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Afternoon Links: Hillary’s Failed Millennial Outreach, Everyone Hates ‘Bodega’, and More Adorably Out of Touch

By Jim Swift

Species, are like a construct, man. If you’re a Twitter addict like I am, one account you must follow is New Real Peer Review. They showcase amazing academic papers that will totally blow your mind. From a Ph.D thesis they showcased on Tuesday by Megan Molenda LeMay, here’s an out-of-this-world excerpt:

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I investigate the extent to which Darwin’s most radical ideas about species porosity continue to be repackaged in order to uphold established social orders and regulatory controls. Each of my four body chapters shows authors contributing to the scientific conversations on race, sex, and species of their respective decades, for example, Djuna Barnes’s novel Nightwood (1936) at the crest of sexology and Edward Albee’s drama The Zoo Story (1958) on the heels of the Kinsey Reports (1948, 1953). I also turn to contemporary writing with Marian Engel’s novella Bear (1976) written alongside feminist sex research of the 1970s and Sherman Alexie’s short stories in The Toughest Indian in the World (2000) and Monique Truong’s novel The Book of Salt (2003) during the rise of species-specific genomics. In bringing readers into the contact zone of interspecies intimacies, these works disrupt the popular scientific frameworks from which racial and sexual embodiment are culturally understood.

Want to read the whole thing? Too bad. You’ll have to wait until Dec. 26, 2019, because the full text release has been delayed until then at the author’s request. Darn.

Have you heard of Verrit? Probably not. Lucky for you, New York Magazine‘s Professional Meme Blogger™ Paris Martineau has you covered:

To start, you need to know that Peter Daou — known best as Hillary Clinton’s fiercest and wordiest defender on Twitter — recently founded a media start-up called Verrit, an intriguingly weird website that consists of quotes and facts that can be “verified” (on the same website) by the use of “identification” codes. Daou has been roundly and lovingly mocked on Twitter for the website all week, and responded in kind, but the height of his Twitter week came when he tweeted cryptically at New York Times writer Sopan Deb: “You too, @SopanDeb? Wow, if anyone has any doubt why Hillary was trashed in the press, look no further than the reaction to @Verrit.”

Yes, Hillary was trashed in the press because people are mocking Peter Daou, formerly of the dance music quintet “The Daou“, because his startup is stupid. If any of this doesn’t make sense, The Onion has (thankfully) made a “5 Things To Know About Verrit” video you should watch. Daou seems to be taking it in good humor, as he appreciates the free publicity (you’re welcome).

Over at Tablet, Lee Smith reflects on 16 years of war. Senior editor Lee Smith reflects on foreign policy in the post-9/11 era: “History will judge which administration, and which supporting camp, caused more damage to the Middle East and American interests. But in both cases, the accounting is likely to be brutal. History will also judge the size of the damage that Trump is doing to America all on his own. But partisan efforts to rewrite recent history and purge the failures of both parties by blaming Trump simply won’t wash.” Trump, Smith writes, has not “begun the hard work of correcting the course set by his two immediate predecessors.” And Afghanistan is key.

Winning as ideology. At National Review, Jonah Goldberg has an enlightening read about Trump and triangulation in the fresh era of Trump dealing with Democrats. Goldberg argues the debt ceiling deal “is just the latest proof he’s driven by a desire for good press above all else.” Or, that Trump doesn’t have an ideological backbone that props him up. His backbone is praise and publicity:

The truth is that Trump’s real mandate was to be “not Hillary Clinton” — and he fulfilled it on Day One. With the exception of appointing conservative judges, all of Trump’s other scattershot policies earned only partial support from GOP voters, which is why Ryan and most other Republicans over-performed Trump in the election. The other truth is that Trump craves praise more than he cares about implementing his defenestrated strategist’s political fantasies. And his supporters want Trump “wins” more than conservative ones, which is why we can expect more of what we saw last week.

