December 11, 2015

Things read too early in the morning: "John Kasich Won the Debate."

I'm up hours before dawn and trying to close the tabs I left open last night, when my last post flagged Camille Paglia's denouncement of Taylor Swift as an "obnoxious Nazi Barbie" and "a scary flashback to the fascist blondes" from some period in the past Paglia identifies only as her "youth." Paglia was born in 1947, so I'm not sure what fascist blonde left that mark. Marilyn? Tippi Hedren?

Loose lobbing of the facist/Nazi epithet seems especially lame right now after all its use against Donald Trump. Google Trump is a Nazi or Trump is a fascist and you'll get 40+ million hits for Nazi — including "5 Ways Donald Trump Perfectly Mirrors Hitler's Rise To Power" (Cracked) and "Donald Trump has gone full blown Nazi on us" (Daily News) — and just under 2 million hits for fascist — including "I asked 5 fascism experts whether Donald Trump is a fascist. Here's what they said" (Vox) and "Trump May Be a Loudmouthed Demagogue, but Is He a Fascist?" (Foreign Policy).

Completing last night's post, I wanted to know what Camille Paglia thinks of Donald Trump — Nazi? Fascist? I found "Why Does Camille Paglia Love Donald Trump?/Because she's basically the Donald Trump of feminism" and that was enough for nighttime blogging. (By the way, have you noticed how many people seem to love Donald Trump out of a weird sense that they somehow are Donald Trump?)

This morning, clicking out the tabs of yesterday, I can't let go of the ludicrous "John Kasich Won the Debate" (dated August 7, 2015). Remember that debate? Here's how my readers polled:



What I remember about Kasich in that debate is that when Megyn Kelly asked whether each candidate had "received a word from God on what they should do and take care of first," Kasich answered "Well, Megyn, my father was a mailman...."

So, now, why did Camille Paglia think Kasich won? Paglia largely opined on manhood: "Why do Jeb's smiles remind me of a dimply grandmother?...There's something too baby-like about [Chris Christie]....  [Marco Rubio] seems caught in a time warp of self-stunted maturation.... [Rand Paul was] like a petulant schoolboy.... [Ted Cruz has] an almost womanly face... [Scott Walker is] like a pleasant sitcom dad...." Ah, but Jon Kasich!
His brusque, animated gestures are awkward but manlike in a solid, old-fashioned way. Kasich is a genuine populist with working-class family ties. He made the Princeton-educated Cruz look effete tonight. Kasich was full of specifics about his congressional experience on the armed services and budget committees. I think he won the debate. Kasich is a mensch in a party of parakeets.
He won through manlikeness.

As for parakeets, here's a man in India who feeds 4,000 parakeets a day:



"Like how people keep parakeets in the cage, now the birds have put me in a cage."

36 comments:

Robert Cook said...

As for "Trump as fascist," I think it more likely he's simply performing. I still can't really believe Trump wants to be President, or that his "campaign" is serious. I think he inserted himself into the race for reasons of his own--perhaps for no reason more profound than to satisfy his "yuge" narcissistic ego. He started making outrageous comments--as has always been his wont--and the public responded favorably. His approval ratings went up. His ego was gratified, so he kept on. But, he's stuck...he's asserted he will not quit, and his ego won't let him back down. He's trying to find a way to be run out of the race..."political suicide by public scorn," as it were. So he amps up the outrageousness of his comments, thinking, "Surely this will cause them to against me!", yet to his surprise, the public (a significant segment of it) loves it! Trump is surprised and concerned. How is going to get himself out of this?

More and more outrageous bloviating...until finally his ratings go down and he can end his race having never "quit," and claiming he fought the good fight as long as he could.

Heartless Aztec said...

Tipi Hendren in a Feminized Nazi uniform. Too funny. And wayyyy to early in the morning for that thought worm Althouse.

J2 said...

This reminded me of Peggy Noonan's column "The End of Placeness".


She favors Tim Kaine (VA) as a VP candidate because of his "wonderful American Male haircut.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB121874344365941765

Heartless Aztec said...

Addendum- what a great AIP 1967 passion pit drive in movie release that would have been. I'm thinking Tippi in a booted thigh high feminized Nazi outfit would have given "Barbarella" a run for for irs money. Maybe not.

traditionalguy said...

Finding a high value in the Sexual Personae of alpha male leadership is Camille's pet discovery. So she naturally liked Kasich's swaggering WWF in your face act. Trump is actually broadly nuanced compared to Kasich's narrow "son of a Male Man act."

