I haven't read it. Was it his way of mourning Bush I, or just a random column?

Mourning.

I'm not paraphrasing, though. It's literally called:

Why We Miss the WASPs Their more meritocratic, diverse and secular successors rule us neither as wisely nor as well.

Obviously the solution is to ban opinion columnists from using the first person plural. I'm only 20% kidding.

Let's all have a moment of the sads for people who decided to destroy or weaken institutions as soon as they lost absolute control of them so they could sneer at those who followed them for doing less well.

People are really just rehearsing what they're going to say when the only truly decent living ex-President passes away.

That's what I'm telling myself, anyway.

(OK, I suppose someone might want to argue that BHO was also truly decent. I wish it was so.)

I'm done with my sads now.

Wait. They came back because Millennials killed canned tuna.

This is going to take longer because I've had better luck with tuna salad than WASP elites.

Now done.

Got to respect that single-minded obsession with reaching the light.

Has anybody tried replacing the political elite with mayonnaise?

Christ, what an asshole.

12: No, Moby, mayonnaise is not an instrument

I suppose it's something for a right-wing Catholic like Douthat to have something good to say about Protestants.

13: Yes, but only because of practice.

As always Jeet Heer is worth reading on this - https://newrepublic.com/article/152533/death-wasp-elite-greatly-exaggerated

Ruling class right-wing Catholic and Protestant Americans have been fairly lovey-dovey ever since abortion became a wedge issue. (Does not apply to right-wing hyphenated-American Catholics, or the-pope-is-satan Protestants.)

How many truly decent dead ex-presidents would you count?

19: All of them. The only good ex-president ...

That is really long for an op-Ed column. I tried to skim all the way through and couldn't.

I'm embarrassed to admit though that I kind of found myself agreeing with the criticisms of the SAT- driven world with the high school resume.

Many - probably most - things are a lot better, but a lot of the modern meritocracy is a lot less forgiving of not having everything completely together when you're young.

And Bush looks awfully good right now compared to Trump. Maybe that's clouding my thinking.

Got fuck sake, don't read it. Just mock the title. If you were supposed to read it, you'd be paid for your time.

Sorry for speaking harshly. But we need to have some standards or people will read David Brooks next.

19 Carter puts the bar pretty high. I don't think you can match him in the 20th century, and I'm not sure you can get there in the 19th either. I suppose I could learn more about Cleveland . . . I was going to suggest maybe Taft, but I bet his time in the Philippines has some disqualifying conduct. JQA?

I think Obama already sets the bar high enough to exclude almost all presidents. I'd be pretty shocked if anyone came close to Carter.

Sargent's tweet thread on Douthat was worth the 2 minutes it took to read.

Sen. Grassley is wrong when I says that Trump would get rid of all his problems if he let Melania review his tweets before hitting send, but I get the point. Over on 'our' side of the fence, how much bandwidth would be saved if people just quit with the overbroad generalizations? It's the nugget of truth in #notall___ that makes this thing irradicable.

25 I can get you a phone number from someone living in Aden who'd be willing to argue with you.

24, 25. I honestly don't see how you can have anyone but FDR at the top. Not a true WASP since he wasn't pure "Anglo-Saxon," but come on. Not to mention there was this guy back in the 19th century named Lincoln. They were both guys who got dealt a bad hand both in life and as President. They each had some fuck-ups but really: Carter? Obama? Does nobody read history any more?

I took the question not to be "who was the best president" but "who was the best man to have been president."

Just because it's topical: people here or elsewhere were ranking Republican presidents since Eisenhower, which has become somewhat canonical by now. I am curious, though: what about the whole 20th century? Start with McKinley or TR, I don't especially care. (So no one has to look it up: McKinley, T Roosevelt, Taft, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, then the Eisenhower-and-after group which is traditionally ranked by liberals as follows: Eisenhower, Ford, Bush I, Reagan, Nixon, Bush II, Trump, with some variations depending on individual priorities. In my case, Reagan would be tied with W. at best, possibly even below. Go! Okay, I'm out again. Fuck Reagan.)

s/b "with some variations in the last (worst) four, depending on individual priorities"

29 is completely obvious and yet God the Internet is so annoying that someone still misses it.

32 was me.

32. I stand by my choices. Lincoln was a very good man, FDR was a very good man except in his married life (which of course counts against him but he and Eleanor had a modus vivendi). Both had to be good in situations that Carter and Obama never had to deal with. Does "good man" completely not overlap performance as President, or does it overlap entirely, so that good intentions or good acts as President count? Just curious.

he and Eleanor had a modus vivendi

They had such weird sex toys during the Depression.

