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Hey cool cats, grab a $5 shake and your “I Like Ike” paraphernalia and come celebrate our 50th episode with a look at fake bands in the 1950s.
SEASON 2 EPISODE 16: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:44) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump has filed to have his January 6th trial start not in 138 days from now but in April 2026 and presumably THAT is the date he and his attorneys picked because “The Twelfth Of Never” would not fit on the legal form. The filing concludes with the most cynical argument imaginable: Point “E”, quote: “The Government's Proposal Conflicts With Other Cases” and it then lists things like the civil case in New York beginning this October and another next January and the Stormy Daniels Payoff trial in March and the Georgia trial next March and the Mar-a-Lago trial start next May. YOU CAN'T PUT ME ON TRIAL FOR MY CRIMES IN JANUARY – I'M ALREADY ON TRIAL FOR MY CRIMES IN NEW YORK AND ATLANTA AND FLORIDA – YOU PEOPLE ACT LIKE YOU'RE THE ONLY PROSECUTOR AND THE ONLY JUDGE IN TOWN – I'M ALREADY BOOKED THAT WEEK. This trial calendar is his philosophy in miniature – and also, his only means of survival. If anybody ever gets him to admit, to others, to himself – sincerely (not just to deceive them) – that he has lost, I suspect he will stroke out, or at least be unable to function. He is the victim, he is the rightful ruler, he will be avenged, he will not accept a trial before the 2024 election, he won't accept one in 2025 because if he were to LOSE the election he would be too busy in 2025 trying to overthrow the government and of course he ALSO won't accept one in 2025 because if he were to WIN the election he would be too busy in 2025 dismantling the various prosecutions against him and oh yeah in the most cynical and manipulative part of this hole stall tactic, you can't criminally try a sitting president. Or a sitting dictator, for that matter. And we need to throw EVERYTHING we have at him. Lawsuits, state cases, Arizona, Georgia, document trials, insurrection trials, the 14th Amendment, and if we can't keep him off the ballot the goddamnedest series of campaign ads in the history of the world that make L-B-J's Daisy Ad and Bush's Willie Horton Ad look more milquetoast than “I Like Ike.” And right now we are NOT doing that. B-Block (22:58) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Britain's 5th-String Prime Minister has invited Saudi strongman Prince MBS to the UK - on or about the fifth anniversary of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. The likely next governor of North Carolina never paid his rent from 2012. New York's idiot Democrats manage to place on the Supreme Court a woman judge who is opposed to Roe V. Wade. (27:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Everybody got fired at Project Veritas, The Washington Post puts out two of the worst Bothsidesist Headlines in world history in the same edition, and the rare winner twice in three days: my ex-SportsCenter co-anchor Sage Steele keeps digging! C-Block (33:30) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: You were all so kind with words about yesterday's stories of my late pup Mishu, let's just absorb some of the pure joy of dogs, even the cranky ones. It's Thurber's "The Dog That Bit People."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Tom, Brittany and Rudy get Friday cookin' with a chat about "I Like Ike" flags and Rudy tells a story about getting to play an expensive golf course for free.In the first hour, Bob Sansevere breaks the news about Tony Bennett passing. After, Kristyn Burtt talks about the new Barbie movie dropping todayIn hour #2, KSTP's Chris Egert takes some heat for promoting Threads from Instagram and later this hour, we're joined by Office Dave.In hour #3, SKOR North's Judd Zulgad and Kent Hrbek talk Twins and Tim Lammers joins us for his review of the Barbie movie.Stream the show LIVE on the Tom. Barnard Show app M-F from 7-10AM or get the show on-demand on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Tom, Brittany and Rudy get Friday cookin' with a chat about "I Like Ike" flags and Rudy tells a story about getting to play an expensive golf course for free.In the first hour, Bob Sansevere breaks the news about Tony Bennett passing. After, Kristyn Burtt talks about the new Barbie movie dropping todayIn hour #2, KSTP's Chris Egert takes some heat for promoting Threads from Instagram and later this hour, we're joined by Office Dave.In hour #3, SKOR North's Judd Zulgad and Kent Hrbek talk Twins and Tim Lammers joins us for his review of the Barbie movie.Stream the show LIVE on the Tom. Barnard Show app M-F from 7-10AM or get the show on-demand on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Tom, Brittany and Rudy get Friday cookin' with a chat about "I Like Ike" flags and Rudy tells a story about getting to play an expensive golf course for free.In the first hour, Bob Sansevere breaks the news about Tony Bennett passing. After, Kristyn Burtt talks about the new Barbie movie dropping todayIn hour #2, KSTP's Chris Egert takes some heat for promoting Threads from Instagram and later this hour, we're joined by Office Dave.In hour #3, SKOR North's Judd Zulgad and Kent Hrbek talk Twins and Tim Lammers joins us for his review of the Barbie movie.Stream the show LIVE on the Tom. Barnard