Gail Collins, "The Curse of the Second": Worse Than Anything Fantasized by Karl Rove

"I didn't do it."

- Bart Simpson


"I didn't know it."

- Barack Obama


"And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee."

- John Donne

It's all pretty grim in the West Wing. Whereas the IRS, Benghazi and NSA scandals couldn't sink Obama's popularity ratings, Obama's past promise that Americans would be able to keep their insurance plans appears ready to cripple the presidency. Unfortunately, the crash of the Obamacare website is only a preliminary reflection of the horrifyingly poor preparation undertaken to implement the new health care system, which could have disastrous consequences on the American economy beyond anything ever fantasized by Karl Rove.

But none of this prevents Gail Collins, in her latest New York Times op-ed entitled "The Curse of the Second" (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/31/opinion/collins-the-curse-of-the-second.html?_r=0), from making light of Obama's plummeting popularity. Collins concludes:

"Perhaps the president could do a press event to celebrate the re-opening of the national parks and get lost for a few days in the Grand Canyon. Everybody would be reminded of how much they used to like him. He could come back in triumph and re-start the immigration reform bill. The cloud over the White House would lift and the website would suddenly be up and running.

I believe we have a plan."

Isn't she cute?

Meanwhile, in case you didn't notice, Putin has replaced Obama in the pole position of Forbes "World's Most Powerful People 2013" list (http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinehoward/2013/10/30/the-worlds-most-powerful-people-2013/):

"Who’s more powerful: the autocratic leader of a former superpower or the handcuffed commander in chief of the most dominant country in the world? This year the votes for the World’s Most Powerful went to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He climbs one spot ahead of U.S. President Barack Obama, who held the title in 2012.

Putin has solidified his control over Russia while Obama’s lame duck period has seemingly set in earlier than usual for a two-term president — latest example: the government shutdown mess. Anyone watching this year’s chess match over Syria and NSA leaks has a clear idea of the shifting individual power dynamics."

Surprise, surprise, surprise.

And although I hate to be the one to shatter Collins's cheerfulness, she might also want to take note of the most recent numbers evidencing the ongoing financial demise of Obama's cheerleading section The New York Times, which tomorrow is expected to report a further decline in print and digital advertising revenue for the third quarter of 2013 (see: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304526204579099180254949844).

Can it possibly get worse? Just wait and see!

Maureen Dowd, "As Time Goes Bye": For Whom the Bell Tolls

Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.

- John Donne

In her latest New York Times op-ed entitled "As Time Goes Bye" (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/opinion/sunday/as-time-goes-bye.html), Maureen Dowd reminisces over her prior employment at Time Magazine and reflects upon this journal's imminent demise:

"Even then, it struck me that newsmagazines were doomed, with the strange bifurcation of reporters who were not allowed to write and writers who were not allowed to report. I reckoned the genre had a few years at most. When Time named the computer the Machine of the Year for 1982, we were still writing on typewriters.

. . . .

It will be good if this moment provokes a reckoning about what really needs to be preserved in the culture, about what is valuable.

. . . .

Digital platforms are worthless without content. They’re shiny sacks with bells and whistles, but without content, they’re empty sacks."

Is it only Time Magazine facing its end, or is it much of the publishing industry? What about newspapers? What about books? As a society do we still read, or are we preoccupied with Facebook and narcissistic indulgence?

What "really needs to be preserved in the culture"? Can or should government make that choice?

Can "content" save a newspaper? More specifically, can the current leftist cant of The New York Times, combined with digital subscriptions and its dalliance with anti-Semitism, save it from extinction? Could its loyalty to the Obama administration ultimately win it some sort of bail out?

Have we become a society without "substance," having elected a know-nothing president with an electric smile, who has surrounded himself with a cabinet comprising the worst and the dumbest?

Sorry to be grim, but that bell is tolling for all of us. As for that which will emerge from the ashes, it is not at all apparent to me.

Paul Krugman, "Robots and Robber Barons": For Whom the Bell Tolls

"Therefore, send not to know

For whom the bell tolls,

It tolls for thee."

- John Donne

In his latest New York Times op-ed entitled "Robots and Robber Barons" (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/10/opinion/krugman-robots-and-robber-barons.html?_r=0), Paul Krugman observes that corporations are growing wealthier, while labor compensation is down, owing in no small part to advances in technology. Krugman writes:

"Still, can innovation and progress really hurt large numbers of workers, maybe even workers in general? I often encounter assertions that this can’t happen. But the truth is that it can, and serious economists have been aware of this possibility for almost two centuries."

Regarding the resultant damage to the labor force, Krugman concludes:

"As I said, this is a discussion that has barely begun — but it’s time to get started, before the robots and the robber barons turn our society into something unrecognizable."

Query: Is it only "the robots and the robber barons" who are turning society into something unrecognizable? When was the last time Krugman attended a classical music concert? What I find shocking is the virtual absence of persons in the audience under the age of 60.

On the other hand, President Obama and his family will be attending the "Christmas in Washington" concert on Sunday night, which includes a performance by Psy, creator of "Gangnam Style," who, in a 2004 rap song, called for the murder of "Yankees who have been torturing Iraqi captives" (see: http://www.usatoday.com/story/theoval/2012/12/09/obama-psy-gangnam-style-christmas-in-washington/1756667/).

Society long ago turned into something "unrecognizable" for me.

However, I stray from the theme of Krugman's opinion piece.

Do you recall the 1962-63 strike of The International Typographical Union against four New York daily newspapers? Even then, it was clear that automation and other technological advances would eliminate most of the jobs represented by this union, and indeed by the end of 1986, the ITU had all but ceased to exist.

Newspapers in general? The New York Times in particular? All dying. There will always be a news industry, but the manner in which news is distributed is undergoing radical change. Some 40 years ago, I commuted to Manhattan on the Long Island Railroad, and almost every passenger carried his or her copy of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Daily News or, on the return trip, The New York Post. In our Internet age, printed newspapers, and even printed books, are on their way out, and subscription rates are declining as news becomes available from CNN, Yahoo and Google for free, and tablets replace paper.

Remarkably, I agree with Krugman: Technology will continue to render many jobs obsolete, and I do not foresee a wellspring of employment from new industries for college graduates or anyone else for that matter. I don't fault my niece for leaving college to build a career in restaurant management, where she is blossoming.

Discuss the impact on jobs of technology and innovation? Answer: Should newspapers still be manually prepared by typesetters? It's not going to happen.

And what about Krugman's The New York Times? Is this corporation also a "robber baron"? Be it robber baron or fairy godmother, ultimately the Times is toast.