30: My ranking is: Eisenhower, Ford, Taft, Coolidge, Bush I, McKinley, Hoover, T Roosevelt, Harding, Reagan, Nixon, Trump, Bush II

My ranking of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms is: Kent, East Anglia, Wessex, Mercia, Essex, Northumbria, Sussex.

Why you dissing on Mercia like that?

Because of shitty performance against the Danes.

I thought it was the best *living* ex-president.

Personally, I prefer Obama, but I don't think I'd win the argument with Carp and also Carter has the same initials as Jesus so maybe there's a sign in that.

IX?

J.C.

I may not be dinging Carter enough for Afghanistan.

Or for losing to fucking Reagan.

I imagine there's lots of reasons for a professed Christian to not say the Apostles' Creed at a service when it is written on the program besides "is really the Antichrist," but I think there's no reason to rule out that explanation either.

46. So I looked to see what this was about. Trump can't even mouth the lines. That entire row (and Pence behind him) are reciting the creed (or pretending) except for 45 and his spouse. He just didn't want to be there.

All my Anglo-Saxon ex-presidents live in Essex.

Anyway, as far as post-presidencies go, John Qunicy Adams should get a lot of credit for his anti-slavery, which probably still isn't that well known.

23: Thank you, Moby. Friends don't let friends read David Brooks.

41: Not quite because Earl doesn't begin with an F.

I was surprised by 49, because it's the only thing I know about JQA because of "Amistad". But then I realized that movie is 20 years old, and probably almost completely forgotten.

But Amistad is only a small part of what JQA did. There's also the fight to repeal the gag rule in Congress.

Or to put it another way, I meant credit for all his anti-slavery work. Not just for arguing the anti-slavery side in one high profile case.

I imagine there's lots of reasons for a professed Christian to not say the Apostles' Creed at a service when it is written on the program besides "is really the Antichrist," but I think there's no reason to rule out that explanation either.

Yep, definitely secret Muslim.

http://www.unfogged.com/archives/comments_16246.html#1978710

46. I imagine there are many such reasons indeed. If Trump turned out to be a Valentinian Gnostic he would actually go up in my estimation for doing something that took the teenziest bit of intellectual effort.

Harry Potter and:

The Philosopher's Stone
The Chamber of Secrets
The Prisoner of Azkaban
Prejudice
Fate
The Sea
The Single Woman
Peace
The Maiden
Sensibility
The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
The Feudal Spirit
Man at Yale

I think the prosaic explanation is that his eyesight is terrible and he probably couldn't read the page, and he has a twisted view of "power" that doesn't allow him to use glasses.

Also, Carter by a mile. There's not nearly enough Obama hate around here. Where's Stras when we need him?

his eyesight is terrible and he probably couldn't read the page, and he has a twisted view of "power" that doesn't allow him to use glasses.

You know who else had terrible eyesight and refused to wear glasses, to the point where his speeches had to be printed for him in a specially large typeface?

Demosthenes?

My favorite Carter fact is that in 4 years he appointed more women and minority judges than all previous presidents combined.

I'm a worse person than you because my favorite thing about Carter will always be that he took a swing at a bunny with his paddle.

Wait what?

There's not nearly enough Obama hate around here. Where's Stras when we need him?

Ah, yes. Remember how sure he was that Obama was going to invade Iran, any day now.

64: I don't have my computer so I can't put up a link easily, but "Carter swamp rabbit" would probably be the search string to find it.

I was led to expect more. He didn't even connect.

The 70s were a different time.

Like, he didn't even accidentally hit his fishing companion in the face or anything.

He was too kind for his office.

Peanuts, unlike film sets or real-estate scams, require tender loving care.

The Guinea Worm program is really amazing. Just the opposite of "disruptive" bullshit. There's no fancy "cure" it's just 30 years of working closely with local health organizations and giving out straws with a bit of nylon. 3.5 million cases a year down to 30. It's really sad that Carter's probably not going to outlive Guinea Worm, due to problems with transmission to dogs in Chad. The new approach is: "Until scientists have a better grasp on the scope of the problem and how dogs are becoming infected, an attempt has been made to curb the spread of the worms by paying villagers to tether their infected dogs until all worms have been expressed. The reward of $20, plus a stout chain with two locks, is distributed at ceremonies held in weekly roadside markets to increase attention about the program." Dog cases are going down now, but it's likely to be at least another 5-10 years before Guinea Worm can be eradicated in Chad.