Show app M-F from 7-10AM or get the show on-demand on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Tom, Brittany and Rudy get Friday cookin' with a chat about "I Like Ike" flags and Rudy tells a story about getting to play an expensive golf course for free. In the first hour, Bob Sansevere breaks the news about Tony Bennett passing. After, Kristyn Burtt talks about the new Barbie movie dropping today In hour #2, KSTP's Chris Egert takes some heat for promoting Threads from Instagram and later this hour, we're joined by Office Dave. In hour #3, SKOR North's Judd Zulgad and Kent Hrbek talk Twins and Tim Lammers joins us for his review of the Barbie movie. Stream the show LIVE on the Tom. Barnard Show app M-F from 7-10AM or get the show on-demand on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Tom, Brittany and Rudy get Friday cookin' with a chat about "I Like Ike" flags and Rudy tells a story about getting to play an expensive golf course for free. In the first hour, Bob Sansevere breaks the news about Tony Bennett passing. After, Kristyn Burtt talks about the new Barbie movie dropping today In hour #2, KSTP's Chris Egert takes some heat for promoting Threads from Instagram and later this hour, we're joined by Office Dave. In hour #3, SKOR North's Judd Zulgad and Kent Hrbek talk Twins and Tim Lammers joins us for his review of the Barbie movie. Stream the show LIVE on the Tom. Barnard Show app M-F from 7-10AM or get the show on-demand on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Tom, Brittany and Rudy get Friday cookin' with a chat about "I Like Ike" flags and Rudy tells a story about getting to play an expensive golf course for free. In the first hour, Bob Sansevere breaks the news about Tony Bennett passing. After, Kristyn Burtt talks about the new Barbie movie dropping today In hour #2, KSTP's Chris Egert takes some heat for promoting Threads from Instagram and later this hour, we're joined by Office Dave. In hour #3, SKOR North's Judd Zulgad and Kent Hrbek talk Twins and Tim Lammers joins us for his review of the Barbie movie. Stream the show LIVE on the Tom. Barnard Show app M-F from 7-10AM or get the show on-demand on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
May 25, 1952 - Jack prepares for his trip to London, then Jack gets money from Ed in the vault, and a visit from Dennis' mother. They mention the ocean liner that Jack Benny will take to London, the RMS Queen Elizabeth. They also mention the old Bundles for Britain program, the presidential slogan "I Like Ike", singers Johnnie Ray and Ezio Pinza, and Verna Felton on The Dennis Day TV show.
Full disclosure - I haven't always loved crows. It wasn't that many years ago when I walked into an aviary at Woodland Park Zoo and had a panic attack. Being shut into a confined space with birds flitting here and there called to mind Alfred Hitchcock's classic, The Birds. I had to step outside and collect myself on a stone bench. Later though, when I became a mother, I saw birds through the eyes of my children. We set up fairy houses in the yard and watched for hummingbirds. My first trip to Alaska sealed the deal. Yeah, we have bald eagles in Seattle. They sometimes circle in the skies overhead, but that's NOTHING compared to what Homer, Alaska had in store. They linger on the spit feet away, perched three across on a driftwood log beside our firepit. They were glorious. It was after that trip that I began to take note of all our neighborhood birds. During a stretch of brittle winter weather, a duo of crows looked at me through the patio doors. They were hungry. I began to feed them and they cawed in thanks. They would hang back on the gate and watch as I brewed my morning coffee. They knew after feeding my cats and dog, I'd sprinkle something nutritious in the yard for them. They knew I was a crow lover, but, and maybe it was the bird dog growling behind me, they never fully trusted me. No matter. I was head over heels in love with crows. Soon two became three. Three became four. The word had gotten out that I had a soft spot for these remarkable, beautiful creatures. It was around that time when I heard an interview on NPR of two UW researchers that were studying crows. They told the story of a woman who fed them for years and the crows, in turn, left her tiny treasures, like a I LIKE IKE pin. I wanted my crows to bring me something, too, so I upped the quality of my offerings. My love affair with crows continues to this day. I found a kindred spirit on TikTok, The Corvid Corner. She not only feeds crows, she rescues them, and goes so far as to make her own suet cakes for these glorious birds. Bear with my scratchy voice as I struggled with the flu during this interesting conversation with my new friend across the pond. We talk candidly about the birds that have stolen our hearts.Please give her a follow on TikTok and watch her incredible, uplifting, and often informative videos there. Here's one article about UW professors studying crows!EMAIL US YOUR FEEDBACK OR STORY!(Let us know if you wish to remain anonymous or if using your first name is okay)Email us at: Curious_Cat_Podcast@icloud.comCurious Cat and Crew on Socials:Curious Cat on TwitterCurious Cat on InstagramCurious Cat on TikTokArt Director – Nora HotesAudio Engineer - Aidan ConnersSOMETHING SPECIAL IS COMING TO CURIOUS CAT SEASON 3! SUBSCRIBE NOW SO YOU DON'T MISS AN EPISODE!
