{"id":55071,"date":"2024-07-30T16:18:28","date_gmt":"2024-07-30T20:18:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/?p=55071"},"modified":"2024-07-30T16:18:28","modified_gmt":"2024-07-30T20:18:28","slug":"the-harris-v-p-pick-who-cares","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/the-harris-v-p-pick-who-cares\/","title":{"rendered":"The Harris V.P. Pick: Who Cares?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I don\u2019t care who Harris picks as VP.<\/p>\n

I may be alone in this, though it\u2019s hard to tell from the front pages of the usual suspects of \u201cmajor\u201d media. They\u2019re rife with headlines on the subject. I simply don\u2019t care whom she picks. At best, the differences are like citing the differences in the best ros\u00e9 wines from Provence, all of which boil down to the different effects, infinitesimally nuanced and subtle, brought about through terroir and craft. It\u2019s the minute differences that determine that superiority. The perception of ascendancy ultimately resides in the senses and preferences of the taster.<\/p>\n

What is clear is at least with ros\u00e9 you should get a passably good drink, which you need never consume again. Plus it\u2019s a pleasure to try it. The ultimate successful choice for Ms. Harris is who will fit that ideal of a balanced paradigm: repelling the fewest voters, while bolstering the number of votes where they are needed most \u2013 geo-electorally speaking. And there will not be another tasting. The avidity of the process of conjecture and analysis, some of it astute, all of it focused in its specificity, and deceptively thorough numbs the skeptic from perceiving other objectives. The object of conjecture is nowhere nearly as engaging as the exercise itself.<\/p>\n

Inevitably, it will be a white man and he will not be significantly at odds politically with the core of what Harris herself declares as her agenda and values.<\/p>\n

And I\u2019ve already said more than I might otherwise care to on the subject, I\u2019ll stop, vexed with myself for the time spent before getting to the buried lede. I also chastise myself if I spend too much time\u2014too often reading more than the headline\u2014reading the deep thoughts, though no more than a 1 on the Jack Handey scale, of the self-defined sachems of opinion. Their declarations and cocksure judgments (always cloaked as mere \u201copinion\u201d) as to the wisest course of action clog the pages, virtual and pulp-based alike, this week and into next, until the matter wastes away, withered by the vaporizing power of public disinterest. Or, in this case, after Harris has made her choice\u2014doomed to be a resounding anti-climax.<\/p>\n

At which time, those words of wisdom will be as worthless, disposable and yet burdensome as a plastic water bottle. And the wordsmith will move on to the next subject. And the words will still be out there, with the enduring potential for causing trouble later. Too many times, and of course it will happen on this story cycle, the commentariat will take up the next story that shows any sign of trending (in the sense that word has today) as the next contextual frame for holding readers rapt by the news, and seeking only to be led to it with minimal effort.<\/p>\n

The Buried Lede<\/h4>\n

Quite simply, what keeps my already overworked aging brain in full-time aerobics mode is not what is the answer to the \u201cwho for VP?\u201d question, but the larger encompassing venerable question, \u201ccui bono?\u201d<\/p>\n

The tricky bit is understanding that the investigatory energy applies not to who benefits from the final choice of candidate. It\u2019s who benefits from the fuss\u2014I mean the current fuss about this specific point to ponder\u2014and the answer seems obvious. From the sheer volume of coverage, the beneficiaries are the usual suspects en masse, usually referred to these days in a perpetuation of intentional misdirection as, simply, \u201cthe media.\u201d<\/p>\n

And it ain\u2019t what Marshall McLuhan meant by the term. Specifically it\u2019s, if I may be permitted a now hackneyed usage, \u201cBig Media.\u201d Which is to say, it\u2019s the swollen conglomerates that now encompass not only the major news media\u2014not just the newsprint behemoths\u2014the hoary \u201cpapers of record\u201d\u2014which have by now morphed into multi-media outlets of streaming information, but it\u2019s the entire apparatus\u2014even larger, way larger, in economic scope than the news media per se\u2014that is subsumed by social media and its ancillary technical service providers: Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. Not only do they feed us \u201cnews,\u201d that is matters of currency in politics, governance, economics, and the international order, but pretty much everything else from recipes to sports coverage of every athletic endeavour however tenuous its qualification, to what is more broadly called \u201cculture,\u201d with the magnanimity of designating any and all creative expression as art.<\/p>\n

And why do they operate at full tilt? Not because there is any true desire to define the verities of existence, from mortality to the eternal\u2014all of what defines philosophically and esthetically for each of us mindful of the need to define what makes life worth living. It\u2019s because of the indiscriminate appetite we have collectively for anything, any bit of information (still called \u201cnews\u201d but more accurately defined as mere text\u2014when it isn\u2019t images of every sort, from still to video to animation\u2014resonant with the full sardonic sting of Capote\u2019s alleged assessment of the work of Jack Kerouac: \u201cthat\u2019s not writing, that\u2019s typing.\u201d). A current article in Scientific American describes us consumers of social media as a nation of \u201cinformation foragers.\u201d Incredibly, as an outlying datum, a June 2024 report by Pew Research Center states, \u201c75% of users say they see information about breaking news in real time [on X];\u201d the percentages are significantly less on the other major platforms (Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, though significant shares of users of these sources report regularly getting news on them).<\/p>\n