The incels were right about Chad.

Seconding 72. Carter wasn't that great of a president, but he's been an amazing post-president. He took on one of the most ancient afflictions--it's where the Rod of Asclepius comes from--and won. He probably won't outlive it, but it'll be close.

Carter got the US involved in the Afghan civil war before the Soviets went anywhere near it, with the explicit intention of making it as long and as bloody as possible. One point five million people dead, seven million people displaced, thirty-nine years of civil war (and counting). Worse than the invasion of Iraq.

75: I think we've had this conversation before. AFAICR the (token) Carter-era US involvement wasn't decisive in precipitating Soviet intervention. Brezhnev Doctrine plus ACP infighting decided that, and Pakistan, KSA, PRC, had their own reasons for getting involved. Given all that, things might well have played out the same anyway; I don't know of any parallel argument for Iraq.
In any case, given the length of time and the number of actors, Carter himself can bear only a small fraction of the blame.

76.last You've got that right.

1979 - present: War in Afghanistan Jimmy Carter's fault
time immemorial - 1979: War in Afghanistan someone else's fault

with the explicit intention of making it as long and as bloody as possible

What the basis for this?

I finally got around to reading Douthat, and it's really hard to convey what a trainwreck this piece is. His thesis:

Put simply, Americans miss Bush because we miss the WASPs -- because we feel, at some level, that their more meritocratic and diverse and secular successors rule us neither as wisely nor as well.

Douthat is a dope, of course, but there is a lack of awareness here that is just stunning to me.

How can you use "meritocratic, diverse and secular" to describe the post-HW Republican Party? Douthat gets around this problem by not talking about the modern Republican Party at all. By this method, he is able to blame the alleged downfall of the WASPs on Harvard and various minorities.

You think I'm making this up? Behold:

But a WASP establishment that couldn't muster the self-confidence to hold on to Yale and Harvard was never likely to maintain its hold on a mass political organization like the G.O.P.

WASPs are unable to maintain their hold on universities and a political party that continue to be dominated by WASPs! What the fuck?

You know where WASPs have actually taken a beating? The Supreme Court! But Douthat somehow doesn't notice this - no doubt because the court is upholding the oligarchical values that he associates with WASPs.

From the OP:

I feel like I ought to post on that dumb-dumb Douthat op-ed ... but it's so dull that I can't get through it.

I am the opposite. Once I become aware of something like this, I can't not read it. It's a horrific curse. I bet heebie goes around asking OCD sufferers whether they are really sure they locked the doors and turned off the oven.

They were too pure for this fallen world.

meritocratic, diverse and secular

"OK, so get this: our President will be a old fat white supremacist who can barely form an English sentence, bankrupted a casino, and desperately wants to fuck his daughter."

"That's a hell of a political party you got there. What do you call it?"

"The Meritocrats"

Well, obviously he's not talking to or about the Trump cult. It's about the very limited subset of WASPs that actually believe in and act on the myths, with the same old slander about being to broadminded to take one's own side in a fight.

I thought digby's piece yesterday about asymmetry was much more perceptive: https://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2018/12/theres-only-one-trump-thank-god.html

What do you call it?

The Evangelical's Savior.

Obvsly, digby and Serwer.

||

William Barr nominated for AG, thoughts?

|>

I take Carter's foreign policy failures (Afghanistan, East Timor, Angola) not so much to lower my opinion of him as a person, but rather to indicate that no matter how good a person is, if they are president of the US they're inevitably going to be partially responsible for some horrible horrible things. This is in part why I don't fully blame Obama for Yemen. Not that it's not wrong or horrible, but that it's more on SA than on the US, the US's part of it isn't fully on Obama, and all you can do as president is limit the number of attrocities, not fully eliminate them.

86: I believe it if it happens... It seems insane that Trump would fire Sessions who actually agrees with Trump only to nominate a standard conservative with a good reputation who worked for the CIA. Though the reporting is the usual "Trump makes decisions based only on how people look", so maybe it's possible? The whole thing is tricky because Trump agreeing to nominate someone is just going to immediately lower my opinion of that person immensely. Why would he nominate someone who hasn't assured Trump of the nominees personal corruption?

87 I guess I don't blame Obama for going along with what imagine was the military consensus that either a show of force, or a weekend of bombing, would split the Houthi/Saleh coalition, talking the army units loyal to Saleh out of the equation. When it didn't work though, he had the opportunity and leverage to tell the Saudis that the policy had failed, and it was time to deal. Instead, it was just further escalation, famine and cholera, without much more than a peep. I think getting the nuclear deal with Iran was worth giving the Saudis a lot. I don't think it can be called fundamentally decent to buy off on the blockades and intentional starvation of a large already poor civilian population.