We're back and it's 2023. Let's kick off the year with an episode discussing some of my favorite books I read last fall. There's a bit of SpaceX news at the beginning too, so give it a listen. I'd love if you could support the work I do here by checking out my website, Starlight and Gleam. (https://www.starlightandgleam.com/shop) Thank you for listening and I appreciate the support! Subscribe to The Space Shot on Substack for emails delivered directly to your inbox. Check it out here (https://thespaceshot.substack.com/p/coming-soon?r=5tgvq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&utm_source=copy) Let me know if you have any questions, email me at john@thespaceshot.com. You can also call 720-772-7988 if you'd like to ask a question for the show. Send questions, ideas, or comments, and I will be sure to respond to you! Thanks for reaching out! Do me a favor and leave a review for the podcast if you enjoy listening each day. Screenshot your review and send it to @johnmulnix or john@thespaceshot.com and I will send you a Space Shot sticker and a thank you! You can send me questions and connect with me on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, by clicking one of the links below. Facebook (https://m.facebook.com/thespaceshot/) Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/johnmulnix/) Twitter (https://twitter.com/johnmulnix) Episode Links: The Age of Radiance by Craig Nelson The Age of Radiance: The Epic Rise and Dramatic Fall of the Atomic Era (https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Age-of-Radiance/Craig-Nelson/9781451660449) Wingless Flight by R Dale Reed. Give the full PDF a read via NASA History. (https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4220.pdf) R Dale Reed NASA Biography- https://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/news/X-Press/50thanniversary/drivingforces/drivingforcesp-r.html Mayday Over Wichita by D.W. Carter Mayday Over Wichita: The Worst Military Aviation Disaster in Kansas History (Hardcover) (https://www.watermarkbooks.com/book/9781540208491) Piatt St. Park- https://www.wichita.gov/ParkandRec/CityParks/Pages/Piatt.aspx The Age of Eisenhower- by William Hitchcock The Age of Eisenhower: America and the World in the 1950s (https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Age-of-Eisenhower/William-I-Hitchcock/9781451698428) Uravan Colorado- http://www.uravan.com/ Project Orion- Death of a Project, by Freeman Dyson- https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.149.3680.141 Book- Project Orion: The True Story of the Atomic Spaceship (https://www.amazon.com/Project-Orion-Story-Atomic-Spaceship/dp/0805059857) Nuclear Pulse Propulsion: Orion and Beyond- https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20000096503
Something In The Water cohosts Sean Clark and Uncle Dave Griffin welcome back good friend and songwriting partner from Cornwall, England, Ian Dunlop. Fresh from a showstopping performance at the 25th Annual Gram Parsons Guitar Pull on October 15 in Waycross, Georgia, Ian delves into his personal musical history, beginning with an alto saxophone in the late Fifties. He formed his first band, The Refugees, performing at frat parties in the early Sixties around Boston, Massachusetts and opening for Roy Orbison and The Shirelles. After meeting Gram Parsons in the mid-60s, Ian picked up the bass guitar and found himself in the International Submarine Band for a brief while. An author himself, his book, Breakfast in Nudie Suits, details the origins of ISB, their exploration of country music, the band's move to Los Angeles, and his departure back to New England and eventually to Cornwall, where he resides to this day. In the musical segment, Ian performs “I Like Ike”, his original song about 1950s and President Eisenhower; “I Believe In The Power of Gugle”, a gospel-genre song reflecting on 21st century's unswerving faith in cyber media. We take a peek at “Fishin' For Wishes”, a Sean and Ian original performed with The Pine Box Dwellers at the 25th Annual Gram Parsons Guitar Pull October 15 in Waycross. This episode's Tail of the Weak is dedicated to grandparents around the world or at least those who are watching and listening.https://www.patreon.com/somethinginthewaterhttps://www.facebook.comcautionlightmedia/https://www.instagram.com/somethinginthewaterpodcast/https://www.facebook.com/somethinginthewaterpodcast/somethinginthewaterpodcast@gmail.comhttps://somethinginthewater.captivate.fm
Dassler shoes was started by Adolf Dassler in 1924 in Germany, after he came home from World War I. His brother Rudolph joined him. They made athletic shoes and developed spikes to go on the bottom of the shoes. By 1936, they convinced Jesse Owens to wear their shoes on the way to his gold medals. Some of the American troops who liked the shoes during World War II helped spread the word. The brothers had a falling out soon after the war was over. Adolph founded Adidas while Rudolph created a rival shoe company called Puma. This was just in time for the advertising industry to convince people that if they bought athletic shoes that they would instantly be, er, athletic. The two companies became a part of an ad-driven identity that persists to this day. One most who buy the products advertised hardly understand themselves. A national identity involves concentric circles of understanding. The larger a nation, the more concentric circles and the harder it is to nail down exactly who has what identity. Part of this is that people spend less time thinking about who they are and more time being told who they should want to be like. Woven into the message of who a person should be is a bunch of products that a person has to buy to become the