Laslo Spatula said...

"...Camille Paglia's denouncement of Taylor Swift as an "obnoxious Nazi Barbie"..."

As far as Nazi Women go, Taylor Swift is no Ilsa.
I am Laslo.

rehajm said...

Robert Cook said...
As for "Trump as fascist," I think it more likely he's simply performing.


This post of Cookie's reads like a good Mad Lib! Substitute 'Bernie' everywhere it says 'Trump' and it's even more funny/accurate!

Bob Ellison said...

Robert Cook, your analysis of Trump seems plausible.

Trump can't win the GOP nomination, I think. The big fear in the GOP is that Trump will throw the election to Hillary, much as Perot threw it to Bill. Charles Krauthammer said yesterday (I think yesterday) that Trump won't run as an independent, because Trump's ego won't let him launch a losing bid. I think that's right, too.

chickelit said...

Robert Cook asks How is going to get himself out of this?

Acts. Trump will have to do something extraordinary to get elected. Promises won't suffice.

Mike Sylwester said...

Kasich is a rather good state governor.

Titus said...

Why is she writing for Hollywood Reporter?

Isn't that kind of beneath her?

tits and muscles.

walter said...

"how many people seem to love Donald Trump out of a weird sense that they somehow are Donald Trump?"

?

Regarding Kasich's dad delivering the word of God. He does work in mysterious ways..God too.
But his physical presence? Always seems manic and awkward..combined with those pained facial expressions.."winning".

Chris N said...

To my mind, I could exchange 'Trump' for 'Obama' in the Robert Cook comment above with a lot of overlap.

You don't have to put out birdseed every morning, Althouse!

Fernandinande said...

Google Trump is a Nazi or Trump is a fascist and you'll get 40+ million hits for Nazi

Sigh...

["Trump is a Nazi"] = 130 results.

["Trump" "Nazi"] = 295 results.

Fernandinande said...

["Weigel" "nazi"] = 376 results.

["Paglia" "nazi"] = 314 results.

Paddy O said...

"I still can't really believe Trump wants to be President"

If your interest is making money, politics is the new real estate. The Clintons gave Trump an insiders tip, and he's pursuing the deal. Like a great salesman, he taps into what people want to hear. And some people are easily drawn into sales pitches.

Paddy O said...

"I could exchange 'Trump' for 'Obama' in the Robert Cook comment above with a lot of overlap."

Definitely a lot of the same appeal, for a different demographic. Trump is just as hopey and dreamy. And even more of a narcissist.

David said...

"Paglia was born in 1947, so I'm not sure what fascist blonde left that mark."

Most likely some bitchy clique in high school. Those are the ones that best can leave a permanent mark.

Bob Ellison said...

Fernandinande, that Commodore 64 you're using to search Compuserve might be a little out of date.

40m hits is about right. I don't know how you managed to get the numbers you got. Even ["Althouse" "nazi"] gets pretty close to 100k.

Bob Ellison said...

Well, interesting. Fernandinande provided links. I should have noticed.

Weird links. I can't tell how they're being filtered. Google search term parsing is not my specialty.

If you follow his links, you'll seem to get evidence that he is correct. Kinda like evidence that the moon landing was faked, and the earth is 6,000 years old.

Bill said...

From what I know of La Paglia, it was Sandra Dee who embodied all she hated about the cultural hegemony of blondes.

James Pawlak said...

How do they taste with curry?

Paddy O said...

I can't tell how they're being filtered.

The link calls to start on page 900, 800 or page 500 of the results

is an integer denoting the 0-based index of the first desired result (i.e., the first result is considered to be result #0). The value of the start field defaults to 0, so the "&start=" may be omitted from the URL if the first page of results is desired. Please note that Google cannot in general guarantee being able to return any particular number of results for a search

Typing "Althouse" into Google shows only 318 results. Althouse, your blogging efforts have been for naught!

Fernandinande said...

Bob Ellison said...
Well, interesting. Fernandinande provided links. I should have noticed.


Yes, you should have.

Weird links. I can't tell how they're being filtered. Google search term parsing is not my specialty.

No kidding? That explains why you shot off your mouth about it.

If you follow his links, you'll seem to get evidence that he is correct. Kinda like evidence that the moon landing was faked, and the earth is 6,000 years old.

