Workin' guy voting GOP
Oct 16, 2017
Today's Tweet
Follow the whole thread (7 parts)
Right now, I'm feeling more terrified than at any point since the 2016 election. Why? It's time for some game theory! 1/— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) October 13, 2017
Oct 15, 2017
Today's Tweet
There is wisdom in perspective.
Let's just cut out the middleman and force women to give birth to guns— Kelly BOOce 👻 (@lucekel) October 6, 2017
Today's This Ain't Normal
This doesn't "prove" Climate Change - we're not quite there yet - but when this kind of Extraordinary starts to lean toward Typical, we have to stop the foolishness and understand we've got a fucking problem.
Marshall Shepherd, Forbes
Don't worry. You are not losing it. Ireland is in the "cone" of uncertainty in that map below. Hurricane Ophelia is the 10th consecutive hurricane to form in the Atlantic basin this year. According to University of Miami hurricane expert Brian McNoldy, the last time ten consecutive storms became a hurricane was 1893. While a very interesting factoid, the "elephant in the room" is that Ophelia is headed to Ireland. It is rare, but not unprecedented.
Oct 14, 2017
Earn It
I'm not crazy about the goddie stuff at the end, but it's definitely relevant to a reasonable expectation for The Christian Right to start behaving like Christians, and actually doing - you know - what's right.
Today's Tweet
Tillerson calling 45* a fucking moron was a great example of how you can be absolutely right in what you said, and then completely wrong when the boss finds out.
Had a very great meeting with the President of the American Virgin islands. Great guy, very smart! #Trump #presidentofthevirginislands pic.twitter.com/NbGUrMDKah— Dogald J. Trump (@dogaldtrump) October 14, 2017
We Will Get Fooled Again
Fool you once - shame on them.
Fool you twice - shame on you.
Fool you repeatedly - you end up with President 45*.
Take lessons from Frank Luntz and Newt Gingrich for a few years - tune in to Limbaugh and Savage and Hannity regularly for the Hate Du Jour.
Filter it down to 12 or 15 key triggers - Sharia Law, Illegal Immigrants, Shall Not Be Infringed, Hillary Killed Vince Foster, Socialism, Leftwing Intolerance, Reverse Racism, FemiNazi, Sidney Blumenthal Started Birtherism, Black-On-Black Crime, etc.
Create fake accounts on Google and YouTube, and every social media platform you come across.
Set up your algorithms and your AdBots, and send 'em out with the shittiest memes you can think of.
Such as like for example, per The Guardian:
Police have identified Stephen Paddock as the suspect who opened fire from a high-rise hotel room, killing scores and injuring hundreds more. But before authorities named the 64-year-old Nevada man, some on the far right falsely identified the man behind the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history as Geary Danley. It’s unclear where exactly the hoax originated, but rightwing users aggressively promoted his name, seizing on evidence that he was a liberal.
On 4chan, the anonymous message board and a favorite platform of the “alt-right”, some noted that Danley was a registered Democrat. Soon after, Gateway Pundit, a conspiracy-laden blog that earned White House credentials under Trump, published an evidence-free story headlined, “Las Vegas Shooter Reportedly a Democrat Who Liked Rachel Maddow, MoveOn.org and Associated with Anti-Trump Army”. The piece was based on a review of Facebook “likes”.
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| Check out their Fake News Archive |
Some titilating titles at Snopes:
Democrat Principal Defecates In Front Of Students During Pledge Of Allegiance?
Was White Supremacist Who Killed Protester a Democrat Who Visited Obama in Oval Office?
And a few more interesting oddities:
I guess I could've shortened this post quite a lot with a simple reminder: Check your bias and your source.
And, especially in light of what we're learning, don't assume anything negative isn't coming from Moscow.
Oct 13, 2017
On Ryan Zinke
Charlie Pierce, Esquire Magazine:
As my grandmother and her sisters used to say, who the hell is this guy when he's at home? From The Washington Post:
A security staffer takes the elevator to the seventh floor, climbs the stairs to the roof and hoists a special secretarial flag whenever Zinke enters the building. When the secretary goes home for the day or travels, the flag — a blue banner emblazoned with the agency’s bison seal flanked by seven white stars representing the Interior bureaus — comes down. In Zinke’s absence, the ritual is repeated to raise an equally obscure flag for Deputy Secretary David Bernhardt. Responding this week to questions from The Washington Post, a spokeswoman for Zinke, a former Navy SEAL commander, defended the Navy flag-flying tradition as “a major sign of transparency.”Oh, just shut up.
“Ryan Zinke is proud and honored to lead the Department of the Interior, and is restoring honor and tradition to the department, whether it’s flying the flag when he is in garrison or restoring traditional access to public lands,” press secretary Heather Swift said in an email.Tell your email to shut up, too.
Today's Tweet
I only wish I could believe this was a little farther from the truth
Trump: I said no kneeling during the anthem.— Dave Pell (@davepell) October 12, 2017
Me: I’m kneeling because I’m praying for the victims of the fire.
Trump: What fire?
Oct 12, 2017
Today's Tweet(s)
Rand Paul is the phoniest phony since polyester Christmas trees. Just get out, Senator - you'll feel a lot better about yourself, as will all of us.