ideal. That's called advertising. James White founded the first modern advertising agency called ‘R. F. White & Son' in Warwick Square, London in 1800. The industry evolved over the next hundred or so years as more plentiful supplies led to competition and so more of a need to advertise goods. Increasingly popular newspapers from better printing presses turned out a great place to advertise. The growth of industrialism meant there were plenty of goods and so competition between those who manufactured or trafficked those goods. The more efficient the machines of industry became, the more the advertising industry helped sell what the world might not yet know it needed. Many of those agencies settled into Madison Avenue in New York as balances of global power shifted and so by the end of World War II, Madison Avenue became a synonym for advertising. Many now-iconic brands were born in this era. Manufacturers and distributors weren't the only ones to use advertising. People put out ads to find loves in personals and by the 1950s advertising even began to find its way into politics. Iconic politicians could be created. Dwight D Eisenhower served as the United States president from 1953 to 1961. He oversaw the liberation of Northern Africa in World War II, before he took command to plan the invasion of Normandy on D Day. He was almost universally held as a war hero in the United States. He had not held public office but the ad men of Madison Avenue were able to craft messages that put him into the White House. Messages like “I like Ike.” These were the early days of television and the early days of computers. A UNIVAC was able to predict that Eisenhower would defeat Adlai Stevenson in a landslide election in 1952. The country was not “Madly for Adlai” as his slogan went. ENIAC had first been used in 1945. MIT Whirlwind was created in 1951, and the age of interactive computing was upon us. Not only could a computer predict who might win an election but new options in data processing allowed for more granular ways to analyze data. A young Senator named John F. Kennedy was heralded as a “new candidate for the 1960s.” Just a few years later Stephenson had lambasted Ike for using advertising, but this new generation was willing to let computers help build a platform - just as the advertisers were starting to use computers to help them figure out the best way to market a product. It turns out that words mattered. At the beginning of that 1960 election, many observed they couldn't tell much difference between the two candidates: Richard Nixon and John Kennedy. Kennedy's democrats were still largely factored between those who believed in philosophies dating back to the New Deal and segregationists. Ike presided over the early days of the post-World War II new world order. This new generation, like new generations before and since, was different. They seemed to embrace the new digital era. Someone like JFK wasn't punching cards and feeding them into a computer, writing algorithms, or out surveying people to collect that data. That was done by a company that was founded in 1959 called Simulmatics. Jill Lepore called them the What If men in her book called If/Then - a great read that goes further into the politics of the day. It's a fascinating read. The founder of the company was a Madison Avenue ad man named Ed Greenfield. He surrounded himself with a cast of characters that included people from John Hopkins University, MIT, Yale, and IBM. Ithiel de Sola Pool had studied Nazi and Soviet propaganda during World War II. He picked up on work from Hungarian Frigyes Karinthy and with students ran Monte Carlo simulations on people's acquaintances to formulate what would later become The Small World Problem or the Six Degrees of Separation, a later inspiration for the social network of the same name and even later, for Facebook. The social sciences had become digital. Political science could then be used to get at the very issues that could separate Kennedy from Nixon. The People Machine as one called it was a computer simulation, thus the name of the company. It would analyze voting behaviors. The previous Democratic candidate Stevenson had long-winded, complex speeches. They analyzed the electorate and found that “I Like Ike” resonated with more people. It had, after all, been developed by the same ad man who came up with “Melts in your mouth, not in your hands” for M&Ms. They called the project Project Microscope. They recruited some of the best liberal minds in political science and computer science. They split the electorate into 480 groups. A big focus was how to win the African-American vote. Turns out Gallup polls didn't study that vote because Southern newspapers had blocked doing so. Civil rights, and race relations in general wasn't unlike a few other issues. There was anti-Catholic, anti-Jew, and anti-a lot. The Republicans were the party of Lincoln and had gotten a lot of votes over the last hundred years for that. But factions within the party had shifted. Loyalties were shifting. Kennedy was a Catholic but many had cautioned he should down-play that issue. The computer predicted civil rights and anti-Catholic bigotry would help him, which became Kennedy's platform. He stood for what was right but were they his positions or just what the nerds thought? He gained votes at the last minute. Turns out the other disenfranchised groups saw the bigotry against one group as akin to bigotry against their own; just like the computers thought they would. Kennedy became an anti-segregationist, as that would help win the Black vote in some large population centers. It was the most aggressive, or liberal, civil-rights plank the Democrats had ever taken up. Civil