Without Apology - Part 2

(con'd from Without Apology - below)

If I argue "when healthcare coverage is outlawed, only outlaws will have healthcare coverage", I suspect "conservatives" to scoff and tell me I'm stupid to think they're trying to "outlaw" healthcare coverage.

But they're wrong.  Being against HealthCare Reform and against ObamaCare (and and and) almost always goes with a package that includes being in favor of Free Market Solutions. These guys will always spout the standard suite of platitudes:

• the market will always find a fair balance on its own
• the market brings innovation to satisfy all needs of every market segment
• the competition of the market will force prices down so everybody can get it on the benefits
• everything is good as long as government stays out of it completely

etc.

But outlawing coverage is (effectively) exactly what happens.  In a system of completely unfettered capitalism, the Market is the law, and your paycheck is Law Enforcement.

In that system, what's the difference between being unable to buy it and being forbidden by law to possess it?

Without Apology

Here's what I've been thinking:  "Conservatives" have had a field day with the Clever Turnaround that says it all when it comes to convincing the 30-40% of people who really don't wanna think much more deeply than your basic bumper sticker.  They need to categorize the issue, and file away something that's easy to recall, and sounds more or less like it fits with the standard bullshit that "all we really need is some good ol' fashioned common sense up in here".

We've heard it a thousand times.  In response to mountains of facts and miles of perfectly cogent reasoning about the honest-to-god, real-life need for sensible Gun Control, they say, "When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns".

So how 'bout we fight fire with fire?  I've been having a lot of fun trolling the facebook posts of my Radical Right friends, and it's a little weird, but it's almost like they just don't expect to get any push back on anything - like they can say any bullshit thing, and nobody's gonna call 'em on it.  It shocks the hell out of 'em sometimes when all I do is hit 'em with the kind of crap they usually come up with.  One guy put up something about how things had gotten so bad under Obama, so I posted a comment saying he sounded like he was being very critical, and then I asked him why he hated America.  I could almost feel the heat when he posted his next comment, which came in very short order, and of course, ended in ALL CAPS!!!!!!!

But here's what I've boiled it down to - this is what I'm gonna try.  Whenever somebody says some wacky crap about repealing ObamaCare (eg), I'm gonna turn it around and just say:
--"When healthcare coverage is outlawed, only outlaws will have healthcare coverage".

--or--

("All taxation is theft")
-- "When taxes are outlawed, only outlaws will collect taxes"

--or--

("Churches and good neighbors should care for the less fortunate")
("The Government has no business trying to force me to look after poor people")
-- "When charity is outlawed, only outlaws will get charity"

--or--

("Government Workers and Retirement Obligations are bankrupting state and local governments.")
--"When law enforcement is outlawed, the outlaws will be law enforcement."
--"When clean water is outlawed, only outlaws will have clean water."
--"When safe streets are outlawed, only outlaws will be safe on the streets."
--"When pensions are outlawed, only outlaws will have pensions."

What else?  Must be a gajillion of 'em.  Roll with me.

Strategy

Can anybody tell me with a straight face that the Repubs are all about truth-telling, and nuance and getting at the real heart of the matter?

From Addicting Information:

Fact: Shark Attacks Increase w/ Ice Cream Consumption

Based on the above, which statement below is true?
A. Sharks hate people who eat ice cream.
B. Sharks love ice cream, so they eat people.
C. Obama is a Muslim.
D. None of the above

If you answered “C” – You already have all the answers and can’t be convinced otherwise.

To everyone else, if you answered “D” – Congratulations, you are correct.

Today's Pix

We must doing something right 

Fighting The Myth

From The Daily Beast:

Of all the great, near-great, and less-than-great tweets and remarks about the Clint Eastwood disaster, the most profound came from The American Prospect’s Jamelle Bouie: “This is a perfect representation of the campaign: an old white man arguing with an imaginary Barack Obama.” The story of the whole week, indeed of more or less the whole last four or five years, is of Republicans and conservatives peddling to voters an imaginary Barack Obama. To their immense frustration, a lot of that effort hasn’t taken hold the way they’d have liked. But now it’s crunch time, and in the important states that will decide the election, every vote counts. So Obama and the Democrats should spend part of next week dispelling the five myths that have the potential to singe.

The Money Votes

More at The Real News

Expanded Mashup

Here's a better and longer version of the clip I posted a few days ago.

From The Newsroom on HBO.

Fact Vacuum

Charles Blow, in an Op-Ed at NYT:

There is some degree of mythmaking and truth-stretching in every campaign, but the extent to which Republicans have embraced ignobility in this campaign is astounding. They have used their convention podium to unleash a whole lot of half-truths, so many that fact-checkers have been working overtime. But trying to chase down every lie is like trying to catch every bug in a log. It’s almost impossible.

If the news media has to pour so much energy into fact-checking, which is noble and necessary, I worry that the big picture gets short shrift. The convention itself was shockingly low on vision and high on venom.

Yet the candidates are virtually tied in most polls. What does this portend for the republic? I worry deeply about this, not simply because I work at a newspaper, but because I am an American.

Favorite Comment:

Ironic that the party which declares itself so unapologetically Christian should keep ignoring "Thou shalt not bear false witness". --O. Sharp, Seattle

The Empty Chair

And wasn't it just absolutely the height of vulgar disrespect when Romney totally ignored The Invisible Obama standing right there next to him on the podium through that whole acceptance speech?  How rude!

These Republicans - I just dunno.

Chris Rock Tweets

Lifted in its entirety from Democratic Underground:

5hChris Rock‏@chrisrockoz 


Clint Eastwood debated a chair and the chair won. #RNC #GOP2012 
40mChris Rock‏@chrisrockoz 


The Dems should have an empty chair on stage for the entire DNC, & when anyone asks who it belongs to, they can say Osama bin Laden #DNC2012 
1hChris Rock‏@chrisrockoz 


BREAKING NEWS: CNN REPORTS: Last night when he got home, Clint Eastwood got in a huge fight with the rest of his furniture. #RNC #GOP2012 
2hChris Rock‏@chrisrockoz 


Romney proves w/ a little hard work & a little luck, even a multimillionaire white guy from Harvard can succeed in this country #GOP2012 
2hChris Rock‏@chrisrockoz 


Mitt Romney says he's never paid less than 13% in taxes, which I think is fair because only 13% of his money is in this country #GOP2012 
2hChris Rock‏@chrisrockoz 


Clint Eastwood, an 82 year old man who has had 7 children with 5 women, was married twice & talking to me about family values! #RNC #GOP2012 
4hChris Rock‏@chrisrockoz 


The empty chair was a metaphor for the entire GOP platform. There's nothing there, but blind hatred for a man that doesn't exist 
4hChris Rock‏@chrisrockoz 


If you vote against Obama because he can't get stuff done, it's like saying, "this guy can't cure cancer. I'm gonna vote for cancer." #RN 
6hChris Rock‏@chrisrockoz 


Republicans are getting so confident of beating Obama they've started admitting he was born here #RNC #GOP2012 
7hChris Rock‏@chrisrockoz 


Half a billion dollars have been spent on campaign ads so far. It's a good thing our schools & economy are in great shape or I'd be mad #RNC 
7hChris Rock‏@chrisrockoz 


The people who demanded to see Obama's birth certificate dont seem the slightest bit interested in seeing Romney's tax returns #RNC #GOP2012