I don't see what part of the old WASPy virtues Obama isn't supposed to embody?

Democrats don't count.

72. I had forgotten Carter was involved in that. It's a great initiative, though I hadn't heard the bad news about dogs.

90: Obviously Obama falls short in the "W" part of WASPiness, but in fact, Douthat seems willing to consider Obama an honorary white guy. (I think. This is a little incoherent.)

The establishment had always been somewhat permeable to arrivistes, Jews and Catholics imitated WASP habits in the 1940s and 1950s, and in our era their admirable influence is still felt in figures as different as Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.

You know who I blame for all the problems in the world since GHWB was president? That fucker Ross Perot. If he hadn't run in 1992, or had stayed out after he dropped out in July, Clinton would have won anyway (source), but because of his impact on the popular vote, it's way too easy for idiots and bullshitters to ignore the fact that Clinton beat Bush fair and square. Any soul-searching or time in the wilderness the Republicans might have had, any attempt to actually address the rifts in their coalition, was skipped. Ever since then the Wall Street Republicans and god-guns-gays Republicans maintained and strengthened their alliance long enough for their party to gain all power and lose every last vestige of principles they might have had.

Can I have a New York Times column now? It's mind-boggling to think about Douthat's place in life and what he does with it. He's a pretty good refutation of elitism right there.

Re: Carter's nice guy image, while he was president the FBI ran a sting operation directed at sitting U.S. Congressmen, never done before or since, that mysteriously targeted only Democrats in the Ted Kennedy faction. Several went to jail. Nixon took steps in that direction but only got as far as ordering a few IRS audits; Trump only dreams of sending his enemies to jail; under Carter it happened. Carter's personal involvement was never proved.

Now that's some irresponsible speculation.

Names? No one on the wikipedia list seems to fit.

97: God bless wikipedia. Wikipedia lists Abscam as Reagan era, even they also say (accurately) that it occurred in 1980. Senator Harrison Williams and several of the representatives were indicted shortly after they endorsed Ted Kennedy's challenge to Carter in the 1980 primaries

Abscam FBI sting involving fake 'Arabs' trying to bribe 31 congressmen. (1980)[89] The following Congressmen were convicted:
Harrison A. Williams Senator (D-NJ) Convicted on 9 counts of bribery and conspiracy. Sentenced to 3 years in prison.[90]
John Jenrette (D-SC) sentenced to two years in prison for bribery and conspiracy.[91]
Richard Kelly (R-FL) Accepted $25K and then claimed he was conducting his own investigation into corruption. Served 13 months.[92]
Raymond Lederer (D-PA) "I can give you me" he said after accepting $50K. Sentenced to 3 years.[93]
Michael Myers (D-PA) Accepted $50K saying, "...money talks and bullshit walks." Sentenced to 3 years and was expelled from the House.[94]
Frank Thompson (D-NJ) Sentenced to 3 years.[95]
John M. Murphy (D-NY) Served 20 months of a 3-year sentence.[96]

Oh, the American Hustle story!

God I hated that movie.

Rep. Murtha was just honest enough to stay out of prison and in Congress. Which, considering how much money he shoveled into Johnstown, was probably what his district needed.

Lawrence was great, granted. Still hated it.

||

About to board a flight for NY, first time I've come back for the holidays.

|>

Michael Myers (D-PA) Accepted $50K saying, "...money talks and bullshit walks." Sentenced to 3 years and was expelled from the House.[94]

That's congressman "Ozzie" Myers, a longshoreman from Philadelphia. He was only in his second term in Congress and was also known for getting into a fistfight with employees of a revolving restaurant in "Crystal City", VA. Note that being EXPELLED FROM THE HOUSE is something that had not happened in over a century.

Why is it all the other convicted felons weren't EXPELLED FROM THE HOUSE?

Thoughtful and brutal reaction to the Douthat piece.

Except Ross Douthat is not that kind of Catholic. He is a convert, whose ancestry runs right through the Protestant establishment, including his great-grandfather having been the governor of Connecticut. Calling himself a Catholic in the discussion of historic power and opportunity was a Rachel Dolezal-grade feat of impersonation. To the extent there is a story to be told about the decline of the cultural dominance of the Protestant ruling class, it would be the story of how Ross Douthat came to identify as Catholic, without ceding any power or influence along the way.