One must infer a convoluted relationship with actual publishers or broadcasters or webcasters of anything remotely resembling hard news of social media, who persist in repudiating any role, or responsibility, as actual disseminators of what the public perceives as news. Indeed, major players, like The New York Times and the Washington Post, as publishers of content costly to produce have long since entered a world of perpetual litigation concerning the use of that content by social media\u2014if by provision to \u201csubscribers\u201d or \u201cmembers\u201d of de facto executive proxy\u2014without emolument in any form to the originators. And that only applies to news, but increasingly news with a twist, and a tug, and a pull, and a push, anything to hold attention. Generally, in the course of the last 50 years (out of, let\u2019s say, the two millennia of the current era), what used to be gospel (literally \u201cgood news,\u201d generally of uplift for humanity, when not specifically of individual salvation) is now just bits, literally and figuratively, for which we have an insatiable hunger.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don\u2019t care who Harris picks as VP. I may be alone in this, though it\u2019s hard to tell from […]<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,80,78,7,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-current-events","category-news","category-politics","category-zeitgeist"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Harris V.P. Pick: Who Cares? — bertha<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/the-harris-v-p-pick-who-cares\/\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.berthamagazine.com\\\/frontpage\\\/the-harris-v-p-pick-who-cares\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.berthamagazine.com\\\/frontpage\\\/the-harris-v-p-pick-who-cares\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Howard\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.berthamagazine.com\\\/frontpage\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d5e236210e1831d8a155718f0267f4ad\"},\"headline\":\"The Harris V.P. Pick: Who Cares?\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-07-30T20:18:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.berthamagazine.com\\\/frontpage\\\/the-harris-v-p-pick-who-cares\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1108,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.berthamagazine.com\\\/frontpage\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Culture\",\"Current Events\",\"News\",\"Politics\",\"Zeitgeist\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.berthamagazine.com\\\/frontpage\\\/the-harris-v-p-pick-who-cares\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.berthamagazine.com\\\/frontpage\\\/the-harris-v-p-pick-who-cares\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.berthamagazine.com\\\/frontpage\\\/the-harris-v-p-pick-who-cares\\\/\",\"name\":\"The Harris V.P. Pick: Who Cares? — bertha\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.berthamagazine.com\\\/frontpage\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-07-30T20:18:28+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.berthamagazine.com\\\/frontpage\\\/the-harris-v-p-pick-who-cares\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.berthamagazine.com\\\/frontpage\\\/the-harris-v-p-pick-who-cares\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.berthamagazine.com\\\/frontpage\\\/the-harris-v-p-pick-who-cares\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.berthamagazine.com\\\/frontpage\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Harris V.P. Pick: Who Cares?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.berthamagazine.com\\\/frontpage\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.berthamagazine.com\\\/frontpage\\\/\",\"name\":\"bertha\",\"description\":\"the online magazine about the passing scene\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.berthamagazine.com\\\/frontpage\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.berthamagazine.com\\\/frontpage\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.berthamagazine.com\\\/frontpage\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"bertha magazine\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.berthamagazine.com\\\/frontpage\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.berthamagazine.com\\\/frontpage\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.berthamagazine.com\\\/frontpage\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/Images\\\/cropped-Bertha_Button_72p_9inch-Master-for-Favicon.jpg?fit=648%2C547&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.berthamagazine.com\\\/frontpage\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/Images\\\/cropped-Bertha_Button_72p_9inch-Master-for-Favicon.jpg?fit=648%2C547&ssl=1\",\"width\":648,\"height\":547,\"caption\":\"bertha magazine\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.berthamagazine.com\\\/frontpage\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/berthamagazine\\\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.berthamagazine.com\\\/frontpage\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d5e236210e1831d8a155718f0267f4ad\",\"name\":\"Howard\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/8d3ae447b1ad7e9a3af23f18f33baa82284ac7919d6e140ae92daee9037ebb77?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/8d3ae447b1ad7e9a3af23f18f33baa82284ac7919d6e140ae92daee9037ebb77?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/8d3ae447b1ad7e9a3af23f18f33baa82284ac7919d6e140ae92daee9037ebb77?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"caption\":\"Howard\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/hdinin.tumblr.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.berthamagazine.com\\\/frontpage\\\/author\\\/howardbertha-com\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Harris V.P. Pick: Who Cares? — bertha","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/the-harris-v-p-pick-who-cares\/","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/the-harris-v-p-pick-who-cares\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/the-harris-v-p-pick-who-cares\/"},"author":{"name":"Howard","@id":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/#\/schema\/person\/d5e236210e1831d8a155718f0267f4ad"},"headline":"The Harris V.P. Pick: Who Cares?","datePublished":"2024-07-30T20:18:28+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/the-harris-v-p-pick-who-cares\/"},"wordCount":1108,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Culture","Current Events","News","Politics","Zeitgeist"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/the-harris-v-p-pick-who-cares\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/the-harris-v-p-pick-who-cares\/","url":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/the-harris-v-p-pick-who-cares\/","name":"The Harris V.P. Pick: Who Cares? — bertha","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/#website"},"datePublished":"2024-07-30T20:18:28+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/the-harris-v-p-pick-who-cares\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/the-harris-v-p-pick-who-cares\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/the-harris-v-p-pick-who-cares\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Harris V.P. Pick: Who Cares?