Hillary is a slot machine for pop culture references she doesn’t understand. In hawking her new book “Hey Wha Happened?” Hillary is comparing herself to Cersei Lannister from Game of Thrones. As fans of the show know, this is an odd character to pick. Why? Variety‘s Matt Fernandez explains:

Clinton’s reference illustrates the perceived injustice and humiliation she faced throughout the campaign, however, directly comparing herself to Cersei may cause the opposite effect, as fans tend to see Cersei as an unredeemable villain. This is not the first time one of Clinton’s references has fallen flat. During the heyday of the “Pokemon Go” app’s popularity, the candidate said she wished she could “make Pokemon go to the polls.”

Is it any wonder that Hillary’s attempts at relating with the youth have failed? Take a look at this clip from the seriously unfunny Comedy Central show Broad City. Despite the laughable disclaimer that Clinton’s cameo was not a political statement, the cameo—replete with slow motion glamour shots, sparks, and over-the-top Hillary Clinton cult worship—came across depicting Clinton as out of touch. They. Were. Trying. To. Help. Her. The show’s executive producer is Amy Poehler, who gave Clinton years of free advertising on Parks and Recreation.

If free in-kind street cred contributions from Amy Poehler and the two not funny millennials on Broad City can’t help you, I don’t know what can.

Adorably Out of Touch, again. D-list actress Louise Linton and her Cabinet-level spouse are in the news again. You might remember Linton for her mea culpa in a glossy elitist Beltway society magazine’s Balls & Galas issue for calling a citizen “adorably out of touch” for rightly criticizing her utterly stupid Instagram modeling photo stepping off a government plane on a questionable day trip to Fort Knox. Linton, in her bizarre hashtag-laden diatribe, even went so far as to say: “Aw!! Did you think this was a personal trip?! Adorable! Did you think the US govt paid for our honeymoon or personal travel?! Lololol.”

As a matter of fact …the Treasury Department’s Office of Inspector General has opened an inquiry into a request her husband Stephen Mnuchin, treasury secretary, put in to the Air Force to use a government plane to fly to his honeymoon in Scotland, Italy, and France. (Can you imagine how awesome those Instagram photos would have looked?!)

Before you think Louise Linton is behind this, Mnuchin has a perfectly plausible explanation:

A spokesman for the Treasury Department told ABC News that the secretary requested government travel for his honeymoon out of a concern for maintaining a secure method of communication. “The Secretary is a member of the National Security Council and has responsibility for the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence,” the spokesman said in a statement. “It is imperative that he have access to secure communications, and it is our practice to consider a wide range of options to ensure he has these capabilities during his travel, including the possible use of military aircraft.” The spokesman added the secretary’s office ultimately decided the use of military aircraft was “unnecessary” after it became apparent that other methods for secure communication were available.

You know they make these really secure telephones, right? But do they have Instagram?

Everybody already hates “Bodega.” But for all the wrong reasons! The Juicero-esque startup whose much-mocked PR launch bragging about their reinvention of the vending machine has started a culture war, as CNN reports: “Folks weren’t happy that Bodega appeared to be taking aim at mom-and-pop shops run by hardworking immigrants, while simultaneously misappropriating immigrant culture and celebrating gentrification.” The founders are already apologizing, profusely:

“Despite our best intentions and our admiration for traditional bodegas, we clearly hit a nerve this morning, we apologize. Rather than disrespect to traditional corner stores — or worse yet, a threat — we intended only admiration. We commit to reviewing the feedback and understanding the reactions from today. Our goal is to build a longterm, durable, thoughtful business and we want to make sure our name — among other decisions we make — reflects those values,” he wrote. He also said that the company isn’t trying to eliminate immigrant jobs. “We want to bring commerce to places where commerce currently doesn’t exist. Rather than take away jobs, we hope Bodega will help create them.”

The haters have this all wrong. Destroying competitors and succeeding is what makes America great. Hyping your reinvented vending machine that requires an app to use? That’s the funny part.

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