Today's Tweet

I guess we can file this one under "Look Who Just Caught Up"

A commentary by @dalehansen of @wfaa in Dallas on the #NRAConvention featuring dangerous cowards, liars / traitors Trump & Pence ... of course no guns are allowed.

Watch: pic.twitter.com/Uk0ZqtEX5c

— ☇RiotWomenn☇ (@riotwomennn) May 4, 2018

One More Podcast

Teddy Roosevelt was my kinda Republican.

He was too cute by half with the whole Gunboat Diplomacy thing, but three things:

1. His forceful attitude on pushing back against corporations - the necessity of regulation in order to keep too much power and too much money from consolidating in too few hands.

2. Trying to balance the interests internal to the US against US National Interests outside our borders.

3. He was a man of his times. That doesn't mean some of the shitty things he did - or were done on his watch - are excusable, or that anybody should approve of them now.

We muddle thru and we stumble forward.

Another Podcast

"Accountability" is something the Dems can own in the 2018 midterms if they want it.



Nobody who votes D most of the time is uninterested in impeachment, but that's not the platform you should run on - you might not lose, but you'll almost definitely not win as big as we need you to win.

Podcast

The Professional Left with driftglass and Blue Gal.

Don't stand aghast at nothingness - a pretty good Bible Bitch segment.

And today's stats, illustrative of the root problem we're starting to understand a bit better:

61% of Americans believe 45* lies regularly.

76% of Republicans believe he tells the truth all or most of the time.

And we continue to go along with the Press Poodles as they work hard to placate us with bullshit tropes like "tribalism" - which is little more than a new(ish) version of Both-Sides.

Fight back.

There's nothing wrong with looking for ways to meet somewhere in between when there's reason to think we can find some commonality. Compromise is a good thing when it moves us towards "a more perfect union".

Just be careful not to get caught up in the Fallacy of The Middle Ground.

eg: There's nothing ideological about the fact of AGW-Driven Climate Change. We can compromise on what we think is a good approach to dealing with it, but the fact of it is not in doubt and we're wasting time if that's what we continue to allow to be at the center of the debate.

As the Press Poodles and their handlers continue to pimp the Both Sides nonsense, we have to turn up the heat and do everything within reason to make that Forever-In-The-Middle position as uncomfortable as possible.

Today's Today

“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.”

--Edward Abbey

May 4, 1970

And not to be too obvious...

A Podcast

Ana Marie Cox, With Friends Like These



Money Quote (at the break, about 24:30): If you're paying attention to everything, you're not paying attention to anything.

And that ties into my post from yesterday - 45* throwing all that weird shit up in the air, intending for us not to see all the truly bad shit he's doing right out in the open. 

Today's Tweet

In the Trump era, "diplomatic communications" is very different thing.

Cowardly Press Corps toadies to Propanganda Minister to maintain status as Idiot piglets suckling at the shriveled teat of a sow who hates them. pic.twitter.com/h3uxCJ4CgG

— DPRK News Service (@DPRK_News) May 1, 2018

It's The Salesmanship, Stupid

I'm always on about what a lousy salesman 45* is - and he is.

But he isn't a lousy magician. He's a pretty good one. Or rather, he's been good at it for quite a while, but now he's playing to an audience that includes people who aren't here wanting to be fooled.

Inside The Hive with Nick Bolton - interviewing David Kwong:



It's not just the Willing Suspension of Disbelief. Sometimes, under certain circumstances, your "audience" wants to believe; needs to believe; and that desire can be so intense they go way out of their way help you. They go along with the illusion to the point where they fool themselves.

It's about giving the audience something that seems it be of greater value to look at - a different trick - while you do what you're really trying to do.

Today's Tweet

Calling the president an idiot isn't nearly as disrespectful as calling an idiot the president.

— Middle Age Riot (@middleageriot) May 1, 2018

Today's GIF (via Twitter)

Bless you, Dr Mandelbrot.

Rolling a circle inside another three times its size - three times - by matthen pic.twitter.com/S3Lcu4tDnr

— Science GIFs⚛️ (@Learn_Things) April 26, 2018