No, it's more like the evidence that you're stupid. IOW, it's pretty obvious.

The "one weird trick" for generating the actual number of results - results that you can click on and see - is the "start=" in the URL, which changes as you go past the first page of the initial search results. Put a fairly big number there (500 or whatever), and it truncates to the actual results; it's the same as clicking the biggest page numbers at the bottom of the results page until they run out.

["stupid" "bob"] = "About 45,300,000 results"
Actual number = 437 results. You could increase that number up by posting more often.

Bob Ellison said...

Hey, Fern, I know it's tough out there.

Try this: https://www.google.com/#q=trump+nazi

That's what the Professor was writing about.

Bob Ellison said...

...or are you trying to demonstrate that the words "Trump" and "nazi" have appeared on a single web page only 130 times?

Does that count this time?

I get the sense that you're driving at a larger point here, something to do with the invalidity of Google or something like that.

Roughcoat said...

I wonder: has Camille always been a lesbian or did she self-identify as hetero and go out with boys in high school? The answer to this question could explain her feelings about Taylor Swift.

Bob Ellison said...

obama+democrat returns 297 results by your blinkered method.

Me, I think that seems kinda low.

Bob Ellison said...

This gets kinda fun. [vanilla cayenne rosemary "ground lamb" "root beer"] returns 4600 results. I'm planning dinner tomorrow night, so I'll be poring over those for a long time.

But using Fernandinande's method, I get only 179 results.

That might be a better method. The other 4400 recipes could be awful. I once tried to cook a beef roast with coffee. Not good.

Ann Althouse said...

"Why is she writing for Hollywood Reporter? Isn't that kind of beneath her?"

She's writing about a bunch of pop singers, so it kind of belongs there. Maybe she tried it somewhere else first or maybe she tailored (Taylored) it to their niche. But why? She's always written about pop culture. Maybe this one is kind of a stinker and she had to go farther down the list than usual.

One thing about a blog is, it is whatever you choose to write. Selling to magazines... eh, I wouldn't stoop to it myself, though I've written a few things where they asked me. (Mainly, "they" = the NYT, but they don't ask me anymore, which is not a mystery to me.)

traditionalguy said...

A swift is a bird that flies away when a Alpha Hawk swoops down on her.

Taylor is a bird watchers delight. But is she a real blonde, or a highlighted one?

I like the Ann Margaret blonde the best. My oldest grand daughter is one.

Paddy O said...

"results that you can click on and see"

This is an odd explanation that I'm sure makes sense in your head, but I don't get the logic. The only valid results are those that are considered the very least valuable in an otherwise large Google result?

You're saying: "It only shows up this smaller number, as long as we leave out all the rest of the many, many times the phrase shows up in more popular places."

It seems you're thinking this a devastating point for your discussions, but it doesn't really seem to indicate anything other than manipulating where the search results start listing and showing how many results show up after that arbitrary start point.

David said...

"She's always written about pop culture. Maybe this one is kind of a stinker and she had to go farther down the list than usual."

Or maybe she has become too outspoken for the editors on subjects where they want to control the outspeak.

Paddy O said...

Maybe I found the apparent logic behind the link. At the bottom of the end of search results is this: "In order to show you the most relevant results, we have omitted some entries very similar to the 312 already displayed."

Click the link, a much larger number appears (I used the Obama Democrat link). 312 vs 48 million. But the problem with the logic is that the 312 aren't "very similar" to the 48 million original links. More that Google omits links that come from the same websites and are similar in wording. So, basically, starting at the last page of a search results gets you the very end of the search. Clicking the link sends the search back to the original search without any added parameters.

The 312 isn't the number of "actual" links, it's just the end point of viewable links of a much larger search result (that you can never really fully see). The disclaimer at the end of the manipulated search results is saying it is leaving out duplicates contained within the 312 results being provided. Indeed there's no real way of even viewing all 312 of these links, I don't think. If you click on any of the page links at the bottom it sends you right back to the full search.

harkin said...

The only thing I noticed about Kasich was the myriad different colors his face would turn while listening to people disagree with him. He was so much like a human octopus I kept waiting for him to spray black fluid and zip down a hole.

LarryK said...

"Paglia was born in 1947, so I'm not sure what fascist blonde left that mark."

Doris Day - Paglia has singled her out as a symbol of the white-bread, happy-face, conformist 1950s that she detested. Some foolish people considered that fascism then, and apparently still do.