"When ignorant folks want to advertise their ignorance, you don't really have to do anything, you just let them talk."
--Barack Obama
Sunday, May 13, 2018
Today's GIF
"When ignorant folks want to advertise their ignorance, you don't really have to do anything, you just let them talk."
Saturday, May 12, 2018
It's The History, Stoopid.
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| The Professional Left |
Republicans delivered a tax cut to Sheldon Adelson worth about 3/4 of a billion dollars in a single quarter, and of course he writes a check to the House GOP SuperPAC for $30 million. But there's no quid pro quo.
And on the immigration thing - John Kelly points out that "most immigrants" coming to USAmerica Inc aren't gang members and criminals, but they are "rural" and "poorly educated".
In other words, they're all potentially either Crooks or Rubes - aka: TRUMP SUPPORTERS.
So why are you trying to keep them out?
Friday, May 11, 2018
About That Voter Anxiety
WaPo ran an "exposé" on how the voters got 'disenchanted' during the Obama years:
Eight days before Trump took the oath of office, Kurt Glazier, now 50, was in the dining room of his home in Sterling, Ill. Wearing a John Deere hoodie, he offered a measured view of the road ahead. ***Glazier is a state worker, a union member and serves as chairman of the Republican Party in Whiteside County. He also sits on the county board. He is a thoughtful person who speaks deliberately and chooses his words carefully.
(*** in a state where the GOP governor has steadfastly refused to pass a budget, which is widely understood to be Gov Rauner's way of using the "budget problem" to kill Public Employees' Unions, cut Medicaid, and generally drive down wages in order to make Illinois more "Business-Friendly")
Bruening, 41, understood Trump’s success in Clayton County despite the earlier string of Democratic victories. “I think one [reason] is that it is exhausting to have to edit yourself all the time, and Trump was completely the opposite of that,” he said. “I think Trump allowed . . . people to not have to feel bad about holding, say, anti-immigrant views or something. That’s one of the things I really noticed. People are way less afraid to say what they really think about a host of different things.”
Trump, he said, also was like a mirror that reflected on people what they wanted to see and hear. “What people are talking about is what he gives back to them, and I think because of that, that’s a good way to really reach people on a visceral level,” he said. “. . . So there’s this feedback loop, which I think he’s, like, a genius at, legitimately. And so people got the impression that he was hearing them on a personal level.”
Eight days before Trump took the oath of office, Kurt Glazier, now 50, was in the dining room of his home in Sterling, Ill. Wearing a John Deere hoodie, he offered a measured view of the road ahead. ***Glazier is a state worker, a union member and serves as chairman of the Republican Party in Whiteside County. He also sits on the county board. He is a thoughtful person who speaks deliberately and chooses his words carefully.
(*** in a state where the GOP governor has steadfastly refused to pass a budget, which is widely understood to be Gov Rauner's way of using the "budget problem" to kill Public Employees' Unions, cut Medicaid, and generally drive down wages in order to make Illinois more "Business-Friendly")
- Fuck something up
- Wait a bit
- Point at it and say, "Oh look - it's fucked up"
- Run on a platform of, "It's All Fucked Up So You Better Vote For Me Cuz Only I Can Fix It"
Sorry not sorry, kids. You fell for it. You got snookered.
- and -
Although he had not seen Trump’s victory coming, he said that it hadn’t been difficult to interest people in Trump’s candidacy. “I think Trump brought out the fact that — I mean, as crude and callous as he was at times — so many people had been almost discriminated against because they were Republicans and not Democrats that we felt inferior.”
Although he had not seen Trump’s victory coming, he said that it hadn’t been difficult to interest people in Trump’s candidacy. “I think Trump brought out the fact that — I mean, as crude and callous as he was at times — so many people had been almost discriminated against because they were Republicans and not Democrats that we felt inferior.”
- and -
Trump, he said, also was like a mirror that reflected on people what they wanted to see and hear. “What people are talking about is what he gives back to them, and I think because of that, that’s a good way to really reach people on a visceral level,” he said. “. . . So there’s this feedback loop, which I think he’s, like, a genius at, legitimately. And so people got the impression that he was hearing them on a personal level.”