For several years, I thought he was South Asian because of his name.

The link in 196 was really good. Thanks.

¦¦ Christ, my boss is an asshole
>

You don't mean "wonderfully able to hold shit back until it can be released on the appropriate place," do you?

Chubby cheeks, one brown eye?

Refuses to part with livestock at a reasonable price?

||
HG, I can crank out a long-readish thingy for the weekend if you want it.
|>

Sure, that sounds great! Thanks, Mochy.

Why should people have to sell their livestock just because somebody offers a market price? Maybe they just like that one particular cow.

It was a bull. And I think the offer was "fifty hides of land and my own friendly thighs on top of that". Which surely was well above the going rate.

Intercrural sex isn't everybody's thing.

I think the thighs were a metonymy.

Triceps sexing?

||

This week in "I've got mine" Bay Area homeowning faux-progressives: the new year's density-forcing bill, SB50 (aka SB827: The Next Generation), although it has full protections against demolishing existing rental housing, is apparently inequitable because it does not exempt owner-occupied single-family housing. Those poor Cupertino owners, forced to either accept a huge buyout so their land can be rebuilt, or refuse and continue to live in their own home! (California bans eminent domain on such homes, for reference.)

|>

What about eminent domain for non-reference purposes?

You can borrow those whenever you want.

120: Is it just empty posturing then?

I think she really was offering sex for cattle.

Which is why when you donate blood you get asked if you have ever had sex in exchange for money or livestock.

123: That's my take. The general thrust of the post is "how can anything have any effect when capitalism", and suggesting more restrictions on commercial development instead of more housing.

It must be weird to not be able to buy a house with easy access to your place of work via public transportation for less than 1/4 of your income.

Dick move, bro.

I'm just spilled by cheap houses.

I didn't even know you were liquid.

It's just a phase.

HG, I can crank out a long-readish thingy for the weekend if you want it.

That reminds me, I was also planning to send in a long-read post at some point. I was on vacation last week and brought along some magazine back-issues for the trip and ended up reading a really great article from April that I wanted to recommend to people.

132. Apparently CA homeowners never get their property taxes re-assessed until they sell their homes (Prop 13, apparently)? Judging from the link a lot of people think it's wonderful that way, and others think it's horrible and (shudder) "not progressive."

MA has had "Prop 2 1/2" for many decades. It limits the property tax rate (to 2.5%, duh) but requires re-assessment to market value every two (or maybe one?) years. So far the state hasn't fallen into the sea. On the other hand, we still have an affordable housing shortage, especially in Boston, so continuous re-assessment isn't a panacea. It's like maybe the housing market is complex or something.

Could we have a thread where those of you who still have material desires and interests, or the wherewithal to imagine what that's like, give me gift ideas?

Vouchers for apocalypse bunkers.

Cattle and thighs.

134. I got a cat, very satisfying.
Perplexus 3-d mazes are fun.
Books of course - Viv Albertine has a new one excerpted in longreads, except covers dating in your fifties, hilarious and insightful. Von Glahn's Economic history of China. Richard White's new reconstruction book.
Schleich makes fantastic detailed dinosaur figurines, a little bit articulable.

Laterally inverted gift certificates.

Rare and expensive French handbags for resale. That's what I want.

Let me be the first to suggest the backs of chairs in trendy restaurants.

137.last is very true. Last Christmas I got myself the dunkleosteus (because Target online described it as "huggable," which cracked me up) and I have never regretted it.

This reminds me that I have nieces buy for.

139: Nice Michael Cohen reference!

139: Nice Michael Cohen reference!

Whoops.

144,145: Funny coincidence, I've just been watching the recent 2018 adaptation of The Woman In White. It's much better than the awful late 90s version, but they totally butchered the character of Count Fosco. Why take such a colorful character and make him so bland?

You aught to write to the producers and complain.

Doing my bit to solve the California Housing crisis: Just move here and start a cult.

Technically, there's no need to form a cult, but I figure you may as well take advantage of the architecture.

On reading the ad again, it may be that somebody already started a cult and is seeking victims. So, you know, be careful.

OT begging request: can anyone outside the UK pick up a copy of "Billion Dollar Whale" by Tom Wright and Bradley Hope and stick it in the post for me? It's not currently on sale in the UK thanks to, apparently, a successful campaign of intimidation by the law firm Schillings against any bookseller who offers it for sale. But it looks rather interesting. Will pay costs including postage. Drop me a line at the linked email.