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/","name":"bertha","description":"the online magazine about the passing scene","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/#organization","name":"bertha magazine","url":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/Images\/cropped-Bertha_Button_72p_9inch-Master-for-Favicon.jpg?fit=648%2C547&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/Images\/cropped-Bertha_Button_72p_9inch-Master-for-Favicon.jpg?fit=648%2C547&ssl=1","width":648,"height":547,"caption":"bertha magazine"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/berthamagazine\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/#\/schema\/person\/d5e236210e1831d8a155718f0267f4ad","name":"Howard","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d3ae447b1ad7e9a3af23f18f33baa82284ac7919d6e140ae92daee9037ebb77?s=96&d=mm&r=r","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d3ae447b1ad7e9a3af23f18f33baa82284ac7919d6e140ae92daee9037ebb77?s=96&d=mm&r=r","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d3ae447b1ad7e9a3af23f18f33baa82284ac7919d6e140ae92daee9037ebb77?s=96&d=mm&r=r","caption":"Howard"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/hdinin.tumblr.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/author\/howardbertha-com\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"menu-24x24":false,"menu-36x36":false,"menu-48x48":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Howard","author_link":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/author\/howardbertha-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"I don\u2019t care who Harris picks as VP. I may be alone in this, though it\u2019s hard to tell from […]","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4ZrXL-ekf","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":55063,"url":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/some-thoughts-after-brexit\/","url_meta":{"origin":55071,"position":0},"title":"Looking backward: Some Thoughts in 2016 After Brexit","author":"Howard","date":"2024 May 6","format":false,"excerpt":"I don\u2019t feel bad for Britain. I feel bad for my British friends. There are not a lot of them, but of those there are, all argued and hoped fervently for a victory for the \u201cremain\u201d vote. It was not to be. I don\u2019t feel bad for the Britain of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Analysis"","block_context":{"text":"Analysis","link":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/category\/analysis\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Fox-Amphoux_01Jan14_bw__L1000447_v1-Edit-1024x446.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Fox-Amphoux_01Jan14_bw__L1000447_v1-Edit-1024x446.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Fox-Amphoux_01Jan14_bw__L1000447_v1-Edit-1024x446.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Fox-Amphoux_01Jan14_bw__L1000447_v1-Edit-1024x446.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":54120,"url":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/shorts-and-briefs-2-july-2019-when-youre-smiling\/","url_meta":{"origin":55071,"position":1},"title":"Shorts and Briefs | 2 July 2019 | When You’re Smiling","author":"Howard","date":"2019 July 2","format":false,"excerpt":"\"ThankYouSoMuch Mr. President_#02,\" Raffaello De Vito, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 Trump Thoughts Today This happens sometimes when I am surfing and I do my daily check as a lurker on Facebook. I saw two links in particular that caught my eye, to news stories in standard mainstream media sources.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Current Events"","block_context":{"text":"Current Events","link":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/category\/current-events\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Kim-Jong-un-Behance-bd68e767970641.5b4cf2c32e751-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C717&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Kim-Jong-un-Behance-bd68e767970641.5b4cf2c32e751-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C717&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Kim-Jong-un-Behance-bd68e767970641.5b4cf2c32e751-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C717&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Kim-Jong-un-Behance-bd68e767970641.5b4cf2c32e751-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C717&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Kim-Jong-un-Behance-bd68e767970641.5b4cf2c32e751-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C717&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":54148,"url":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/whose-job-is-it-to-undo-the-damage\/","url_meta":{"origin":55071,"position":2},"title":"Whose Job Is It To Undo the Damage?","author":"Howard","date":"2019 July 28","format":false,"excerpt":"It was James Madison who was the great champion of separation of powers, that is, an active and robust separation, so that each branch of government with its several well-defined assigned powers is itself always potent, equally so compared to the others, so the overall result is a state of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Analysis"","block_context":{"text":"Analysis","link":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/category\/analysis\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/James_Madison_Wikimedia_commons-scaled.jpg?fit=986%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/James_Madison_Wikimedia_commons-scaled.jpg?fit=986%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/James_Madison_Wikimedia_commons-scaled.jpg?fit=986%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/James_Madison_Wikimedia_commons-scaled.jpg?fit=986%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55071"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55074,"href":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55071\/revisions\/55074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.berthamagazine.com\/frontpage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}