Author Archives: Jeff Porten

Kelly Guimont @verso:
Ain’t no buggy like the Ohio buggy cuz the Ohio buggy don’t stop… #amishmafia

@verso careful, or you’ll start a turf war with the Wells Fargo Wagon Opies.

Christina Warren @film_girl:
Seriously trying to explain an iPod nano to my 67 year old father is an exercise in patience. Not to mention showing my mother iTunes. Again

Glenn Fleishman @GlennF:
@film_girl I love my mother in law, but she appears to know less about computers each time she’s used one _over 20 years_.

Christina Warren @film_girl:
@GlennF Haha. This is the third or fourth iPod I’ve bought my parents since 2005. Mom at least loves her iPad (second since 2010)

Glenn Fleishman @GlennF:
@film_girl My mother in law says, “I put the thing on the thing and then that didn’t make it happen.” What THING? WHAT? WHAT?

@GlennF @film_girl In 1948, my father was building radios out of scrap wire. I’ve been a trainer for 20 yrs, could never teach him a thing.

@GlennF @film_girl I genuinely wonder if there’s going to be a tech that *I’m* useless with in 40 years.

Christina Warren @film_girl:
@jeffporten @GlennF yeah me too. Given my interests I just doubt it. Bt who knows. Maybe I’ll become a Luddite. Nah.

@film_girl @glennf The question is whether we adapt to *any* pace of change, or only *this* one.

@film_girl @glennf I think I’d be okay with nanotech or biotech body mods, but I think I’m edge case for my generation.

Glenn Fleishman @GlennF:
@film_girl @jeffporten I expect to always be tech support for my children.

Dear Letterpress: if fugly isn’t a word, I don’t want to love in your world.

That was supposed to say “live”. Epic typo.

Glenn Fleishman @GlennF:
Fellow Jeopardy winner just got her check. I expected to have to wait two more months! We will see what letter carrier brings!

@GlennF Really? Somehow I figured they’d cut you a check on the way out the door. Seems odd it should take so long.

Glenn Fleishman @GlennF:
@jeffporten Six months from taping is what they say. My friend @artchung wrote for Millionaire and he thought delay was bizarre.

@GlennF Makes financial sense due to the float, but I can picture horrible PR: “She won $200,000 on Wheel and went broke waiting”

Glenn Fleishman @GlennF:
@jeffporten Ken Jennings and his wife had to borrow money for _several months_!

@GlennF maybe Trebek has a sideline business in accounts receivable factoring.

Justine Larbalestier @JustineLavaworm:
Friend expressed surprise people google potential dates. Srsly? I google pretty much everyone I meet/do business with. I’m not alone, right?

@JustineLavaworm For online dating purposes, I usually give out my full name early precisely for this reason.

@JustineLavaworm Not expected in return due to gender double standard safety issues, but if I get a name or email, sure, I look it up.

Melody Kramer @mkramer:
I have wandered back to 1980s Philadelphia and I love it.

@mkramer if you’re near South Philly and the big hair is back, be careful around open flames.

“@io9: The One Type of Music That All Parrots Everywhere Despise on.io9.com/8eVw9aV” // Enchanted Tiki Room?

Random Facebook observation: it appears that if you want your own Portrait of Dorian Gray, the trick was to have dated me sometime in my 20s, after which I will do all of your aging for you.

That whooshing sound you just heard was the sound of millions of men, myself included, irreversibly crushing on Clara Oswald.

Downside of not having my laptop for Christmas: Constant panic that I left it on the Metro, even though I know damn well I left it at home.

Tea Party: fringe or weave?

Posted on

Historically, American third parties tend to be flashes in the pan. There is an initial surge of voter interest and political upset as they assert dominance in either a region or key voting block, but they fade away within a few election cycles. The only time a third party becomes lasting is when a declining second party falls to shreds, as when the Republicans took their spot from the Whigs.

I've assumed for a long while that this was the best lens to view the Tea Party. They're unlike a third party in that they're entirely beholden to Republicans (and GOP PAC money), but like a third party, their insurrection within the Republican Party cannot be controlled by party leaders.

So I take today's NYT article with several grains of salt. It means nothing that the Tea Party is adopting fringe issues when so much of the right-wing agenda is already fringe. What matters is that the Tea Party has the power to primary incumbents out of existence, and left-leaning PACs such as American Bridge will help them do that in order to make it a Democratic seat in the general. Third party or not, the Tea Party can prevent the Republican Party from moving out of its entrenched, and possibly unelectable, position.

To my way of thinking, the big question of the next 10 years is “who replaces the Republicans?” Most likely it will be another Republican Party, less dominated by its lunatic fringe. But if the GOP founders on the rocks (leaving behind a far-right remnant, powerful regionally in Red states), there's an opportunity for a titanic shift in American politics. Because the replacement party, like during the Civil War, need not be from the same place on the political spectrum.

The Democratic Party is in no way a “liberal” party; most of its platform and all of its presidencies since the 1980s would have been comfortable Republican positions earlier. In Europe, leftist parties spring up when the former left party shifts to the center or center-right. That's been happening here since 1992, but the Democrats continue to suck up all of the oxygen in the room. That might not be the case by 2020.

Which is why I point to the Occupy movements as a qualified success, despite the mainstream tendency to laugh at their aimlessness. They answer questions that for the time being are rhetorical. Who will support a new party? Who will contribute time and money? Who will vote against Democrats for a traditional liberal agenda?

And most importantly, who will provide the visible critical mass such that a third-party vote is not obviously throwing it away on an unelectable candidate?

I'd still put the odds of this as being rather low, maybe one in four. But the re-election of Obama provided fuel for this fire—a popular but not populist centrist who refuses to entertain the traditional left. As does a highly visible lunatic right with power far beyond their electoral share. Really, the only question is if the vacuum will open, and if the left nonprofit and political coalitions will be organized enough to take advantage of it.

Mike Monteiro @Mike_FTW:
Elaine divulges the hiding place of George’s parents to a handsome Nazi. Kramer accidentally breaks into Hitler’s bunker. #oldtimeyseinfeld

Glenn Fleishman @GlennF:
All you people I said you should audition for Jeopardy? Online test: Jan 8/9/10. Honestly, some of the most fun I had in life.

@GlennF Oh, great timing. I’m not going to be busy on those days at all. #CES #TheDayIsYoursTrebek

Geoff Duncan @geoffduncan:
@jeffporten @glennf The online test takes about 10 mins (15 b/c you should sign on early) and you can do a different timezone if you like.

Philip Michaels @PhilipMichaels:
I will have to check with my clergyman, but this bacon-wrapped hot dog I just ate may qualify as a Christmas miracle.

@PhilipMichaels Your rabbi unlikely to agree.

Was going to go out to a party tonight, but it’s now even odds I’ll sit alone in a dark room until I beat @mcelhearn at Letterpress.

@jeffporten @mcelhearn Or 2013, which may come first.