Call it the Archie Bunker Effect. Archie starts out as the penultimate bad example - the guy who embarrasses everybody almost every time he speaks, but ends up being some hero of the Culture Wars because "really, Archie just says what we're all thinking".
And speaking your mind is generally cool, of course, but when what you're thinking is a buncha racist shit that's been manufactured for you to the point where it feels like a custom fit, then we've got a problem.
Because y'know what, Sparky? It's not unreasonable for me to expect you to sit politely at the dinner table and resist any and all temptation to call your grandmother a worthless stupid cunt just to see her get mad enough to cry.
And, as usual, the Press Poodles continue to ignore the GOP's hand in creating these problems. McConnell & Co spent 8 years fucking it all up, but that little tidbit never factors in to any of the questions when the Poodles go out there and mingle with the simple folk.
When Even George Will...
George Will is years past his freshness date, but just as a blind hog roots up an acorn once in a while, so Mr Will can still bring it on rare occasions.
On Lawrence O'Donnell's show last night:
Money quote: "... Mr Pence is surface all the way through."
Be mindful that Mr Will can trash 45* and his trained monkeys, but still miss the broader point that it's the GOP that's been putting these assholes up front for a solid 30 years.
The party built these monsters. The party owns that responsibility, and a guy like George Will bought 3 or 4 houses and took nice long vacations in Europe on the money he was paid to animate the monster.
So it gives us a Warm-n-Fuzzy to hear ol' George say those things about Cult45, but we've been here before. We had that same feeling when Will trashed Bush43 about 15 years ago.
He tries to make it sound like he's widening out his criticism by saying Pence has given in to tribalism, but that word - "Tribal" - is great example of ducking the issue by using vague terms to invite the inference that it's a Both Sides problem, and therefor everything is equal and therefor we can go on pretending that it's not the GOP that's the fucking problem.
On Lawrence O'Donnell's show last night:
Money quote: "... Mr Pence is surface all the way through."
Be mindful that Mr Will can trash 45* and his trained monkeys, but still miss the broader point that it's the GOP that's been putting these assholes up front for a solid 30 years.
The party built these monsters. The party owns that responsibility, and a guy like George Will bought 3 or 4 houses and took nice long vacations in Europe on the money he was paid to animate the monster.
So it gives us a Warm-n-Fuzzy to hear ol' George say those things about Cult45, but we've been here before. We had that same feeling when Will trashed Bush43 about 15 years ago.
He tries to make it sound like he's widening out his criticism by saying Pence has given in to tribalism, but that word - "Tribal" - is great example of ducking the issue by using vague terms to invite the inference that it's a Both Sides problem, and therefor everything is equal and therefor we can go on pretending that it's not the GOP that's the fucking problem.
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| Read your driftglass |
Thursday, May 10, 2018
Today's Tweet
Three American detainees returned home after being held captive by North Korea.— Middle Age Riot (@middleageriot) May 10, 2018
Overheard: "It's great to be back, but why is the asshole from The Apprentice meeting us at the airport?"
You Are Not So Smart
David McRaney's podcast looks at rationalization - particularly how we rationalize our way around an innate fear of change, and how that explains a few things about why 35 - 45% of us seem to be OK with Cult45.
Podcast
Chris Savage and @LOLGOP - Eclectablog Podcast, with guest Marcy Wheeler
Interesting takeaway - it would appear that all the guys being investigated have a Russian oligarch assigned to them as handlers.
Ed Note: Wheeler is a frequent contributor at The Intercept and Democracy Now, but I won't hold that against her. She's smart as fuck and so far, it looks like she doesn't do the Purity Warrior bullshit.
Wednesday, May 09, 2018
Today's Tweet
And there's a pretty strong consensus that says blowing up the Iran deal is going to make it a lot harder to get a deal with North Korea.
A foreign policy expert, not known for emotional or blunt language, told me rejecting the Iran deal was “the stupidest thing Trump has done in foreign policy.” Shows the US doesn’t care what its closest allies think and is no longer a responsible steward of international security— Richard Engel (@RichardEngel) May 8, 2018
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