Watch Rand Paul as President Trump enters the room. pic.twitter.com/yTzTc0Sy73— Jeremy Art (@cspanJeremy) October 12, 2017
And then...
"Mr. President, you need to sign it" - @VP to Trump as he walks out without signing the executive order he was just announcing pic.twitter.com/zelT8bNU68— Robert Maguire (@RobertMaguire_) October 12, 2017
That's at least twice 45*'s managed to forget the reason he was in the fucking room in the first fucking place.
The Rage
Dara Lind, Vox:
When it comes to relationships with people, it turns out, Trump is even more mercurial. He blows up at even the people he generally has good relationships with, like Chief of Staff John Kelly; after one early eruption, according to Glenn Thrush and Maggie Haberman of the New York Times, Kelly later told colleagues “that he had never been spoken to like that during 35 years of serving his country.”
But Trump never stays mad. Even the things that seem like permanent grudges, like his anger with Attorney General Jeff Sessions over Sessions recusing himself from the DOJ Russia probe, turn out to be tantrums that can be waited out. (According to Politico, Trump wanted Sessions fired, but his aides successfully used delaying tactics to keep it from happening.)
“Donald Trump never truly severs relationships. There is always a dialogue,” confidant Chris Reddy told Politico.
It’s worth thinking through the consequences of what that means. Trump blows up at everyone around him as a matter of course, but he also doesn’t expect those things to damage his relationships permanently. He expects the people he interacts with to understand that he doesn’t really hate them even though he yells at them — to absorb the abuse as simply part of the job, and move on.
The profile of a bully is almost always rife with cycles of Calm and then Rage and then Calm again - does the phrase "calm before the storm" ring a bell? It should.
And what makes it all the more scary is that bullies (ie: abusers) almost always have a kind of likability to them that makes it difficult for victims to separate fully.
I know, it's all a big-ass cliché, but that just means it's old and obvious, not untrue.
This doesn't get better for a while.
When it comes to relationships with people, it turns out, Trump is even more mercurial. He blows up at even the people he generally has good relationships with, like Chief of Staff John Kelly; after one early eruption, according to Glenn Thrush and Maggie Haberman of the New York Times, Kelly later told colleagues “that he had never been spoken to like that during 35 years of serving his country.”
But Trump never stays mad. Even the things that seem like permanent grudges, like his anger with Attorney General Jeff Sessions over Sessions recusing himself from the DOJ Russia probe, turn out to be tantrums that can be waited out. (According to Politico, Trump wanted Sessions fired, but his aides successfully used delaying tactics to keep it from happening.)
“Donald Trump never truly severs relationships. There is always a dialogue,” confidant Chris Reddy told Politico.
It’s worth thinking through the consequences of what that means. Trump blows up at everyone around him as a matter of course, but he also doesn’t expect those things to damage his relationships permanently. He expects the people he interacts with to understand that he doesn’t really hate them even though he yells at them — to absorb the abuse as simply part of the job, and move on.
The profile of a bully is almost always rife with cycles of Calm and then Rage and then Calm again - does the phrase "calm before the storm" ring a bell? It should.
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| 45* teasing a cliffhanger while those around him try hard to pretend they're not praying for a well-placed malignant tumor |
There's also a very pronounced element of Punching Down and Failing Up - or at least Failing Forward.
And what makes it all the more scary is that bullies (ie: abusers) almost always have a kind of likability to them that makes it difficult for victims to separate fully.
I know, it's all a big-ass cliché, but that just means it's old and obvious, not untrue.
This doesn't get better for a while.
Pushing Back
Brandon Carter, The Hill:
“Local 100 filed charges with Region 16 of the NLRB against the Dallas Cowboys to stop owner, Jerry Jones, from threatening players with benching or termination for exercising their right to concerted activity under the National Labor Relations Act,” its post read.
“Sorry, Jerry, you’re over the line, partner. Workers have rights!”
I spent a good buncha time hatin' on unions. I was (mostly) wrong.
Beyond their valuable economic contributions, Unions serve a very important function in the structure of Checks & Balances - holding powerful people accountable.
Yeah yeah, I know - 27-year-old millionaires aren't exactly the downtrodden proletariate. But that's kinda the point - if they can be squashed, it sends a very loud, very clear signal to the rest of us that we'd better shut up, stay in line, and do what we're told.
We have to push back against the Daddy State. Unions help us do that.
“Sorry, Jerry, you’re over the line, partner. Workers have rights!”
I spent a good buncha time hatin' on unions. I was (mostly) wrong.
Beyond their valuable economic contributions, Unions serve a very important function in the structure of Checks & Balances - holding powerful people accountable.
Yeah yeah, I know - 27-year-old millionaires aren't exactly the downtrodden proletariate. But that's kinda the point - if they can be squashed, it sends a very loud, very clear signal to the rest of us that we'd better shut up, stay in line, and do what we're told.
We have to push back against the Daddy State. Unions help us do that.
Today's Burning Question
It can take me a while to catch up with some of this stuff:
If the "fucking moron" thing was fake news, why did 45* feel the need to challenge Tillerson to an IQ duel?
If the "fucking moron" thing was fake news, why did 45* feel the need to challenge Tillerson to an IQ duel?
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