rights are human rights. Catholic rights are as well. Kennedy offered the role of Vice President to Lyndon B Johnson, the Senate Majority Leader and was nominated to the Democratic candidate. Project Microscope from Simulmatics was hired in part to shore up Jewish and African-American votes. They said Kennedy should turn the fact that he was a Catholic into a strength. Use the fact he was Catholic to give up a few votes here and there in the South but pick up other votes. He also took the Simulmatics information as it came out of the IBM 704 mainframe to shore up his stance on other issues. That confidence helped him out-perform Nixon in televised debates. They used teletypes and even had the kids rooms converted into temporary data rooms. CBS predicted Nixon would win. Less than an hour later they predicted Kennedy would win. Kennedy won the popular vote by .1 percent of the country even after two recounts. The Black vote hat turned out big for Kennedy. News leaked about the work Simulmatics had done for Kennedy. Some knew that IBM had helped Hitler track Jews as has been written about in the book IBM and the Holocaust by Edwin Black. Others still had issues with advertising in campaigns and couldn't fathom computers. Despite Stalin's disgust for computers some compared the use of computers to Stalinistic propaganda. Yet it worked - even if in retrospect the findings were all things we could all take for granted. They weren't yet. The Kennedy campaign at first denied the “use of an electronic brain and yet their reports live on in the Kennedy Library. A movement against the use of the computer seemed to die after Kennedy was assassinated. Books of fiction persisted, like The 480 from Eugene Burdick, which got its title from the number of groups Simulmatics used. The company went on to experiment with every potential market their computer simulation could be used in. The most obvious was the advertising industry. But many of those companies went on to buy their own computers. They already had what many now know is the most important aspect of any data analytics project: the data. Sometimes they had decades of buying data - and could start over on more modern computers. They worked with the Times to analyze election results in 1962, to try and catch newspapers up with television. The project was a failure and newspapers leaned into more commentary and longer-term analysis to remain a relevant supplier of news in a world of real-time television. They applied their brand of statistics to help simulate the economy of Venezuela in a project called Project Camelot, which LBJ later shot down. Their most profitable venture became working with the defense department to do research in Vietnam. They collected data, analyzed data, punched data into cards, and fed it into computers. Pool was unabashedly pro-US and it's arguable that they saw what they wanted to see. So did the war planners in the pentagon, who followed Robert McNamara. McNamara had been one of the Quiz Kids who turned around the Ford Motor Company with a new brand of data-driven management to analyze trends in the car industry, shore up supply chains, and out-innovate the competition. He became the first president of the company who wasn't a Ford. His family had moved to the US from Ireland to flee the Great Irish Famine. Not many generations later he got an MBA from Harvard before he became a captain in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II primarily as an analyst. Henry Ford the second hired his whole group to help with the company. As many in politics and the military learn, companies and nations are very different. They did well at first, reducing the emphasis on big nuclear first strike capabilities and developing other military capabilities. One of those was how to deal with guerrilla warfare and counterinsurgencies. That became critical in Vietnam, a war between the communist North Vietnamese and the South Vietnamese. The North was backed by North Korea, China, and the Soviet Union, the South backed by the United States, South Korea, Australia. Others got involved but those were the main parties. We can think of McNamara's use of computers to provide just in time provisioning of armed forces and move spending to where it could be most impactful, which slashed over $10 billion in military spending. As the Vietnam war intensified, statistically the number of troops killed by Americans vs American casualties made it look computationally like the was was being won. In hindsight we know it was not. Under McNamara, ARPA hired Simulmatics to study the situation on the ground. They would merge computers, information warfare, psychological warfare, and social sciences. The Vietnamese that they interviewed didn't always tell them the truth. After all, maybe they were CIA agents. Many of the studies lacked true scholars as the war was unpopular back home. People who collected data weren't always skilled at the job. They spoke primarily with those they didn't get shot at as much while going to see. In general, the algorithms might have worked or might not have worked - but they had bad data. Yet Simulmatics sent reports that the operations were going well to McNamara. Many in the military would remember this as real capabilities at cyber warfare and information warfare were developed in the following decades. Back home, Simulmatics also became increasingly tied up in things Kennedy might have arguably fought against. There were riots, civil rights protests, and Simulatics took contracts to simulate racial riots. Some felt they could riot or go die in in the jungles of Vietnam. The era of predictive policing had begun as the hope of the early 1960s turned into the apathy