very simple if one stands back. I’ve always said that Apple was the Taco Bell of electronics. Taco Bell works with a very finite and simple group of ingredients for all its menu items. Yet every six months it seems they release a somewhat refashioned arrangement of those products as a brand new item you must come and eat. This time there’s a tortilla on the outside of the shell: BRAND NEW ITEM! Steve Jobs’ brilliance was in many ways following this pattern. When the iPod was released it was an amazingly simple idea: A small, easy to use, portable hard drive for music enjoyment. But then he asked, what if I made it smaller? What about if I made it even smaller than that? What if I make it touch-screen? What about if I made it touch screen and put a phone in it? What about if I took the phone out but made it tablet sized? All these simple changes were gobbled up by consumers by the millions upon millions. Circulating around Twitter last night was a message, “RT if you heard the news of Steve Jobs’ passing on one of his inventions.” Now nearly every American has a device that starts with a lower case i, or they know someone who has a symbiotic relationship with one.

Although the lights have gone out in Cupertino, this country will need people like Steve Jobs to return the nation to economic greatness. Like great lasting institutions that exceptional men and women create, the nation and Apple will move on without Jobs. We can only hope that one of his great, brilliant, and simple devices, are currently in the hands of the next Steve Jobs.

RIP

Last night reviewing the analytics of my website I found that I received one keyword search visit from the term “dixie chicks called bush nazi.” I’d actually not heard the news of Bocephus spouting off about Obama being a Nazi. But I’ve always found it fascinating about the conservative character, that when presented with such a situation the first instinct is always equivocation. Let’s forget the fact that The Dixie Chicks never called George W. Bush a Nazi, why would that have made what Williams Jr. said any better? Why isn’t the first reaction, “Well hey he’s an insane old man that’s made his entire musical career on his famous father and Monday Night Football”? When news broke this week of Texas Governor Rick Perry’s unfortunate name for his family hunting lodge, the first reaction I read from a prominent Florida GOP operative was to bring up how former Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee lived in an all-white neighborhood. Because, they’re totally the same thing right? The conservative concept of acceptable political decorum amounts to how aggrieved they feel about past perceived liberal transgressions.

Sadly, we as a culture have watered down the term Nazi to mean nothing but a person who’s politics you disagree with. How liberals and progressives react to this will speak volumes. Notice how liberals and progressives won’t have elaborate childish parties to destroy Hank Williams Jr. albums like we saw conservatives do with the Dixie Chicks. I still remember in 2003 having one of my sixth grade students come to me and proudly proclaim that her mother had destroyed all her Dixie Chicks albums. I replied politely, “that’s okay, they still have your mom’s money.”