Power-Grabs, British Sensations, and a Pre-Thanksgiving
This week, we actually discuss our namesake, as well as James Bond, Adele, and some Thanksgiving plans.
No Polls, Just Vibes
The weekly word on politics, (usually) free of polls.
This week was relatively quiet, until this morning. In big news, the Build Back Better Act has passed the house, by a vote of 220-213. It’s now onto the Senate, where it will likely undergo many changes.
“We worry about that post-Thanksgiving,” in the words of part-time newsletter consultant Sam Signorelli.
In other news, the US will (technically) have its first female president, as VP Kamala Harris becomes acting president while Biden undergoes a colonoscopy.
Now onto the main story of the week.
The Cancel-ification of Power-Grabbing
For the first time in more than 10 years, a sitting House member has been censured.
House Democrats made the move against Rep. Paul Gosar on Wednesday after he tweeted out a bizarre anime video that had been edited to depict him as the hero attacking Biden and killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. (He then defended the tweet, then deleted it, then after being censured retweeted someone else’s reposting of the video, then un-retweeted that.)
While technically just an expression of disapproval, censuring is the most severe punishment the House can enact against one of its members without expelling them altogether. Perhaps more importantly, then, the House also stripped him of his two committee assignments, meaning he will have virtually no influence on legislation through the midterm elections.
House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy of course accused Democrats of making the move for purely political reasons, and warned that the move would set a dangerous precedent.
Obviously it’s a ridiculous accusation. The move wasn’t purely political.
But did politics play a role? Of course. It would be naïve to think that Democrats weren’t happy to make an easy (and clearly justifiable) power-move.
Ignore the fact that Gosar very much did deserve to be censured, and what this boils down to is a 21st-century power-grabbing strategy: cancellation.
We’ve all heard of and know about cancellation, so I’ll spare the explanation. What’s important here is that cancellation isn’t particularly effective at removing bad actors or making the world a better place long-term, but in the short-term it can cause a storm.
In Gosar’s case, it was deserved. But in another under-the-radar controversy this week, the same can’t be said.
On Wednesday, Politico published this story about a series of scandals within the leadership of College Democrats, the national parent organization to over 500 college campus chapters, during and after the organization’s annual elections.
The first controversy involved a presidential candidate’s tweet using a racial slur from when he was 15. That candidate apologized and pulled out of the race.
Then, another controversy, this time against the newly-elected vice president, for a tweet using an anti-Semitic slur from when she was 13. Some called for her to resign. Instead, the CDA censured her and required her to undergo cultural sensitivity training. She apologized, but also said that the severity of the attacks against her were Islamophobic.
Obviously using racial slurs is horrible, but if we’re being honest, none of the people digging up these tweets from adolescence actually cared about that.
The goal of these scandals was to strip people of their power and ruin their credibility. The goal was not to enact any real change or benefit the organization long-term. In fact, the only people that benefitted in this controversy were those looking to pad their resume.
In this case, unlike in Gosar’s, the use of “cancellation” genuinely was a purely political move. The fact that this strategy is occurring among college students — people theoretically in the pipeline to the DNC — is a bad sign for the future of politics.
Other recommendations:
For more on what you should and probably don’t know about cancel culture:
And here’s friendly reminder to be wary of over-simplified economics.
(Special thanks to Sam for her input on this week’s edition of No Polls, Just Vibes.)
Slick, British, and Worth-the-Wait: Adele and James Bond in 2021
In 2015, the two biggest exports of British pop culture were a new Bond film and a new Adele album.
In 2021: the two biggest exports of British pop culture are a new Bond film and a new Adele album.
There aren’t any tangible connections between the two, but there are some similarities in why they’re both hits.
Out last month from the Bond franchise was No Time to Die, which I finally got around to seeing this past week. (I wanted to re-watch all the Daniel Craig movies first).
While Skyfall and Casino Royale are considered by the critical community to be the best Craig-Bond films, I’m coming in this week with the hot take that No Time to Die is actually his best all-around.
While Casino Royale was a cultural reset and Skyfall was a capital-F Film, No Time to Die is the only Craig-Bond film that gives you everything you’d ever want from a Bond film in the 21st-century: it’s slick, sexy, beautiful, action-packed, romantic, and finally, it’s funny again.
We’ve gotten most of these things individually over the past four films, but in No Time to Die, we finally get all of Bond franchise’s strengths in one place.
Humor, in particular, has been the one thing largely absent from the first four Craig-Bond films, despite its importance to early and middle Bond movies. Now, thanks mostly to the addition of Ana de Armas (who deserved much more than her one scene) and writer Phoebe-Waller Bridge, Craig finally gets a chance to provide some comedic relief.
We also get the emotional and romantic side of Bond that’s been mostly absent since Casino Royale. In fact, No Time to Die gets the award for being the first Bond film to make me cry.
With this film, Craig’s last in the character, Bond’s producers have finally understood the tones and styles that audiences want from this franchise, and how to fit it all into the same work of art.
The same virtues could also be said of Adele, back today with her new album, 30.
Adele isn’t an artist who changes dramatically from album-to-album, but 30 doesn’t quite sound like her last two works, 21 and 25, both of which won Album of the Year.
30 is a bit jazzier. A bit more modern. A bit more slick. A bit more thematically diverse.
Make no mistake, this is still the Adele you know and love. Beautiful voice. Heartbreaking lyrics. Melodies that would probably work just as well in the 1940s as they do today.
But on 30, Adele has found new zones that her voice and songwriting style fit into, giving this album a sonic diversity that her last few lacked. It helps that her lyrics are just as strong as ever.
Take Oh My God, a standout track with an actual hook and a thudding beat. There’s a clear R&B influence that traces back to Southern blues. Adele kills it, but even more impressive is that she still sounds like Adele, in voice and style.
In 2021, both 30 and No Time to Die are massive sensations that have finally figured out how to give us everything we want all at once. I’d highly recommend both.
The Weekly Soundtrack
Thanksgiving is now less than a week away. If you’re gonna be in the kitchen, why not romanticize it?
Here’s a great jazz playlist for that:
I Hardly Know Her!
The Cocktail Column
Need a drink for your Thanksgiving Happy Hour (or pre-game)?
Here’s a great punch that can be made in bulk the day before.
Harvest Radler
2 12oz. bottles of pumpkin beer
3oz. bourbon
1.5 cups apple cider
2 cinnamon sticks
apple slices (for garnish)
Combine ingredients in a pitcher and let chill in fridge. Once cold, pour into a glass and garnish with an apple slice.
That’s all for the week. We’ll be back at some point next week (maybe not Friday because of the holiday). As always, reach out with comments, questions, suggestions, and requests.