of the late 1960s. Martin Luther King Jr spoke out again riot prediction, yet Simulmatics pushed on. Whether their insights were effective in many of the situations, just like in Vietnam - was dubious. They helped usher in the era of Surveillance capitalism, in a way. But the arrival of computers in ad agencies meant that if they hadn't of, someone else would have. People didn't take kindly to being poked, prodded, and analyzed intellectually. Automation took jobs, which Kennedy had addressed in rhetoric if not in action. The war was deeply unpopular as American soldiers came home from a far off land in caskets. The link between Simulmatics and academia was known. Students protested against them and claimed they were war criminals. The psychological warfare abroad, being on the wrong side of history at home with the race riots, and the disintegrating military-industrial-university complex didn't help. There were technical issues. The technology had changed away from languages like FORTRAN. Further, the number of data points required and how they were processed required what we now call “Big Data” and “machine learning.” Those technologies showed promise early but more mathematics needed to be developed to fully weaponize the surveillance everything. More code and libraries needed to be developed to crunch the large amounts of statistics. More work needed to be done to get better data and process it. The computerization of the social sciences was just beginning and while people like Pool predicted the societal impacts we could expect, people at ARPA doubted the results and the company they created could not be saved as all these factors converged to put them into bankruptcy in 1970. Their ideas and research lived on. Pool and others published some of their findings. Books opened the minds to the good and bad of what technology could do. The Southern politicians, or Dixiecrats, fell apart. Nixon embraced a new brand of conservatism as he lost the race to be the Governor of California to Pat Brown in 1962. There were charges of voter fraud from the 1960 election. The Mansfeld Amendment restricted military funding of basic research in 1969 and went into effect in 1970. Ike had warned of the growing links between universities as the creators of weapons of war like what Simulmatics signified and the amendment helped pull back funding for such exploits. As Lepore points out in her book, mid-century liberalism was dead. Nixon tapped into the silent majority who countered the counterculture of the 1960s. Crime rose and the conservatives became the party of law and order. He opened up relations with China, spun down the Vietnam war, negotiated with the Soviet leader Brezhnev to warm relations, and rolled back Johnson's attempts at what had been called The Great Society to get inflation back in check. Under him the incarceration rate in the United States exploded. His presidency ended with Watergate and under Ford, Carter, Reagan, and Bush, the personal computer became prolific and the internet, once an ARPA project began to take shape. They all used computers to find and weigh issues, thaw the Cold War, and build a new digitally-driven world order. The Clinton years saw an acceleration of the Internet and by the early 2000s companies like PayPal were on the rise. One of their founders was Peter Thiel. Peter Thiel founded Palantir in 2003 then invested in companies like Facebook with his PayPal money. Palantir received backing from In-Q-Tel “World-class, cutting-edge technologies for National Security”. In-Q-Tel was founded in 1999 as the global technological evolution began to explode. While the governments of the world had helped build the internet, it wasn't long before they realized it gave an asymmetrical advantage to newcomers. The more widely available the internet, the more far reaching attacks could go, the more subversive economic warfare could be. Governmental agencies like the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) needed more data and the long promised artificial intelligence technologies to comb through that data. Agencies then got together and launched their own venture capital fund, similar to those in the private sector - one called In-Q-Tel. Palantir has worked to develop software for the US Immigration and Customers Enforcement, or ICE, to investigate criminal activities and allegedly used data obtained from Cambridge Analytica along with Facebook data. The initial aim of the company was to take technology developed for PayPal's fraud detection and apply it to other areas like terrorism, with help from intelligence agencies. They help fight fraud for nations and have worked with the CIA, NSA, FBI, CDC, and various branches of the United States military on various software projects. Their Gotham project is the culmination of decades of predictive policing work. There are dozens of other companies like Palantir. Just as Pool's work on Six Degrees of Separation, social networks made the amount of data that could be harvested all the greater. Companies use that data to sell products. Nations use that data for propaganda. Those who get elected to run nations use that data to find out what they need to say to be allowed to do so. The data is more accurate with every passing year. Few of the ideas are all that new, just better executed. The original sin mostly forgotten, we still have to struggle with the impact and ethical ramifications. Politics has always had a bit of a ruse in a rise to power. Now it's less about personal observation and more about the observations and analyses that can be gleaned from large troves of data. The issues brought up in books like The 480 are as poignant today as they were in the 1950s.
