Been working outside and in the basement. What did I miss?
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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.
A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals
It’s a new day. Light all those Biden polls of young people on fire and throw away the ashes.
You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.
Democrats have delivered the Square Deal, the New Deal, the Fair Deal, and now… the Big Joe Biden Deal.
Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.
“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”
Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.
Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.
fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)
Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!
Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.
You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.
There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you don’t.
Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.
I’m more Christian than these people and I’m an atheist.
I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.
Fani Willis claps back at Trump chihuahua, Jim Jordan.
Optimism opens the door to great things.
FFS people, this was a good thing. take the win.
The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.
We’re not going back!
A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.
Democrats are back in array!
JPL
There’s about 20 comments in the previous thread about Krugman’s blog linking to you. Congrats!
If you like golf, The Masters is quite good.
Arclite
I just did my taxes. And you missed it. As a single earner for a family of four my functional tax rate was 3%. Tells you how little I make…
Yutsano
Matoko-chan shitting all over another thread of hyperventilating firebaggers. In other words, not much. Though Comrade Mary found a hilarious Canadian boob commercial.
licensed to kill time
Your elevation into the ranks of the Shrill?
ETA: which I heartily approve of…that post of yours deserves wide dissemination.
mclaren
You mean you didn’t hear about Obama’s impeachment for ordering the assassination of American citizens without charges or a trial?
Wow.
4tehlulz
@JPL: OH NOEZ THE NYT KNOWS ABOUT OUR SECRET CLUB
Sirkowski
Andrew Sullivan said something stupid.
stuckinred
@JPL: If he liked golf you wouldn’t have to tell him!
JPL
@stuckinred: duh! lol
Mr Stagger Lee
OH FOR FUCK SAKES TIGER!!!! But tied for the lead.
Mark S.
Shit, Tiger almost had an eagle. He’s tied for the lead with a bunch of tweens.
sukabi
Been working outside and in the basement. What did I miss?
apparently the rake, the dog shit and various implements to harm yourself on, because you seem to be in one piece.
Yutsano
@sukabi: Are you trying to curse the man? Dear Allah the day’s not even half over!
stuckinred
@Mark S.: @Mark S.: KJ Choi and Angel Cabrera are no tweens!
scav
@sukabi: That sounds like a very odd game of Clue.
JPL
The azaleas are behind their peak. They try to use different temperatures of water so they are in full bloom during the Masters but because of the warm temperatures, I guess it didn’t work this year. It’s 85 where I live near Atlanta and Augusta is a few degrees warmer.
Mr Stagger Lee
I got to go out and get some shit done,but this Masters is compelling.
stuckinred
@JPL: Hmm, our yard is bustin and I’ve seen an awful lot of shot’s from there that look pretty full.
Southern Beale
Sad obituary in today’s Nashville newspaper. 48-year-old man with paranoid schizophrenia (but also a chess genius) committed suicide.
This is in the obit:
This is the face of America’s healthcare crisis.
JPL
@Southern Beale: If Paul Ryan has his way, grandma will be sitting in the park in her wheelchair.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
EDK coming out as an Official Obama Concern Troll.
@JPL:
that must be where all the driveby trolls are coming from!
JPL
If there is a playoff, how does it work? Is it sudden death or 18 holes?
Maude
@stuckinred:
You own that two tone blue Chevy pick up? It’s a beaut. Wow, the hubcaps.
I bookmarked it and look at it once in a while.
What engine is in it? Size tires?
What oil do you use?
Manual tranny? 3 or 4 gears?
Amir_Khalid
@Sirkowski: Like they say at your local paper, “Dog Bites Man” is not news.
MikeBoyScout
On two previous threads today we discussed protesting or celebrating. I think bemused – April 10, 2011 | 2:49 pm had it about right:
F**k all the logic. Get motivated with the Irony.
If Ryan and our Galtan overlords own the meme, then let’s play it to the hilt. And don’t forget to tell ’em all that Fox sent you.
Mr Stagger Lee
@Southern Beale:
But you got to think of the CEO’s Who are downtrodden and oppressed, cant get the latest Gulfstream, why Lord? Why?
PurpleGirl
I’ve been playing Bounce Out and on-line jigsaw puzzles… avoiding the politics again today. Just dropped by to see what was happening and read that you were mentioned by Krugman. That’s really great, JC. (I’ve been noticing that a few other bloggers have linked back here to BJ the last few weeks.)
Punchy
Serial Adulterist (aka Wang Chunk) in the Masters Hunt, it seems. Too bad he’ll win and have no blonde hawttie to kiss on the cheek and later drop some anchor in later on…
JPL
I answered my own question about the playoff. It’s sudden death and…
If there is a playoff, it would start at No. 18 and continue, if need be, at No. 10. And it would be the 15th playoff in Masters history and the first since Angel Cabrera beat Kenny Perry and Chad Campbell in 2009.
stuckinred
@Maude: It’s flat black now. I bought it 25 years ago when it was a fresh repaint. New 350, three speed on the deck with a hurst shifter. Havoline 10w40, hides, dunno?
stuckinred
Amazing it took so long for the morality police to show up. Big fucking news flash, wealthy athletes aren’t the “role models” everyone seems to want. That’s why tv’s have channel changers.
Martin
@Arclite: Mine is about the same. Pretty much all of my taxes are offset by dependents and mortgage interest.
Martin
@Punchy: Wow, quite a comeback. I certainly hope he can get the rest of his life in order as well.
Phyllis
@PurpleGirl: Ooh, Bounce Out, haven’t played that in a while. Thanx for the reminder.
Citizen_X
What did you miss? Tunch sold the place. He told you, right?
Southern Beale
You cannot get pap smears at Walgreens. I guarantee it.
Richard Fox
Daily Kos site is having a full fledged food fight over Obama (shill or hero? saint or sinner? republican lite or wolf in sheep’s clothing?) So sad to me. I feel like I am watching Vesuvius explode. (Run Pompeii– run!)
MikeBoyScout
@37 Richard Fox:
It ain’t about O or the DNC. It is about us.
In a democratic republic, We the People get the government we deserve.
Southern Beale
@Mr Stagger Lee:
Oh don’t worry I’m sure those high salaries will start trickling down on the rest of us any day now! Really!
/snark
Punchy
Almost guarenteed to be a playoff in this tourney. Like 54 peeps tied for 1st, and seemingly 139 peeps in second. Redunkulous good golf.
mrami
I used my new Earthway seeder to plant some peas and carrots yesterday.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
You probably missed these witticisms.
I am helpfully grouping them in one place for you.
/smile
The Best of EDK’s Klassic Koncerntroll Hits
Butler
@Punchy:
You mean besides his new girlfriend, who is basically a younger clone of his ex-wife?
stuckinred
@Punchy: And they are all saints except one.
jeffreyw
You missed dinner.
Svensker
@Southern Beale:
Is that salaries trickling? I thought it was pee.
Beta Magellan
@Richard Fox
Digby’s commenters are also really pathetic, almost disgustingly so. No food fight there—just outright loathing.
Internet liberaldom has pretty much devolved into a massive pity-party—because nothing projects strength like anguished rants in comment sections—plus calls for a primary challenger. Because we all know how well that will go—right Eugene McCarthy and Ted Kennedy?
If this is the base, we’re in big trouble.
stuckinred
@jeffreyw: Fresh greens in the pot, red beans and rice in the pan, grilled chicken. . .well you know!
Richard Fox
I used to enjoy Daily Kos site to a degree. It just is painful now, so I just look in rarely. To read the hissy fights with no resolution, far prefer some reasoned discourse. Balloon Juice at least always has beautiful cats and dogs somewhere, which always make me happy. So there ya go.
Josie
@jeffreyw: Good grief Jeffrey! How do you and your wife not weigh 500 pounds each? You must have fabulous metabolisms. Such yummy food.
sukabi
@Southern Beale: no, but it would be an AWESOME rally / protest statement… if women showed up in crowds at their local druggist saying Fox sent them for their tests…
Southern Beale
@Svensker:
And I got news for you, that ain’t the free hand of the market messing around in your pants, either.
MikeBoyScout
In an Murkan media world bereft of professional journalists who can think, Cynthia Tucker often shines through the shine-ola. (reprinted from 1/30/2005) Class shackles hard to break.
She did such a fine job with the opening line, I won’t spoil her writing by offering any tease other than that opening line
Maude
@mrami:
I heard that spreader was the best because they don’t change their settings and you can look on any bag of stuff and get the correct setting to spread.
The Scotts spreader keeps changing and you have to measure the width of the holes to be sure. Cursing would ensue.
JPL
@sukabi: That would be hilarious. Is there a Walgreens near the Fox studios?
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
The Beatles got back together, then broke up again after realizing that Sir Paul has a hard time carrying a tune any longer.
PurpleGirl
@jeffreyw: Burgers and fries? Are those mushrooms on the fries? Looks yummy.
RossInDetroit
@Richard Fox:
I only go there for the hate mail roundup, which is the highlight of my Saturday. So much fail in one place.
debit
@Richard Fox: I haven’t been to the GOS for about a year now. Don’t miss it a bit.
In other news, Rachel Maddow, who I normally respect, is flogging some bullshit about Cenk putting much needed pressure on Obama. I didn’t click the link. After all these years, I finally know better than to click the link.
TaMara (BHF)
@Josie: You just miss the part where they own all this land and work like mad to maintain it. Can’t wait to see this garden when ready to harvest.
licensed to kill time
Witchy-witchy ma-tiktok-EDKchoo
nobody’s interested but you
General Stuck
Obama Obama OBAMA Obama obama OBAMa Obama Obama Obama OBAMA Obama obama OBAMa Obama Obama Obama OBAMA Obama obama OBAMa Obama Obama Obama OBAMA Obama obama OBAMa Obama Obama Obama OBAMA Obama obama OBAMa Obama Obama Obama OBAMA Obama obama OBAMa Obama
That pretty much covers it
sukabi
@JPL: don’t know, but it would be worth finding out and getting some ladies — from grandma’s to teens right on it…
Douchy must not even KNOW what a PAP test entails… can you imagine walking in to your local Walgreens and getting a pap test… “Sure lady, come around behind the counter, get undressed, hop up on the table and put your feet in the stirrups. Just a minute sir, I’ll be right with you, gotta take a look in the tunnel first.”
MattR
@sukabi: Or once you are in stirrups “Just a minute, ma’am. Some kid just puked in aisle three.”
PurpleGirl
@Beta Magellan: I still read Digby but I skip the comments most of the time. (I sometimes comment myself but I skip reading a lot of them.)
debit
@licensed to kill time: I don’t know why the ban was lifted. I was sincere in my offer of blow jobs if it was permanent.
mrami
@Maude: Actually, it’s not a spreader, but a seeder that plants seeds in rows for gardens and garden-like spaces in your yard. It has a bunch of different plates that turn around and lift seeds into a chute which drops them into the ground (Rube Goldberg-esqe), and it’s a lot less backbreaking than bending over dropping seeds (especially for carrots with their tiny seeds – I have big bratwurst fingers).
scav
@MattR: over the intercom “I see three. I see three.”
licensed to kill time
@debit:
So tiresome is the little witch, banging her obsession drum.
Mark S.
I don’t think Tiger can win now.
MattR
@scav: “We need a manager to the Gynocology Department. I don’t know how this thing works.”
Corner Stone
Oh, President Stuck. Show ’em all how a real president uses his bully bullpit.
Maude
@mrami:
Okay, I understand. How handy.
A seeder would be the way to go.
I can’t even see carrot seeds.
Maude
@sukabi:
Which way is that table facing?
sukabi
@MattR: and obviously Douchy doesn’t either…
Corner Stone
Seeder spreaders and pap smears.
General Stuck
@Corner Stone:
Bend over grasshopper, and grab yer ankles
Elia Isquire
We discussed how inappropriate and depressing it is when citizens express frustration and disappointment with politicians who do not deliver on their promises. This state of events is a travesty to democracy and a disservice to our President. As committed liberals our job during the next few years is to knock on doors and explain to people why Obama’s proposed cuts to medicare and medicaid are sensible, needed, and a key step towards winning the future. I don’t know what happened to today’s liberal class which thinks–for reasons unknown–that liberal/progressive politics was ever about anything besides reducing the welfare state and creating a national environment more hospitable to multinationals and investors. It’s a damn shame, but I really believe truly committed liberals will support this President, get him reelected, and reduce spending and entitlements so all Americans have the chance to succeed and be the stewards of their own future!
Beta Magellan
@purple girl
Yeah, don’t know why I bothered clicking. Weirdly enough, the first time I ever commented on a political blog was to defend people who voted for Mark Kirk…not that I like him all that much, it’s just that the level of discourse bothered me. It was at the Washington Monthly, whose comment section is also pretty pessimistic. It’s kind of weird, since I usually find Benen’s writing incredibly soothing.
I’d love to do blog commenter anthro. The best comment sections are usually on fairly technical blogs (where they can actually say more than the article itself), followed by unmitigated quip-fests like you have here.
The Boston Globe did a story profiling its commenters a while back—evidently a lot of sad, half-employed older men taking out their scorn on the world…
sukabi
Doocey’s so dumb he believes his wife goes to Walgreens 3 times a week for a Pap Test.
Josie
I’m sitting here trying to follow all four or five conversations, laughing like a loon, and my dog is looking at me as if I’ve lost my marbles. Yay for open threads.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@licensed to kill time: heh
every time he shows up here a few more people see through his bullshytt.
sukabi
@Maude: Efficiency experts have determined that the “operable” end of the table should face the counter to enable the Pharmacist’s assistant to multi-task and take orders while doing Pap Tests…
Corner Stone
@Elia Isquire: Or as I read it, IOW: Nick telling us all nothing can be done, and certainly not by President Obama for God’s sake. And then President Stuck trying to bigfoot another thread and quash dissent in any, shape, form or matter.
MattR
@sukabi: I wonder how long you have to work the register before you get promoted to pap smears.
@Beta Magellan: I find local newspaper comment sections to be the absolute worst. The Boston Globe’s findings don’t surprise me much. I would have guessed more generally – unemployed/semi-employed older white folks.
Corner Stone
@sukabi: Thank goodness I go to CVS.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@Elia Isquire: and some of us discussed how EDK is just another glibertarian concern troll.
others are still fooled.
;)
Bob Loblaw
@Beta Magellan:
Well, then you’re clearly a fucking idiot because voting for Mark Kirk is indefensible.
RossInDetroit
@Beta Magellan:
Tech blog comments are a gold mine of practical info. Make Magazine’s blog, named Best Education Site by the Telegraph newspaper posted a reader video on tapping holes in metal stock. Another reader and I chimed in in the comments with a number of tips – I used to be a machinist. The editors pulled the comments out for a longer second post on the subject.
My first article in Make Magazine grew out of a thread on an electronics discussion site that has exceeded 13,000 posts and 1,100,000 hits.
JPL
@sukabi: Can’t wait to see the help wanted ads on their website. Minimal training necessary.
mrami
@Maude: It made me absolutely ecstatic, while my wife and child just stared at me with that Tennessee Ernie Ford “you’ve got to be kidding me” look.
Maude
@sukabi:
Hey, indeedy.
Edit, Walgreens is not the place for cold hands, warm heart.
Mark S.
Schwaretzel!
sukabi
@Corner Stone: yeah, don’t worry about CVS, not doing Pap Tests there… you also can’t get birth control pills, or morning after pills… or anything else the pharmacists might object to handing out… but don’t worry, in lieu of actual prescriptions they’ll hand you a bible verse and curse you for being “immoral”…
Korea Beat
There should be a new category tag for “Not Intended to be a Factual Statement”:
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/04/08/kyl-walks-back-claim-about-planned-parenthoo/
sukabi
@MattR: Promotions? There are no promotions at Walgreens… Stock boys do isle cleanup as well as assist with Pap Tests…
Maude
@mrami:
Oh, I love garden stuff. A seeder would make all the difference in how much you plant. Has to make thinning easier.
If I ever have a garden, that seeder is first on the list and I send out pictures of it on Christmas cards.
Corner Stone
@Mark S.: Why does CBS keep showing me up his girlfriend’s nostrils?
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@Corner Stone: but you are forgetting EDK’s contributions.
here, i’ll remind you.
Corner Stone
@sukabi: As it should be, I’ll thank you very much!
Corner Stone
@Hermione Granger-Weasley: I am familiar.
sukabi
@Corner Stone: yeah, you won’t think it’s so funny when you can’t get your wood fix.
Nellcote
Prez Obama to give big budget speech on Wed. Get ready for 3 days of amped up skreechy “he shoulds”.
Origuy
Doucy probably is thinking of a “Pappy” test, as in “you’re going to be a….”
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
@Bob Loblaw: What would a defense for voting for Mark Kirk be, anyway?
Maude
@Nellcote:
It already started. He is going to cut SS, Medicare, he is going to sell us out.
I wish those types of commenters would come up with something new once in awhile.
licensed to kill time
Hermione Glenn matoko-Close switches the light on,off,on,off,on,off o_O
Mike in NC
Countdown to Tuesday: we were in historic downtown Charleston on Saturday night, heading to a restaurant for dinner, when we spotted dozens of (white) college-age couples outside a hotel preparing for some event. No doubt a secession celebration of some type.
The young ladies all wore colorful hoop skirts while the men wore an odd costume that consisted of khaki trousers, blue blazers, and gray cowboy hats with yellow cords (as for Confederate cavalry). Many were guzzling from wine bottles and smoking cigars. Yee-haw!
sukabi
@Maude: that crap started as soon as Simpson’s Catfood Bowles thing was started up…
mrami
@Maude: Oh, it’s fantastic. The other option I was considering was the Jang Clean Seeder. It’s around 3x the price, but it is much more precise than the Earthway seeder. I couldn’t justify it this year, but Craigslist will be my friend, I’m sure…
Bruce S
Here’s my transcript from the This Week roundtable – David Plouffe was interviewed by Amanpour and DNC stalwart Donna Brazile was on hand as usual, both offering weak defenses of how the Dems did a decent job in the shutdown negotiations, but – amazingly – it was up to Chrystia Freeland and Ron Brownstein to deliver the message that Democrats absolutely need to be making right now. A sad moment – check it out:
http://titanicsailsatdawn.blogspot.com/2011/04/you-know-youre-in-trouble-when-msm.html
Freeland pointed to the failure of austerity overseas and Brownstein pointed out that conceding to “spending cuts” as a primary goal in the midst of a deep recession allows the GOP to control the debate.
Omnes Omnibus
@Hermione Granger-Weasley: Would you like to know something about ED Kain? Much of the time, many of the commenters here disagree with him. They do it vociferously, and they throw arguments, facts, and links at him. Those threads are, in fact, a good place to learn something. One can also see many of the commenters at their best.
Would you like to know something else about ED Kain? Sometimes he is dead on correct in his analysis. Thank about that for a second. A person who is sometimes right and sometimes wrong…. What a concept, huh?
One more thing, if you have a moment, Kain’s views seem to be changing and evolving. The process appears to have lurches forwards and backwards. You, on the other hand, appear have a few idees fixes; some are good, some are ludicrous, but all are pursued mercilessly until everyone around you would rather chew off an arm that face another minute of it. Perhaps you might learn from your enemy.
ETA: A few of the commas that I have had for a while and might be going bad.
Bob Loblaw
@Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel):
Giannoulias would have needed to be indicted. Which in Illinois was a not inconceivable possibility, I admit.
Maude
@mrami:
Thanks for the link, I bookmarked it.
Keep your eyes open and you could well have one next year.
Yutsano
@Mike in NC: The sad part is that could have just as easily been a frat cotillion. They do have some strange customs down that way.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@Omnes Omnibus: EDK is not changing. That is my point. He is still a free market evangelist. He fakes change and you retards lap it up because you are all totally invested in the EDK conversion narrative.
Last thread he outed himself as a flaming concern troll and you still refuse to admit it. You are pathetic.
When he gets serious about the damage free market solutions have done to our economy and our schools, I’d be thrilled to read him.
Right now he just wants to rename the free market to something more palatable so he and his “principled” libertarian homies can get a do over.
You go take a walk in the Free Market Fantasy Forest and enjoy EDK’s Reconstructed Compassionate Glibertarianism…
I hate those free market fucktards with every fiber of my being.
But you go right ahead and bend over and let them assrape America all over again.
Do you know what EDK learned today? Not be such an obvious Obama concern troll. Because some people are getting it.
Do you even read what that fucker says?
Cheryl from Maryland
@stuckinred: Shad Roe with Bacon as per John McPhee’s recipe in “The Founding Fish,” fresh asparagus, lemon slices for both, grated parmesan for the grass, chardonnay. Ah Spring!
MattR
@Omnes Omnibus:
I can only imagine how she would have treated John as he made his conversion to the light.
@Hermione Granger-Weasley:
How? By stating things that many reasonable Democrats believe? Things that I would expect somebody who has recently moved to our side to say? Was that how? You have decided that EDK is faking it but you never actually provide proof of that. Everything that you provide as proof depends on your assumption that EDK is still a free market libertarian trying to fool everyone that he is not.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@Omnes Omnibus:
no, dumbass, he learns what works for his audience of wistful hopeful juicers that are totally invested in the EDK conversion myth.
He is playing you like a three pound brookie on 20 pound test.
now watch what happens next. He overreached on concern trolling Obama…..he is going to back that down and apolo and say you guys showed him the error of his ways.
/spit
Omnes Omnibus
@Hermione Granger-Weasley: Few people here are lapping up anything. One can be an interesting writer and be wrong. One can stimulate interesting and informative conversations without being correct. As far as I am concerned, the guy could become a communist or go full fascist, and it will not cause me to lose a minute of sleep.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@MattR: go take a walk in the Free Market Fantasy Forest. Im not the only one that sees through him.
Maude
@Cheryl from Maryland:
I really, really hate you. Had pork chop, baked potato with real butter, carrots and applesauce. I won’t be talking to you for a whole week.
@mrami:
Had a look at it, woah. I downloaded the pdf FAQs.
@sukabi:
Oh, god, don’t remind me. Now it’s Obama hasn’t mentioned the FICA tax, he’s getting rid of SS. Idiot doesn’t get that it’s for a year.
MattR
@Hermione Granger-Weasley: WP wont let me edit my comment so I couldn’t add this perfect example of you seeing everything EDK says through tinted glasses.
Do you really disagree with this? It seems obvious that it is better to provide people with a living wage than for them to be unemployed and on welfare.
@Hermione Granger-Weasley: Oh goody. Other morons on this blog have overreaching emotional reactions to things they read on the Internet. That is real proof of something.
scav
I’d go further. EDK could not change at all and still make more of a contribution that our little lady of the monomania. It’s like being infected by a text-scraping spambot that radiates smug.
Beta Magellan
@Bob Loblaw: @Bob Loblaw:
Here’s what I wrote (looking back it wasn’t so much of a defense as it was an explanation):
Based on my (educated and pretty liberal) family, Kirk got a fairly good number of cross-over votes because people remembered his moderate track record, at least in the Chicago area; it was also a way of voicing displeasure with the choice of Giannoulias as a senate candidate and the Illinois machine. To be honest, either candidate was bound to be an embarrassment at some point—Kirk because of his habitual lying and policy flip flops, Giannoulias because of his shady background. At least Kirk has the advantage of not being connected to Obama—anything dumb from a Senator Giannoulias would have been immediately connected to the president, resulting in the media shitstorm of the century.
Bob Loblaw
@Omnes Omnibus:
Come on now, let the little baby have her proselytizer patrol.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@Omnes Omnibus: allow me to repeat myself.
Of course i hate him. I HATE all those lying freemarket fucktards that fucked America over in the name of the free market. I HATE that 1% of the population owns 24% of the wealth. I HATE that 25% of american preschoolers live below the poverty line. I HATE what is going on in A-stan. I HATE that free market education solutions like NCLB have put America in third world standing in math and science.
And especially I HATE idiots like you that are all ready to let EDK and his free market homies have a do over.
I wouldn’t care if he was evolving communist or full fascist either. I care that he is a FREEMARKET FUCKTARD AND PEOPLE LIKE YOU ARE AGREEING WITH HIM.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@Bob Loblaw: WTF has that got to do with anything? Anyways, I can’t proselytize christians.
It is quite impossible.
We all believe in the same Al-lah.
;)
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@scav: you have obviously missed my islam posts and my IQ posts. it must be at least tri-mania.
scav
@Hermione Granger-Weasley: missed with pleasure and intent.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@MattR: dude, front-loading organized labor is a total free market solution. its part of their fucking bootstrapping mantra.
MattR
@Hermione Granger-Weasley: And it is a good fucking idea. Regardless of who said it or why. Are you going to dispute that?
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@MattR:
Im not the only one that sees it.
And he isnt “faking it”. He just never spouts his free market evangelism here. Because he knows he would get shredded.
He FUCKING SAYS HE BELIEVES in free market solutions.
Just not here.
Omnes Omnibus
@Hermione Granger-Weasley: What do you mean by a do over? If you are speaking of accepting reformed conservatives, I think it is a good idea, don’t you? You should, given your stated personal history and the fact that you infest this particular blogs. Or do you want pull the ladder up behind you? If that is the case, it is an unattractive carryover from your time as a conservative. Finally, FWIW, I doubt that Kain will ever be anything other than a left leaning libertarian. As such, I tend to think that I will agree with him on some things but disagree with him on others.
Omnes Omnibus
@Bob Loblaw:I would prefer not to.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@MattR: yup, i disagree. its like EDK’s fantasy freemarket forest. We are not starting from initial conditions where front-loading (bootstrapping) organized labor would work. We starting from down in the hole that free market solutions dug for us.
HE NEVER HAS ANY SOLUTIONS FOR WHERE WE ARE NOW.
Because like all libertarians he thinks one more freemarket try will work.
And you guys wanna let them.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@Omnes Omnibus: I wasn’t clear. A do over for free market solutions.
And I do not believe there are any real libertarians in America.
Could you name one please?
MattR
@Hermione Granger-Weasley: His solution is to try and move us to a better place where workers actually have enough leverage to negotiate good working conditions and a solid salary instead of accepting the wealth/income distribution status quo while having the government make up the slack for all the things the working class is gradually losing. This is neither a unique nor controversial position. It is something that I thought the vast majority of progressives believed in. But because EDK is saying it, you are adamantly opposed to it. (EDIT: PS. Saying that you want workers to have enough power to demand safe working conditions does not mean that you do not want the government to set safety standards.)
@Hermione Granger-Weasley: BTW, what do you consider an acceptable alternative to “free market solutions”?
mrami
@Maude: The next step is to find 8,000-10,000 sq ft of land in Cincinnati I can rent… :)
Omnes Omnibus
@Hermione Granger-Weasley: Excellent, now you want to play No True Scotsman.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@MattR: social justice solutions. Freemarket solutions are what destroyed our economy and our school system.
NCLB is a free market solution. Schools get funded from standardized test results. America is 25th in math and 20th in science in world rank.
Healthcare vouchers are a freemarket solution.
ACA is a social justice solution.
MattR
@Hermione Granger-Weasley: And what exactly do you mean by a social justice system? Gimme an example, not an amorphous term.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@Omnes Omnibus: im black irish. ;)
I guess we could play no true celt.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@MattR: oh thank you.
Here is my favorite proposed social justice solution.
The Heckman Equation
EDK and the glibertarians all propose fixing teachers, fixing schools. Those are all free market solutions.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@MattR: a social justice system would have REGULATED markets augmented with social justice solution like Heckmans.
He won a nobel in economics, did you know?
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@MattR: ACA/Obamacare is a social justice solution.
What does EDK say about Obamacare?
He concern trolls it and tells lies about the Netherlands HC system being a “freemarket” system.
It isn’t..
MattR
@Hermione Granger-Weasley: @Hermione Granger-Weasley: That is the entirety of your answer? You can’t even bother to give a general description/definition of what you consider a social justice solution to be. I understand where you are coming from about healthcare, though I would say that ACA is a step towards a social justice solution that still contains many free market elements. And I would also ask what the social justice solution to our education system would be. There is nothing in Heckman’s Equation that could not be incorporated into a NCLB/standardized testing based system.
And now I see your “extended” answer that a social justice solution is really just an enhanced free market system which seems quite strange to me since you are opposed to free market solutions.
BTW, your logical fallacy is believing that antyone who thinks that we need to fix teachers and schools rather than completely overhauling the system to reprioritize education starting at an early age is a free market glibertarian.
Ash Can
Several commenters trying to have a reasoned debate with a sugar-buzzed 14-year-old, evidently.
MattR
@Hermione Granger-Weasley:
Actually it is. You have just pidgeonholed your definition of “free market” to be so narrow that it cannot include a market of companies operating under strict government regulation. Yet at other times, your definition of “free market” is much more expansive when you want to denigrate something, such as education vouchers.
@Hermione Granger-Weasley:
You do know that it had nothing to do with his conclusions on early childhood education or social justice solutions.
debit
Why do you guys engage her? Seriously, you cannot change her mind and you just encourage her to threadjack even harder.
ETA: I mean, once she said that people who use the pie filter are idiots and cowards. Then not three posts later she asked for a FP pie filter. When I pointed out this contradiction, she said it was not illogical because she was a special case.
There is no reasoning with her. None.
MattR
@debit: Sorry. I’m bored and procrastinating from housework. Figured the thread was dead so there was no harm, but you are right that I am only encouraging her.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@MattR: no. social justice solutions are the opposite of free market solutions.
For example education.
Thirty years of data shows the highest correlate with student performance is parental involvement, and the highest correlate with school performance is SES of the parents. The shrinkage of the middle class, ghettoization, hollowing out families with parents working two jobs, the inequality gap are the problems.
NCLB causes teaching to the test, and lowering test standards to meet quota. EDK’s latest proposal is a kind of NCLB for teachers–standardized certification and accreditation. McMegan is for firing bad teachers and merit pay. Like NCLB sought to make all children above average, EDK and McMegan want to make all teachers above average.
Omnes Omnibus
@debit:Sometimes, I am bored.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@debit: dude i wrote my own. the innovation of the market.
you are all so invested in the EDK conversion mythology you don’t even understand what he is saying anymore.
Free markets cause this.
MattR
@Hermione Granger-Weasley:
And yet your definition of a social justice system (provided in that second blockquote above) has the free market as its base.
And yet when EDK wants to increase wages to strengthen the middle class and decrease the wealth disparity you disparage him for that as a free market absolutist.
I agree about the problems with NCLB but there are plenty of non-libertarians who believe that something needs to be done to measure and improve the quality of teachers and schools. Some of those even agree with everything in Heckman’s equation. I have not read the details of either EDK or McMegan’s proposals but you seem to be making the leap that requiring some minimal level of competence is the same as wanting all teachers to be above average. We license drivers (or accredit doctors) without requiring that they all be above average, right?
@Hermione Granger-Weasley:
As if this mitigates the hypocrisy.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@MattR:
no that is a lie. EDK is trying to redefine freemarkets, not me.
Like Cat said.
Cat – April 6, 2011 | 1:03 am · Link
@E.D. Kain:
See the thing is, you don’t get to define what a free market is since its a term of art in economics that has an agreed upon definition.
What you are describing is the opposite of a free market, not a “Free Market Plus” or “New and Improved Free Market”.
If you cant understand that, well, its you with the problem.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@MattR:
did you really say that?
That is not a free market. That is a regulated market.
Are you crazy?
MattR
@Hermione Granger-Weasley: Fine. If we are going to go with the strict definition of free market then there is no such thing as an actual free market in existence today so there is no point in discussing them at all.
Which also means I get to do the following:
@Hermione Granger-Weasley:
This is a lie. It could not have been the free market.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@MattR:
that is my point. fixing schools, fixing teachers are all free market solutions.
Fixing parents, fixing families are the social justice solutions. Jobs, education, housing, nutrition, pre-school education, civil welfare, urban renewal…FUCKING SOCIAL JUSTICE.
arguingwithsignposts
@Hermione Granger-Weasley: It would be social justice for a lot of the commentariat here if you would SHUT THE FUCK UP about Kain.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@MattR: okfine.
Belief in the invisible hand of the market and freemarket solutions caused this.
bettah?
Then what did EDK mean when he said
MattR
@Hermione Granger-Weasley:
I agree with this premise, but I have no real clue what your point was as it relates to my comment. Are you saying that anyone who thinks that fixing schools and teachers might be part of the education solution is a free market glibertarian? Because my point is that there are a heckuva lot of people who want to implement both sets of solutions and they don’t neatly fall into that category.
Omnes Omnibus
@MattR: Excellent, now the discussion among sentient beings can be centered around deciding how much, and what kind of, regulation is optimal. HG_W/m_c won’t ever get to this thought because she appears to be a complete Manichean.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@arguingwithsignposts: i’d be thrilled to.
He can just not comment/post here and you can go slobber over him at Forbes.
Isn’t that what you said you were going to do?
arguingwithsignposts
@Hermione Granger-Weasley: Or you can STFU and the rest of us can get on with the real world instead of your pretentious distributed jesusland cudlip bullshit.
I don’t go to Forbes and I could give a shit less for LoOG, but you have done more damage to this interweb home than EDK could hope to do.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@MattR: oh, i’d be glad of hybrid solutions. I have said that. But EDK never proposes social justice solutions.
None of the glibertarians and conservatives do in my experience.
Show me one.
Here I can show you how EDK treats the Heckman equation. He leaves out nutrition and social justice entirely, and makes it into a free market solution.
Charter schools is fixing schools.
Omnes Omnibus
@Hermione Granger-Weasley: You do understand that the only choices with respect to a writer are not worship or hate, right?
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@Omnes Omnibus: I am kindof manichean about EDK because he gets a pass from you guyz when he is exactly the same inside as Sully and McMegan.
He just gets brownie points here from surface-critting other glibertarians and then goes back to his home turf and says shit like I’m an ombudsman or I believe in free markets.
MattR
@Hermione Granger-Weasley:
Please, keep mentioning this innocuous phrase and keep linking to the Free Market as a Forest post. None of us have seen or heard it before amd they are clearly going to change our mind at this point.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@Omnes Omnibus: i tried ignoring him.
But concern trolling my president?
Word.
I will cheerfully deconstruct him when he shows here.
He can have you guys go comment at Forbes and monitor his conversion mythos. I never go there.
;)
alternatively have Cole ban me again.
you should mail him.
;)
Omnes Omnibus
@Hermione Granger-Weasley: You clearly did not read more than one third of the words that I have written here. I am going to go to something more worthwhile. Perhaps I will hit my toes with a ball peen hammer for a while.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@MattR: it is not an innocuous phrase to me.
I HATE those freemarket fucktards. They nearly destroyed our economy and our educational system with their freemarket fuckery.
And you go right ahead and bend over because here they come again.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@Omnes Omnibus: I lissened to you on populism. I read somethings and decided you were right and I was wrong.
But I am not wrong here.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@MattR: do you even read the fucking tags here?
from Coles post on the bankstahs.
Omnes Omnibus
@Hermione Granger-Weasley: One of the problems that is happening here is is that there appears to be a fundamental disconnect between you and everyone else on EDK. He is, as I noted above, pretty much a left leaning libertarian. This means that I think he is wrong on a great many issues. He also, in my view gets some issues right. In addition, whether right or wrong, he adds to the conversation, if only by sparking furious rebuttals. Beyond that, I could really give two shits about him. I suspect that most of the denizens of this blog feel the same way.
Yutsano
@Omnes Omnibus: You must be really really really really bored. I suppose getting a translation of the sour cherry tart recipe is out of the question at the moment?
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@arguingwithsignposts: gee whiz…where will you go then?
Didn’t you say you were leaving because of me?
I know! You can go hang wid Hall Monitor Allan.
;)
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@Omnes Omnibus: i dont care if he is a left leaning “libertarian”. He is also a freemarket fucktard and a concern troll and I WILL deconstruct his posts and comments and anyone that gets in the way is going to have a hermione-sized hole in them.
And hopefully he will stop coming here.
He is just link whoring anyways. His Forbes gig isnt pullin’ many hits.
He isn’t far right enough for them.
Omnes Omnibus
@Yutsano: Just went to the family recipe collection book to look for it. We only seem to have the version in Romanian. It begins with separating the whites and yolks of six eggs. My parents must have the translation at their place. I will see if my Dad will email it. Thank you for the reminder.
Omnes Omnibus
@Hermione Granger-Weasley: Off to get the ball peen hammer then. You will, of course, do as you choose. It is too bad that you have so little respect for everyone else around here, but thems the breaks, I guess.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@Omnes Omnibus:
I didn’t know you were emo. self-mutilation is so 20th century.
Posted in: Free Markets Solve Everything, Fuck The Middle-Class, Fuck The Poor
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@Yutsano: hai! when is asiangirlman going to start bunking with the LoOGies?
I can’t comment there but I would lurve to read her posts.
;)
Mandramas
Free market, as any concept in social science, is not unequivocally determined. As a mental experiment, calibrate your free market meter as 1 (perfect absolute free market) in a hypothetical world where all the goods can be produced in 0 time, no cost are incurred in transactions or traveling, you can check instantly and perfectly true all the prices of a good in a infinite array of sellers, there are no taxes, there are no government, there are a infinite number of buyers with perfect intelligence that always choose the best offers. And nobody ever changes prices since it could cause a prices run, etc.
Calibrate your free market meter as 0 in a hypothetical world where there are no money, no choices, no private ownership, all the citizen have exactly the same rights and duties (or equivalents ones) and all the choices are made in a distributed government like structure where all the citizens can contribute in equal capacity.
In a sense, both are ideal condition that can’t be reached due to the current status of technology (arguably, those worlds can be reached in a utopic post scarcity society, like Star Trek or the Culture).
A perfect keynesian world probably is reached nearly 0.6 o 0.7. A Cuban style of communism probably is near 0.3. This is not a utopic scale side.
An interesting point is that a Galtian nightmare world is not more near to Free Market 1 that a keynesian economy, since oligopolies, heavy defense budgets, oil wars, cheap enslaved labor, etc, are not features of the utopic free market 1.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@Mandramas: salaams Mandramas.
Here is a more practical definition of a free market.
johnny walker
Open thread… ok, I got an open thread question. Given that Hermione Granger-Weasley is m_c, everyone realizes and acknowledges this and neither evading bans nor the use of sockpuppets are against the rules that got laid out recently, why waste time jerking people around with the name change?
It really only
takes a couple seconds of “distributed jesusland,”
cudlips and distinctive formatting
before the whole thing becomes crystal clear anyway.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@johnny walker: distributed jesusland is actually a very interesting concept. It is based on this Dr. Manzi post at Sully’s.
The Paradox of Libertarianism
Comments are here.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@johnny walker: I told Jim that his libertarian utopia was just localized mob rule, a kind of Distributed Jesusland. Jesusland is from here.
I think the concept of distributed jesusland explains the midterms pretty well. Conservative america is localized mob rule in redstates and rural pockets.
Jesusland also features in one of my favorite scifi books.
Do you feel the goose walking across your grave yet?
Allan
Meanwhile, in the parts of the internets where no one knows who matoko-Hermoine-Granger-Weasley-chan is, Sully has admitted that we, well actually he, has been meep-meeped again by Obama. And he wonders why we, well actually he, never learns.
FlipYrWhig
@MikeBoyScout: You know what, it just occurred to me. The Friendless Foxes making weird claims about how you can get Planned Parenthood services at Walgreens are probably thinking of… pregnancy tests.
General Stuck
@Allan:
Too funny.
There is a reason why no one for 100 years was able to pass HCR, when so many have tried and failed. Some day they will believe. But I doubt anytime soon. sigh
sukabi
@Hermione Granger-Weasley: Hannibal Lecter and Jeffery Dahmer would approve.
johnny walker
@Hermione Granger-Weasley: Uh, neat. Look, I’m really not interested in your custom idioms. My point is that while I don’t follow these comments regularly, I do remember you being banned; now you obviously aren’t, nobody seems to be under any misconception about who you are, and your behavior hasn’t changed a bit. You’re still hellbent on trolling EDK into submission, so the whole thing is just a bit confusing.
Honestly, I don’t really care either way; it’s not my blog and given that I tend to read these things hours after the fact it isn’t hard to skip past your spam. I’m just confused about the point of the name change. Is “Hermione Granger-Weasley” the brown paper bag to the m_c street-corner 40 oz?
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@johnny walker: /facepalm
Oh, of course.
You are one of those “Our EDK is learning” fanboiz.
my bad.
You see, i shed the crysalis and move on sometimes. Its a new nic.
Sometimes its just situational, like using angry aspie white grrl to post at ABL.
je m’amuse.
And you are wrong about my being banned over EDK initially.
Cole banned me for my comments on the evils of missionariism on the Vile Poor Black Muslim Somali Pirates Kill Noble Rich White Christian American Missionaries Thread.
tant pis.
Like I said, go slobber over EDK at Forbes or the LoOG. If he shows here spouting his recycled freemarket crapology, or concern trolling Obama, ima kneecap him and roll him for change.
Posted in: Free Markets Solve Everything, Fuck The Middle-Class, Fuck The Poor
Posted in: Assholes, Free Markets Solve Everything, Glibertarianism
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@sukabi: approve of what?
Distributed Jesusland earned me a ban from Friedersdorf and a chuckle from Dr. Manzi.
Sometimes I do things to make people laff, sometimes I do things to make people cry….like Reihan Salaam.
its the interwebz.
/shrug
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@johnny walker: And Kain was was just link whoring anyways. I bet Forbes is going to give him the hook soon.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@johnny walker: I also use quellcrist cavalli-sforza at Drum’s, and my muslim name at my Islam blog.
situational.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@General Stuck: I can understand why Distributed Jesusland hasn’t read this; not exactly WSJ demographic. …and indeed why Rove and Dr. Krauthammer would not exactly popularize it…
But surely Sully read it.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
And for all you EDK fanboiz.
He SAID this.
Deal.
Posted in: Free Markets Solve Everything, Fuck The Middle-Class, Fuck The Poor
Posted in: Assholes, Free Markets Solve Everything, Glibertarianism
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@Allan: Do those parts of the interwebz know who Hall Monitor Allan is?
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@Allan: and actually Sully knows EXACTLY who I am. He has even frontpaged my mails in the past. But that was before it dawned on him that conservatism is done for.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@Allan: I actually linked Sully that WSJ article. Don’t you wonder why Sully and EDK have both started concern trolling Obama suddenly?
They both usta agree with him and praise him.
Its because there are no viable conservative candidates.
And they know it.