:32 What are the 'hot' political collectibles these days?3:02 "The history of America can be told using buttons"3:40 How much IS a six-pack of Billy Beer?5:45 Sacramento's "protest sign guy" (note: we THINK this guy was named Robert H. Simpson)6:50 "I Like Ike"8:04 The Medfly Invasion10:47 What are the most valuable collectibles?16:01 Adam's collection19:17 Buttons: the Twitter of their day23:29 The big score25:44 The #WorstWeekCAWant to support the Capitol Weekly Podcast? Make your tax deductible donation here: capitolweekly.net/donations/Capitol Weekly Podcast theme is "Pickin' My Way" by Eddie Lang"#WorstWeekCA" Beat provided by freebeats.ioProduced by White Hot
Introduction There is very little presidential about the candidates, and virtually no real debating. Insults, attacks and posturing, yes; debating, no. Note that I did not title this podcast the Democratic Presidential Debates; the Republicans are just as guilty. Hey, 2016 was not all that long ago. When John F. Kennedy successfully ran for President in 1960, his slogan was “A Time For Greatness.” That is the subject of today’s 10-minute blog/podcast. Continuing We live in a unique and exceptional country; part of the equally unique and exceptional role we all play in the US is to understand how to identify and solve problems, instead of making ourselves or our fellow believers right, and everyone else wrong. When I was a kid, I used to hear my Dad, a Republican, and my Step-mom, a Democrat, talk about politics. Dad, a quiet and thoughtful man, said that he voted a “straight ticket.” Even at a young age, that confused me. How could my thoughtful Dad vote only for Republicans? Weren’t there at least a few Democrats somewhere on the ballot who were better than their Republican opponents? I had no idea at the time, but I was hearing the “party over person” argument. I heard that position most recently and passionately from Mike Rosen, a Denver-based KOA talk show host. My Father introduced me to the “straight ticket” concept during the 1952 Dwight Eisenhower/Adlai Stevenson election. I remember that “Ike” Eisenhower was a war hero; his campaign sported the “I Like Ike” campaign buttons. I also remember a political cartoon from that time showing a man purposely striding off to his polling place while answering the question, “You are off to vote. Where is your wife?” “My wife and I support different parties. Instead of cancelling out each other’s vote, we vote in alternate elections.” There is more than one lesson here. First, he thought enough of his civic responsibilities to actually go somewhere to vote. Back then, mailed ballots, called absentee ballots, were only for people who were unable to get to the voting location, e.g., they were ill or on vacation. And they had to prove it to get a mailed ballot. The man in the cartoon, purposely anonymous, a sort of everyman, had nothing unpleasant to say about either his wife or the persons or party she supported. They had found their own resolution to their political disagreement, and then went about their business. The cartoon was entirely reflective of the political tone of the times. There were indeed serious issues; Republicans attacked Harry S. Truman's handling of the Korean War and the larger Cold War, and claimed that Soviet spies had infiltrated the U.S. government. Democrats faulted Eisenhower for failing to condemn Republican Senator Joe McCarthy and other anti-Communist Republicans who they claim had engaged in unscrupulous attacks. Stevenson tried to separate himself from the unpopular previous Democratic administration, instead campaigning on the popularity of the New Deal and lingering fears of another Great Depression under a Republican administration. Stevenson had his own button. Supporters could, and did, wear either button without risking angry comments, or, perhaps, even a physical confrontation. Volunteers or staffers would set up on street corners, like Girl Scouts at cookie time, and give away hundreds of buttons with “thanks” from supporters, and nothing from those of a different mind. No one yelled out “Racist!” or “Lock her up!”, or overturned the tables. It is much to our shame that nothing like that is possible today. Yes, our shame. We’re in charge here, aren't we? If not, who is? Stevenson lost twice to Eisenhower, in ‘52 and ‘56. He ran for the Democratic nomination again in ‘60 losing to Kennedy, who eventually beat Richard Nixon with his, “A time for Greatness.” campaign slogan. Where is the campaign for greatness today? There was a snarl of issues in the ‘52 campaign,
June 18, 2018 - Our time machine travels back to the days of poodle skirts, I Like Ike and I Love Lucy. Once there, we'll meet Kitty Tessler -- a saucy, scheming socialite out to settle scores with snobs. Our guide on this whirlwind tour of Manhattan, Miami, and parts of Havana brewing with an anti-Batista revolution, is Amber Brock, author of Lady Be Good: A Novel. Amber Brock teaches British literature at an all-girls' school in Atlanta, and Publishers Weekly described her debut novel, 2016's A Fine Imitation, as "An absorbing tale of art, deception, romance, and forbidden desire." She holds an MA from the University of Georgia and lives in Smyrna with her husband, also an English teacher, and their three rescue dogs. Visit her at AmberBrock.net or at AmBrockWrites on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Also referenced in this episode: This 2002 C-Span interview with Tom Clancy.
Its May Day, let all of the Communists rejoice. For the rest of us it is business as usual. I Like Ike. Baseball is our national past time and JFK is the son of some famous Nazi appeaser. In the I can’t believe it department, Israel shows off spoils from their scavenger hunt in Iran and some constitutional illiterate holds up a sign saying “Immigration is a Right”. This is going to be fun folks, join us for all this and more on tonights show.
In A Man and His Presidents: The Political Odyssey of William F. Buckley Jr., Alvin S. Felzenberg delves into the history of William J. Buckley, perhaps the most influential American conservative writer, activist, and organizer in the post-war era. Felzenberg explores little-known aspects of Buckley's life, from his close friendship with the Reagans and role as a back-channel adviser to policymakers to his break with George W. Bush on the Iraq War.It is important to remember that, when National Review was founded, Buckley was the leader of a fringe movement. He made conservatism respectable again after the Great Depression and Second World War had delegitimized it. His prominence was due not only to his energy, diligence, and charisma, but also to his novelty, his impudence. For many years people wanted to hear what he had to say because no one else was saying it. In the world of I Like Ike, the New Frontier, and the Great Society, no similarly situated member of the New York elite held his then-outlandish views on the role of government, academic freedom, the place of religion in public life, and confrontation with the Soviet Empire. His courage shifted the intellectual and political landscape.
John S.D. Eisenhower modestly explains General Ike as "a son's view of a great military leader -- highly intelligent, strong, forceful, kind, yet as human as the rest of us." It is that, and more: a portrait of the greatest Allied military leader of the Second World War, by the man who knew Ike best. General Ike is a book that John Eisenhower always knew he had to write, a tribute from an affectionate and admiring son to a great father. John chose to write about the "military Ike," as opposed to the "political Ike," because Ike cared far more about his career in uniform than about his time in the White House. A series of portraits of Ike's relations with soldiers and statesmen, from MacArthur to Patton to Montgomery to Churchill to de Gaulle, reveals the many facets of a talented, driven, headstrong, yet diplomatic leader. Taken together, they reveal a man who was brilliant, if flawed; naïve at times in dealing with the public, yet who never lost his head when others around him were losing theirs. Above all, General Ike was a man who never let up in the relentless pursuit of the destruction of Hitler. Here for the first time are eyewitness stories of General Patton showing off during military exercises; of Ike on the verge of departing for Europe and assuming command of the Eastern Theater; of Churchill stewing and lobbying Ike in his "off hours." Faced with giant personalities such as these men and MacArthur, not to mention difficult allies such as de Gaulle and Montgomery, Ike nevertheless managed to pull together history's greatest invasion force and to face down a determined enemy from Normandy to the Bulge and beyond. John Eisenhower masterfully uses the backdrop of Ike's key battles to paint a portrait of his father and his relationships with the great men of his time. General Ike is a ringing and inspiring testament to a great man by an accomplished historian. It is also a personal portrait of a caring, if not always available, father by his admiring son. It is history at its best.
Join us as we discuss... Truman decides not to run (because no one likes him), I Like Ike sweeps the nation, Dwight Eisenhower wins the presidency, and more! ______________________________ Support the show! Use this link to do your shopping on Amazon. It won't cost you a penny more and it will help us out! ElectionCollege.com/Amazon ________________________ Be sure to subscribe to the show! Leave us a review on iTunes - It really helps us out! Facebook | Twitter | Instagram ________________________ Election College is recorded using Audacity and produced with help from the BossJock for iPad App. ________________________ Get a free month of Audible and a free audiobook to keep at ElectionCollege.com/Audible ________________________ Get $10 free from Canva at ElectionCollege.com/Canva! ________________________ Make sure you sign up for our newsletter for news, resources, freebies, and more! ElectionCollege.com/Newsletter ________________________ Music from: http://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music ________________________ Some links in these show notes are affiliate links that could monetarily benefit Election College, but cost you nothing extra. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices