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You are here: Home / Aching in Akin Country

Aching in Akin Country

by John Cole|  August 25, 201212:29 pm| 136 Comments

This post is in: Decline and Fall

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Here’s a sad story about sad status of dairy farmers in drought ridden Missouri. They’re praying for help from God, and begging for help from the government, which can do very little because Repulicans like Todd Akin in the house are blocking the farm bill.

I feel bad for these folks, but you know what they say about making your bed.

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Reader Interactions

136Comments

  1. 1.

    Villago Delenda Est

    August 25, 2012 at 12:31 pm

    As long as these idiots keep voting for scum like Akin, no invisible sky buddy will come to save them.

    The Lord helps those who help themselves. They’re not helping themselves by voting Rethuglican.

  2. 2.

    Dennis SGMM

    August 25, 2012 at 12:32 pm

    If Obama would just turn off the drought then things would be hunky-dory.

  3. 3.

    shortstop

    August 25, 2012 at 12:33 pm

    And many, if not most, of them will vote for Akin in November.

  4. 4.

    amk

    August 25, 2012 at 12:35 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: Bingo. Those MO farmers reaped what they sowed, cole. You fucking voted for drowning the government in a bathtub. Now your wish is granted.

  5. 5.

    Yutsano

    August 25, 2012 at 12:35 pm

    @shortstop: Yup. Becuz bebehs and good family values and hippies spitting on soldiers. Or something. And they’ll get what they deserve. Sorry but I’m tired of feeling bad for these folks.

  6. 6.

    pseudonymous in nc

    August 25, 2012 at 12:37 pm

    They’ll also keep buying GM seed while denying evolution. I think it was Charles Pierce who wrote about the disconnect between the microcosm and macrocosm there.

  7. 7.

    Corner Stone

    August 25, 2012 at 12:38 pm

    It’s in their backyard now. Guess what?
    Shit just got real son.

  8. 8.

    danah gaz (fka gaz)

    August 25, 2012 at 12:38 pm

    @Yutsano: I am too.

    I dislike human suffering, but my well of sympathy for people that cut off their own noses because they’re afraid some Ni-CLANG somewhere might be getting a “free hand out” is pretty limited.

    Let them reap what they have sown. The seeds of hate do not produce fruitful crops.

  9. 9.

    James E. Powell

    August 25, 2012 at 12:40 pm

    I’m thinking, “Screw them, they vote Republican.” Am I wrong to feel this way?

  10. 10.

    Cassidy

    August 25, 2012 at 12:42 pm

    @James E. Powell: No.

    Bootstraps BItches! Go get you some.

  11. 11.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    August 25, 2012 at 12:42 pm

    To bad Akin can’t do anything for them. If there was only some elected official in the Federal government who represented his congressional district.

  12. 12.

    jheartney

    August 25, 2012 at 12:43 pm

    Actually Akin represents a mostly suburban district. The outstate farmers elected other, equally right-wing maniacs.

    I think a lot of this is due to the long-term effect of wingnut talk radio. In the rural areas, Rush is what’s on, and for the most part there’s no pushback. If you live your whole life out there you might never realize there’s a different point of view.

  13. 13.

    Corner Stone

    August 25, 2012 at 12:43 pm

    ‘It was the system that failed us’

    One wonders if he’ll ever stop to reflect on how that came to be?

  14. 14.

    lacp

    August 25, 2012 at 12:44 pm

    They certainly would have reaped what they’ve sowed if they had voted for Akin. Of course, they would have been in some legal trouble, too, since according to the story they live in a different Congressional district.

  15. 15.

    Linda Featheringill

    August 25, 2012 at 12:45 pm

    I sincerely hope that DCCC or somebody is pushing ads that point out that Dems tried to pass a bill for relief but that the Republican Representatives have blocked the bill. Somebody needs to point out to them that their representatives have refused to help them.

    Dunno if it would make some of them stop and think about their political choices. Even so, the I-told-you-so effort would feel good.

  16. 16.

    amk

    August 25, 2012 at 12:45 pm

    @lacp:

    because Repulicans like Todd Akin in the house

  17. 17.

    beltane

    August 25, 2012 at 12:46 pm

    These people would find God’s help more forthcoming if they stopped voting for Republicans.

  18. 18.

    danah gaz (fka gaz)

    August 25, 2012 at 12:46 pm

    This situation is downright biblical. It’s too bad the wingnuts aren’t interested in reflecting on scripture, rather than spewing whatever parts serve to justify their hate.

  19. 19.

    NancyDarling

    August 25, 2012 at 12:46 pm

    This is leading to lots of abandoned animals. I read last year about the number of abandoned donkeys in Texas. Charles Pierce covered abandoned horses a few days ago in his drought report. The cost of hay is so high that rescuers are really strapped for money and stretched to their limits. I’ll see if I can find a place to donate $ to them, if anyone is interested.

  20. 20.

    mamayaga

    August 25, 2012 at 12:46 pm

    Unfortunately, it will be all too easy to convince these dopes that the reason aid is not forthcoming is that Obama already gave it all to “those people.”

  21. 21.

    GregB

    August 25, 2012 at 12:49 pm

    According to Talking Points Memo, a website posting and email press release from Boehner’s office on Monday says that the president, “continues to blame anyone and everyone for the drought but himself.”

    It’s time for Obama to take some responsibility for the drought my friends.

  22. 22.

    BGinCHI

    August 25, 2012 at 12:49 pm

    I’m guessing the rationale is that the money that could help with the drought is buying T-bones and Cadillacs in E. St Louis.

    I can’t fucking believe how simple it is to gin up racial resentment in this country.

  23. 23.

    raven

    August 25, 2012 at 12:49 pm

    xin loi motherfuckers

  24. 24.

    ? Martin

    August 25, 2012 at 12:50 pm

    Many days I think that California would make a very fine country.

  25. 25.

    Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God

    August 25, 2012 at 12:50 pm

    Just one more voice for the ‘fuck ’em’ chorus.

    BTW, should Romney/Ryan win, the remaining Democrats should push for a Constitutional Amendment along the lines of “a state shall receive no more than 5% in Federal funds than it sent to DC in Federal taxes”. (The 5% to allow for genuine disasters/aid/etc). Not likely to pass anytime soon, but it will put the Red states on the defensive w.r.t. the fiscal responsibility trope.

    Most of the “freeloader” states are Red, and since they won’t let the rest of us transition into a 21st century economy, let them taste the bitter fruits of their willful ignorance.

    Great Optics, as the kids say.

  26. 26.

    Chris

    August 25, 2012 at 12:51 pm

    I feel bad for those who voted against him. Hell, I even feel bad for those who stayed home. But fuck the others. You get what you vote for.

  27. 27.

    Villago Delenda Est

    August 25, 2012 at 12:52 pm

    @GregB:

    It really is a shame that the President cannot, by decree, promulgate the Farm Bill and bypass the obstructionist asswipes in the House and Senate.

    Obviously, Obama’s failure to do so is why he should take the blame for this. Fuck that checks and balances shit in that scrap of fucking paper that is the Constitution. Obama should take charge and just, by fiat, make the Farm Bill law.

    No matter what Boner and Cantor say. Fuck them!

  28. 28.

    Dennis SGMM

    August 25, 2012 at 12:52 pm

    “We didn’t fail. We did everything right,” said Argall’s wife, Jeanette. “It was the system that failed us.”

    It was “the system,” not the Republicans in Congress. Republican voters are incapable of connecting this sort of outcome with the votes they cast. When things go to hell it isn’t their obstructionist party that gets the blame it’s “the system.” Well, my drought-stricken friends, you are responsible for “the system” in this instance and until you wise up to that fact you’re going to eat more and more shit. Bon appétit!

  29. 29.

    Doggie D

    August 25, 2012 at 12:53 pm

    Being a Republican, Representative Akin is clearly an enemy of womyn. However, there is a shred of correlation between stress and fertility. Web MD:

    “Pregnancy was much more likely to occur during months when couples reported feeling “good” — happy and relaxed. It was less likely to occur during the months they reported feeling tense or anxious.”

    So the lesson to be learned from this if you are a womyn and do not wish to become punished with a baby following a rape is to not be happy and relaxed when being raped.

  30. 30.

    Ann Rynd

    August 25, 2012 at 12:56 pm

    Raining frogs in Tampa, Monday morning.
    Locusts Tuesday, lunchtime.
    Ann Romney turning into pillar of salt, Wednesday before tea.

  31. 31.

    Richard

    August 25, 2012 at 12:56 pm

    Funny how all it takes is a bit of misfortune to convert someone into a would be “lazy socialist moocher”.

  32. 32.

    Shawn in ShowMe

    August 25, 2012 at 12:56 pm

    @Linda Featheringill:

    You’re going to see McCaskill ads hitting Akin hard over the farm bill over the coming weeks. She’s already laying the groundwork:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXIV7CPuWN8

    “One of those people that is critically blocking this relief for farmers and ranchers right now is Todd Akin. He has never voted for a farm bill, he has refused to support this farm bill and in this farm bill is the lifeline that Missouri agriculture needs.”

  33. 33.

    ? Martin

    August 25, 2012 at 12:56 pm

    Keep reminding the farmers – the Democratic Senate passed the farm bill ages ago. Obama wants to sign it but the Republican House won’t pass it.

  34. 34.

    Villago Delenda Est

    August 25, 2012 at 12:59 pm

    The market and the climate are bending these dairy farmers over and rogering them something fierce, and suddenly, they see the need for some statist intervention to protect them from the invisible hand that refuses to give them a reacharound.

    Funny, that.

    There is no global climate change, the free market will solve all problems.

    Keep fucking those chickens, dumbshits.

  35. 35.

    Pope Bandar bin Turtle

    August 25, 2012 at 12:59 pm

    but you know what they say about making your bed.

    You lie in it?

    Or, it brings May flowers? Pilgrims??

  36. 36.

    mamayaga

    August 25, 2012 at 1:00 pm

    Not just the Republican voting that makes it hard to sympathize, but the climate change denial as well. This drought is just the first of many more to come, largely as a result of a disaster we knew was developing thirty years ago. How many of these people took it seriously and did anything in their lives to reduce carbon pollution?

    Of course, for the same reason those who are not farmers and also denied the obvious are due for the same comeuppance when food prices go through the roof. It will be cold comfort, though, since that will hit everyone, no matter what they’ve said or done in the past about climate change.

    If the rugged individuals of America were teachable, it would be a teachable moment about how we’re all connected. I won’t hold my breath, though…

  37. 37.

    suzanne

    August 25, 2012 at 1:00 pm

    My grandfather-in-law owns one of the few remaining family-owned cattle farms in Fayetteville, AR, just south of the Missouri border. He,s had to sell half of his cattle this year because the drought has been so bad that his pastures, which I remember as green as Kermit, are now as brown as the desert sand here in Phoenix. Hay has more than quadrupled in price, and he can’t afford to feed them all.

    But, by God, he’s gonna vote Republican.

  38. 38.

    Mino

    August 25, 2012 at 1:01 pm

    @Doggie D: Shred is right. Another claim by doctors that they know something when they have nothing but “faith” it is true. Until they find out otherwise. Like hormones for menopause.

  39. 39.

    marcopolo

    August 25, 2012 at 1:02 pm

    Although it may be safe to assume that a lot of the farmers in rural MO have voted for Republican congresscritters (look at the election results), I didn’t see anything in the article stating that any of the farmers interviewed voiced a political preference. So the kneejerk “these guys are sowing what they reaped from the federal gov’t” are slightly annoying.

    I’d also point out that our country’s farm policy, whether from the R or D side, is much more friendly & aligned towards the larger producers than these family farmers. As someone who is pursuing organic vegetable farming near St. Louis (another type of farming that gets short shrift from our national farm policy) my sympathies go out to these folks.

    Finally, am I the only person who is totally appalled that someone would start a farming business by borrowing $400,000? That is such an incredible financial hole to be digging out of I can’t imagine it. Which is really ironic when you consider that is pretty much how Romney got his start at Bain–pretty much 100% borrowed capital.

  40. 40.

    Villago Delenda Est

    August 25, 2012 at 1:02 pm

    @Shawn in ShowMe:

    This is exactly right.

    But then again, it’s a “negative” ad! The Village will swoon about how “both sides do it!”

    As some obscure mid-20th century Missouri political figure once noted, the Rethugs scream like stuck pigs if you tell the truth about them.

    And the vermin of the Village are attacked by the vapors.

  41. 41.

    Roger Moore

    August 25, 2012 at 1:02 pm

    @Doggie D:
    You’re assuming that the difference in fertility is because of how the women were feeling. Given that there’s a known relationship between stress and impotence, maybe it’s because the men are shooting blanks.

  42. 42.

    Corner Stone

    August 25, 2012 at 1:02 pm

    @Shawn in ShowMe: Holy crap! An actually good bit from Sen McCaskill!
    Yay!

  43. 43.

    Smiling Mortician

    August 25, 2012 at 1:04 pm

    @Ann Rynd: I would be willing to pay a cable company for the first time in decades in order to watch this on teevee.

  44. 44.

    Spatula

    August 25, 2012 at 1:04 pm

    I grew up and spent most of my life among retards just like this in Kansas.

    They live in a fantasy world where they are “fiercely independent” salt of the earth, when in reality the government has supported their entire industry and made possible their way of life ever since the depression.

    And they will never admit that, and they vote right wing fascist Republican.

    So…you know, fuck them.

    Also too: They are supremely self centered and selfish; feeling they are somehow OWED this farmer’s way of life.

  45. 45.

    MikeBoyScout

    August 25, 2012 at 1:06 pm

    The article refers to Missouri congresswoman Jo Ann Emerson ( R ).
    Here’s some of her claptrap.

    Spurring Private Sector Job Growth
    Too many in Washington just aren’t listening. We need jobs. We need jobs created and sustained by the private sector, not the federal government. Last year President Obama and liberals in Congress forced through a nearly trillion dollar stimulus bill which failed miserably. Our unemployment rate remains at record levels and it seems the only entity hiring is the federal government.
    The government shouldn’t be in the business of creating jobs, it should be creating the conditions necessary for private employers to create jobs. This means we must keep taxes low, refrain from imposing onerous new regulations and mandates on our small businesses, and put this nation’s economy back on track.

    How’s that working out for Missouri?

  46. 46.

    James E. Powell

    August 25, 2012 at 1:07 pm

    @Shawn in ShowMe:

    Some one needs a short course in how to express herself on political issues. How about “The Democrats are ready to help these good people, but Todd Akin and the Republicans won’t pass the farm bill. Call him up and tell him to get it done.”

  47. 47.

    Corner Stone

    August 25, 2012 at 1:07 pm

    @marcopolo:

    Finally, am I the only person who is totally appalled that someone would start a farming business by borrowing $400,000?

    The amount was interesting but the stunner for me was they did it “a little more than a year ago”.
    Holy shit but who was dumb enough to borrow a half a million freakin dollars to start farming commercially when all around you the world was coming to an end?

  48. 48.

    Tommy D Cosmology

    August 25, 2012 at 1:08 pm

    The huge tornado in Joplin didn’t teach these bigoted religious extremist about man-made climate change, I don’t think this drought will either.

  49. 49.

    Davis X. Machina

    August 25, 2012 at 1:08 pm

    @suzanne:

    But, by God, he’s gonna vote Republican.

    Smells like team spirit.

    People don’t always define ‘self-interest’ as ‘economic self-interest.

  50. 50.

    Haydnseek

    August 25, 2012 at 1:08 pm

    @Corner Stone: I have an uncle who is a farmer in Missouri. He’s also a hard-core wingnut. The land has been in the family for generations. He was bitching about the lack of rain, something perfectly natural for a farmer to do. Then he started bitching about Obama. He almost sounded like he was blaming Obama for the drought. I told him it wouldn’t rain because he wasn’t praying hard enough for his god to strike down Obama, the gays, the liberals, Planned Parenthood, and everyone else he despises.
    I know I should feel at least somewhat guilty for issuing such a brutal smackdown to someone I basically like, when he’s not in wingnut mode, but I don’t. He’s been spewing this shit for years. I laid his ass out like Mike Tyson in his prime, and he had nuthin’, and he knew it. I don’t feel guilty. Why the fuck should I? Blood may be thicker than water, but bullshit is thicker than both. Times have changed. We’re fighting back, even when it causes pain within families. The stakes are too high to worry about hurt fee-fees this time. Silence is consent.

  51. 51.

    Villago Delenda Est

    August 25, 2012 at 1:09 pm

    @mamayaga:

    If the rugged individuals of America were teachable, it would be a teachable moment about how we’re all connected. I won’t hold my breath, though…

    The myth of the “rugged individual” is the most pernicious lie in the American pantheon of lies.

    It is utter fantasy. The closest it ever came to being real was with the coureur des bois, and they were French, for the love of all things Anglo and Protestant.

  52. 52.

    Davis X. Machina

    August 25, 2012 at 1:09 pm

    Then he started bitching about Obama. He almost sounded like he was blaming Obama for the drought.

    How’s that working out for Missouri?

    You can’t refute a theology with facts. You can’t even refute it with what’s right in front of your nose.

  53. 53.

    Doggie D

    August 25, 2012 at 1:10 pm

    There is a difference between virility and impotence Roger Moore. As an example, a man can be potent and virile or potent and in virile. The principle difference being the presence of sperm in the ejaculate.

    However, impotent and in virile are very closely correlated, as if a man can’t get an erection, it is pretty much impossible for him to ejaculate, regardless of sperm counts.

    And if there is no transfer of sperm from the male to the womyn, then the odds of the womyn getting punished with a baby are, in my opinion, pretty small in the absence of a witch doctor.

  54. 54.

    Paul

    August 25, 2012 at 1:10 pm

    I guess I don’t understand why these folks want help from the government. Wouldn’t that be socialism?

    By the way, these are the same people the keep voting for representatives that want to eliminate our government. These are the same folks that opposed the Affordable Care Act because it was tyranny or something. You can’t have it both ways…

  55. 55.

    Chris

    August 25, 2012 at 1:11 pm

    @MikeBoyScout:

    We’ve been hearing those jackasses say that again and again for thirty years plus and we’ve been doing exactly that for that long. At SOME point you’d think people would notice that the definition of insanity is getting very applicable here.

  56. 56.

    Corner Stone

    August 25, 2012 at 1:13 pm

    @James E. Powell: I was just happy she didn’t step on her own dick for a change.
    With Claire it’s the little wins you have to take.

  57. 57.

    Yutsano

    August 25, 2012 at 1:14 pm

    @Paul: These are all classic Tea Party Republicans. So they elected Congresspeople who do nothing. And now they’re getting what they wanted, which is nothing. Sympathy, I haz none.

  58. 58.

    LanceThruster

    August 25, 2012 at 1:16 pm

    Bain will come in and buy up farms and businesses at fire sale prices, while letting the governemnet (i.e. taxpayers) pick up the pieces of these destroyed lives and enterprises. Romney and Akin will still get their votes as the gummint is evil, doncha know.

  59. 59.

    Shawn in ShowMe

    August 25, 2012 at 1:17 pm

    @James E. Powell:

    Calling Todd Akin ain’t gonna do any good. He gave up his district seat to run for Senate.

    Again, Claire’s just laying the groundwork in radio, TV and newspaper interviews. You’ll see a more succint pushback in upcoming ads.

  60. 60.

    JGabriel

    August 25, 2012 at 1:17 pm

    John Cole @ Top:

    I feel bad for these folks, but you know what they say about making your bed.

    Same thing happened in Pennsylvania last year, except it was flooding rather than drought. The Times had an article (can’t find it now) about residents of Pittson, PA, whose homes were destroyed in the September 2011 floods. A couple of the residents commented on how they voted for Republicans because they wanted to cut spending for assistance to people, then were disappointed when their own US House Rep. wouldn’t lift a finger to get aid from the federal gov’t.

    You felt for them and their losses, but you also couldn’t help thinking, “You got what you voted for.”

    .

  61. 61.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 25, 2012 at 1:17 pm

    Somebody here has a style that reminds me of ol’ Brick Oven Bill.

  62. 62.

    Scuffletuffle

    August 25, 2012 at 1:18 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: This…in fact it could be argued that the Lord is doing his/her level best to demonstrate to them just how useful government support can be. Iz our farmers learning?

  63. 63.

    scav

    August 25, 2012 at 1:18 pm

    They should be on their knees, praising their GoD for the chance to demonstrate their superior culture by building it all themselves. Come on, all ye faithful! Show us those magic bootstraps as you self-levitate.

  64. 64.

    Roger Moore

    August 25, 2012 at 1:19 pm

    @James E. Powell:

    Call him up and tell him to get it done.

    That’s exactly what she doesn’t want. She isn’t worried as much about governance right now as she is about electoral strategy. She wants to be able to paint Akin as an ideologue who doesn’t give a damn about what’s good for Missouri, and having him continue to block the farm bill lets her do that. The moment he votes for the thing, she loses a potent argument for why he’d be a terrible choice for Senator.

  65. 65.

    Corner Stone

    August 25, 2012 at 1:19 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Sacrilege!

  66. 66.

    Corner Stone

    August 25, 2012 at 1:21 pm

    With a name like “Molly Ball” don’t you pretty much have to be born to party?

  67. 67.

    Yutsano

    August 25, 2012 at 1:23 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: I smell bad pizza…

  68. 68.

    NancyDarling

    August 25, 2012 at 1:23 pm

    This reminds me of a joke told in the 50’s when farm subsidies were a huge issue. This man had three new hunting dogs and before he named them, he took them out for a trial run. One he named Hustler because he really worked hard at flushing the birds. The second he named Banker, because he took the birds away from Hustler when he was retrieving them. The third he named Farmer because he sat there and howled until they gave it to him.

    This joke was told to me by a city-dweller, not a farmer.

  69. 69.

    The Republic of Stupidity

    August 25, 2012 at 1:23 pm

    @? Martin:

    Oh, it’d have plenty of problems on its own, for sure, but it’d also be the world’s 7th or mebbe 8th largest economy overnight.

    As a long-term resident of the East bay, I have no problem w/ that… becoming our own country… perhaps we can even shed SoCal in the process…

  70. 70.

    trollhattan

    August 25, 2012 at 1:24 pm

    @Dennis SGMM:
    Know what else Obama has failed to do? Come to California and stomp out these fucking forest fires, that’s what!

    Hrrrmph.

  71. 71.

    Villago Delenda Est

    August 25, 2012 at 1:24 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    Yet she can say that because she’s canny enough, just enough, to know that Akin will do no such thing, because he’s one of these idiot ideologues who will simply never, ever vote for this because of deficits and welfare and that Mooslim in the White House, that’s why!

    Akin after all blurted out, in pretty plain English, what the Rethug position is on exceptions to a ban on abortion for rape or incest. McCaskill knows that he’s a true believer and will cut off his nose to spite his own face if the demon that possesses him demands it.

  72. 72.

    Paul

    August 25, 2012 at 1:24 pm

    @Yutsano:

    These are all classic Tea Party Republicans. So they elected Congresspeople who do nothing. And now they’re getting what they wanted, which is nothing. Sympathy, I haz none

    Amen to that. Using their own terminology, it would be tyranny if the government stepped in to help them.

    I recall vividly during the health care debate how people from the Tea Party claimed it would be offensive to them if they had to start paying for other people’s health care. Well, with that selfish logic, wouldn’t it be equally offensive for these farmers to expect money from the rest of us just because there is a drought?

  73. 73.

    Dennis SGMM

    August 25, 2012 at 1:26 pm

    @The Republic of Stupidity:

    As a long-term resident of the East bay, I have no problem w/ that… becoming our own country… perhaps we can even shed SoCal in the process…

    As someone who has lived as much in San Francisco, Concord, Vallejo, Berkeley, and Santa Cruz as I’ve now lived in SoCal, fuck you.

  74. 74.

    The Ancient Randonneur

    August 25, 2012 at 1:26 pm

    What’s a few starving farm families when you can save billions and billions of “unborn children”?

  75. 75.

    Villago Delenda Est

    August 25, 2012 at 1:26 pm

    I’ll be frosted if I know what caused my last comment to go into moderation.

  76. 76.

    Josie

    August 25, 2012 at 1:27 pm

    @Doggie D: I think you missed the point of Roger Moore’s post. It sounded to me that he was saying that couples having narmal sexual relations could be producing fewer pregnancies due to the man’s level of stress instead of the woman’s.

  77. 77.

    Jennifer

    August 25, 2012 at 1:28 pm

    @Tommy D Cosmology: Yeah, I was gonna bring up that huge tornado in Joplin.

    You know, the one where Eric Cantor told all the folks who had just lost their homes, businesses, schools, churches, friends and loved ones: “we’d love to help you, but unless the president agrees to cut the budget in some other area, you’re on your own.”

    I guarantee you Joplin’s vote will go 70% or more to every Republican on the ballot.

    Still, I’d like to see a superpac or someone running an ad in SW MO reminding folks of the Republicans’ flippant attitude when the God they worship and the GOP represents pretty much wiped their town off the map. I dunno, maybe something along the lines of “God helps those who help themselves – maybe he’s trying to tell you that you aren’t helping yourself when you vote Republican.” Or “would you really vote for the guys who held your town hostage for political points in its hour of greatest need?” There are lots of possibilities. The problem with these folks is they have very short memories when it comes to the transgressions of people who tell them they hate the same folks they do. If the old saw about cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face were true, we’d have a lot of noseless motherfuckers wandering around this country.

  78. 78.

    LanceThruster

    August 25, 2012 at 1:28 pm

    @Dennis SGMM:

    x2

  79. 79.

    Linda Featheringill

    August 25, 2012 at 1:29 pm

    @Shawn in ShowMe:
    McCaskill ads hitting Akin hard over the farm bill:

    Very nice.

    I notice she doesn’t blame the “mainstream” Republicans and their supporters. She blames the extremists, the Tea Party.

  80. 80.

    Tonal Crow

    August 25, 2012 at 1:30 pm

    Our monkeying with the climate is causing one hell of a problem, and (much) worse is likely coming unless we lay off the fossil fuels pronto.

    —
    Tag: Mitt Romney’s like Sarah Palin, but more dishonest.

  81. 81.

    trollhattan

    August 25, 2012 at 1:30 pm

    @Ann Rynd:
    Out of curiousity, are Mormons allowed salt? Am pretty sure tea is on some kind of watch list.

    But the Ann-to-salt-pillar would get me to watch the convention gavel-to-gavel–must-see teebee!

  82. 82.

    NancyDarling

    August 25, 2012 at 1:31 pm

    @Dennis SGMM: Ditto. Also, too, the weather in SoCal is much better than the Bay area. My son moved to a new job in Lafayette in May and he has been stuck in airports in Oregon 3 time because SFO was fogged in. He lived in SoCal all his life and he loves both the north and the south.

    What is wrong with people?

  83. 83.

    Haydnseek

    August 25, 2012 at 1:33 pm

    @Dennis SGMM: Hey! Hey! Hey! Don’t make me have to come up there…

  84. 84.

    Dennis SGMM

    August 25, 2012 at 1:35 pm

    @NancyDarling:
    There is a subset of Bay Area residents who find it necessary to look down their noses at anyone who lives south of Palo Alto. They’re not too sure about Palo Alto either.

    I’d love to see California become a nation. That means all of it including the Central fucking Valley and its Children of the Corn residents.

  85. 85.

    Villago Delenda Est

    August 25, 2012 at 1:39 pm

    @Dennis SGMM:

    That means all of it including the Central fucking Valley and its Children of the Corn residents.

    The notorious hyper-wingtard site freerepublic.com is based in Fresno, ya know.

    “You call these grapes? They taste like Fresno!”

  86. 86.

    NancyDarling

    August 25, 2012 at 1:41 pm

    @trollhattan:There is a desert wild flower called Mormon Tea.

    The dried or roasted stems can be brewed to make a stimulating beverage. The plant contains the drug pseudoephedrine, which is sold commercially as a nasal decongestant and cold remedy. Some Old World species contain ephedrine, a stronger stimulant which is sometimes used as a weight loss and energy enhancing drug.

    I’m sure it was only used for “medicinal purposes” though. Religionists always find a way around the rules. Sorta like Ultra-Orthodox Jews hiring little Gentile boys to turn their lights on and off, or as modern ones do, put them on a timer.

  87. 87.

    Chris

    August 25, 2012 at 1:41 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    The myth of the “rugged individual” is the most pernicious lie in the American pantheon of lies.

    Most foundational myths are bullshit. Might as well explain to an Arab Nationalist that Saladin was actually a Kurd. Or to a Nazi that the word “Aryan” denotes people like Persians, Indians, (irony of irony) Gypsies. As someone else pointed out, you can’t refute a theology.

  88. 88.

    Chris

    August 25, 2012 at 1:44 pm

    @Scuffletuffle:

    This…in fact it could be argued that the Lord is doing his/her level best to demonstrate to them just how useful government support can be. Iz our farmers learning?

    Remember that joke about the priest who’s caught in a flood?

    A car drives by his house offering to take him to safety and he says “no, my son, God will save me.” Then the house floods, and a boat sails by offering to take him to safety, and he says “no, my son, God will save me.” Then everything but the roof floods, and he has to climb onto it, and a rescue helicopter comes by offering to take him to safety, and still he says “no, my son, God will save me.”

    Then everything floods, the priest drowns, he goes to heaven all depressed and asks God “Lord, why didn’t you save me?” “You idiot,” God answers. “I sent you a car, a boat and a chopper. Why didn’t you take them?”

  89. 89.

    Dennis SGMM

    August 25, 2012 at 1:45 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est:
    I have friends in Fresno, Pixley, and Modesto. We’ve known each other long enough to scrupulously avoid talking politics.

  90. 90.

    Doggie D

    August 25, 2012 at 1:47 pm

    The airports in Oregon really aren’t bad. As an example, Medford is nice and so is Portland. I’m actually flying into Portland for the week. I have had one delay but that is because the stupid flight attendant decided not to show up to her frigging flight.

  91. 91.

    NancyDarling

    August 25, 2012 at 1:47 pm

    @Chris: This joke would ring truer if it were a Bible-thumping fundie. I think most priests would at least take the boat.

  92. 92.

    Haydnseek

    August 25, 2012 at 1:48 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: I went up there awhile back to visit friends who used to live in SoCal. They had been there long enough for their brains to turn into raisins…I jumped onto I-5 heading south and never looked back…

  93. 93.

    Linda Featheringill

    August 25, 2012 at 1:51 pm

    I’ve reflected on McCaskill’s ad and have decided that her approach is probably better.

    She has given the Republican voters a face-saving option. She isn’t asking them to repudiate a lifetime of voting R. She is asking them to repudiate the extremists.

    And that might be more effective.

  94. 94.

    lamh35

    August 25, 2012 at 1:53 pm

    Obama Says Debates Could Shake Up Race

    President Obama told the AP that the moment that could finally shake up a close president race “could come in the three debates Obama and Romney hold in October. The president said Romney could run into trouble because of arguments that are not backed up by facts, citing a widely debunked television ad campaign in which Romney accuses Obama of gutting the work requirement in the federal welfare law.”
    Said Obama: “It will be a little tougher to defend face-to-face.”

    Translation: I will call you on your lies and I will come armed with the facts…game on.

  95. 95.

    trollhattan

    August 25, 2012 at 1:54 pm

    @NancyDarling:
    Holy cow, Mormon crank!

  96. 96.

    NancyDarling

    August 25, 2012 at 1:54 pm

    @Doggie D: My son’s problem with his flight was in San Francisco, not Oregon.

  97. 97.

    danimal

    August 25, 2012 at 1:55 pm

    The social service worker in me wants to look at these “up from the bootstraps” hard-working Americans who look down on the “parasites and moochers” on food stamps and laugh in their faces as they try to gain public assistance now that they need it.

    But that wouldn’t be nice of me, now would it?

  98. 98.

    Chris

    August 25, 2012 at 1:56 pm

    @Paul:

    I guess I don’t understand why these folks want help from the government. Wouldn’t that be socialism?

    1) “I worked hard for that government help! I’m not like those other people who are just waiting for a handout and don’t have a job! I deserve this!”

    2) “Well, everyone else is cheating, and it sucks that that’s the world we live in, but if the blacks and Mexicans are taking in all this government money, then why shouldn’t I have some too? After all, I deserve it more.”

    3) “Well, it’s the Obammunist Government’s intervention in the economy that’s made things so that I can’t survive, so it’s only fair that they should be helping me out instead.”

    4) “Well, look how much I pay in taxes! This is just the government giving me back my due!”

    There is never any shortage of arguments for why *you* deserve this and these *other* people don’t. That’s not something limited to conservatism, but they have a special talent for it considering that their entire ideology rests on the notion that some people are just better and more deserving than others and what’s good for the goose isn’t good for the gander.

  99. 99.

    trollhattan

    August 25, 2012 at 1:57 pm

    @lamh35:
    Do we know the debate formats yet? If they’re in the equivalent of separate rings wearing pillows instead of boxing gloves, actual “debate” might be tough. I really hope they get to address one another directly. We’ll find out who actually paid attention in class at Harvard.

  100. 100.

    Linda Featheringill

    August 25, 2012 at 1:58 pm

    @Linda Featheringill: #92

    ADDENDUM:

    Also, the ad is visually very female. McCaskill comes across in a non threatening way, as a southern lady. It might play well in Missouri.

  101. 101.

    Villago Delenda Est

    August 25, 2012 at 1:59 pm

    @trollhattan:

    Two of the debate “moderators” are going to be Candy Crowley and Bob Schieffer.

    All you really need to know.

    I don’t think that even those two will be enough to help Rmoney.

  102. 102.

    lamh35

    August 25, 2012 at 2:00 pm

    @lamh35: also from the AP story:

    Obama: My sense is Governor Romney is a very capable debater. I think he did a very good job in his primary scoring points. The challenge he may end up having is the fact that some of the core arguments he’s making against me just aren’t based on facts.

    AP Interview: Obama on Romney’s ‘extreme’ views

  103. 103.

    Dennis SGMM

    August 25, 2012 at 2:01 pm

    @trollhattan:

    I think we already know what the debates will look like.

    Democrat: These are the facts; A, B, C…
    Republican: Deflect, deflect, deflect, wave flag, thump Bible.
    Etc.

  104. 104.

    lamh35

    August 25, 2012 at 2:04 pm

    @lamh35: also from the AP story:

    Obama: My sense is Governor Romney is a very capable debater. I think he did a very good job in his primary scoring points. The challenge he may end up having is the fact that some of the core arguments he’s making against me just aren’t based on facts.

  105. 105.

    trollhattan

    August 25, 2012 at 2:04 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: @Dennis SGMM:
    Sigh. Y’all are making me want to drink, but I have a 35k-word document to edit by tomorrow and drunk-editing isn’t a forte.

    Sigh, part deux.

  106. 106.

    trollhattan

    August 25, 2012 at 2:06 pm

    @lamh35:
    1. Rmoney looks like deer in headlights.
    2. Rmoney bounces back with ten-thousand-dollar bet.
    3. Rmoney declared “teh winnah.”

  107. 107.

    trollhattan

    August 25, 2012 at 2:08 pm

    O/T Why politicians should reconsider having kids.

    http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/19357228/photo-depicts-maya-caldwell-buring-cayetano-sign-with-bong

    Bong hits for jayzus!

  108. 108.

    fester

    August 25, 2012 at 2:10 pm

    @Roger Moore : Or even simpler…people get it on more when they are relaxed and happy

  109. 109.

    Jager

    August 25, 2012 at 2:14 pm

    @NancyDarling:

    There is another on “How can a farmer can get two govt checks every month? Marry an Indian.” Or “How do you starve a farmer? Weld his mailbox shut.”

  110. 110.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 25, 2012 at 2:16 pm

    @BGinCHI:

    I’m guessing the rationale is that the money that could help with the drought is buying T-bones and Cadillacs in E. St Louis.

    Sure, blame downstate Illinois. Typical Chicagoan.

  111. 111.

    FlipYrWhig

    August 25, 2012 at 2:40 pm

    There’s a sort of logic behind the apparent contradictions in wanting the government to help out in a crisis while believing at the same time that the government should do less — and it’s a tenaciously held belief that the government WOULD have plenty of money to spend helping hurting people in a crisis IF ONLY they cut off the moochers bleeding them dry when it’s not a time of crisis. That’s why when people who vote Republican get Republicans elected, who then refuse to lift a finger to help the very Republicans who put them in their seats, it’s still the fault of Democrats and their free-spending ways.

  112. 112.

    FlipYrWhig

    August 25, 2012 at 2:41 pm

    @Chris: Or, what Chris said.

  113. 113.

    danah gaz (fka gaz)

    August 25, 2012 at 2:56 pm

    @trollhattan: “drunk-editing isn’t a forte”

    Unless you are Peggy Noonan

  114. 114.

    Haydnseek

    August 25, 2012 at 2:58 pm

    @Chris: A friend of mine told me that joke. When it was finally over, I asked him one question: If your god is so all fucking powerful, why allow a terrible flood in the first place? He sort of farted out of his mouth, turned red, and changed the subject.

  115. 115.

    Forsetti

    August 25, 2012 at 2:58 pm

    The entire time these farmers are praying to God for rain and begging the government for money they will be chanting, “I built it myself…I built it myself…I built it myself.”

  116. 116.

    arguingwithsignposts

    August 25, 2012 at 2:59 pm

    @danah gaz (fka gaz):

    Unless you are Peggy Noonan

    Queen Peggy of the Noonington doesn’t edit – ever.

  117. 117.

    danah gaz (fka gaz)

    August 25, 2012 at 3:00 pm

    @arguingwithsignposts: point received. =) still, it was the best snark I could manage at the time that I wrote it. =)

  118. 118.

    Mnemosyne

    August 25, 2012 at 3:10 pm

    @Haydnseek:

    I didn’t realize that Sheldon Cooper posted here. Do you also demand to know what mechanism allowed the horse to speak when it walked into the bar?

  119. 119.

    Visceral

    August 25, 2012 at 3:11 pm

    @Dennis SGMM: I’ve lived in SoCal my whole life. Between the rich people in OC, the military in San Diego, and the hicks out east, this place is as conservative as you please. There wouldn’t be any point in all of California becoming independent if it would just replicate the whole country’s ideological divide in miniature. A motivated and disciplined conservative minority could keep right on paralyzing Second California Republic politics in the manner they’ve been doing for decades. Carve off the Bay Area and Wine and Pot Country along the coast, and offer asylum to refugees from south and inland

  120. 120.

    Jamey

    August 25, 2012 at 3:11 pm

    I feel bad for these folks, but you know what they say about making your bed.

    The hardest part about being a regular BJ reader is looking for the “like” or thumbs-up button. Even at your [self-described] worst, John, you still know how to bring the “amen” moments!

  121. 121.

    srv

    August 25, 2012 at 3:13 pm

    Neil Armstrong has apparently passed. RIP

  122. 122.

    rikyrah

    August 25, 2012 at 3:18 pm

    and while they fucking starve, they’re still gonna vote for Willard.

    fuck ’em for being this stupid.

  123. 123.

    trollhattan

    August 25, 2012 at 3:24 pm

    @srv:
    Wow, sad news. He was a touchstone for several generations, worldwide.

    We once did Big Things.

  124. 124.

    PurpleGirl

    August 25, 2012 at 3:27 pm

    @srv: While Yahoo news doesn’t have an article on it yet, Google has a bunch of cites including the BBC and US news outlets.

    trollhattan: Yes, we once did big things. We had the political will to do big things.

  125. 125.

    Roger Moore

    August 25, 2012 at 3:27 pm

    @trollhattan:

    Out of curiousity, are Mormons allowed salt?

    Sure. A big part of the reason for the original ban on tea and coffee is because they had to be imported and the Mormons were on a big self-sufficiency kick. Local salt production is obviously not a major problem in Utah.

  126. 126.

    trollhattan

    August 25, 2012 at 3:35 pm

    @Roger Moore:
    Seems like something Brigham Young might have pulled to, you know, instill even more misery and self-discipline among the plebes.

    “Look ye upon this mighty lake of salt and partake of it not, lest ye anger the Angel Moroni. Likewise ye bachelors, look not upon my scores of wives, nor gaze upon the sheep will ill intent. Beer is right out.”

  127. 127.

    Robert Sneddon

    August 25, 2012 at 4:30 pm

    @PurpleGirl: We, meaning the human race but especially Americans, still do big things. A lot of those big things are routine today, back then they were gosh-wow.

    Man in space? There has been a continuous human presence in space since the year 2000. An Apollo stack in LEO for a boots-and-banners mission to the Moon was a quarter the mass of the ISS which is flying today. Back in 1969 the most we knew about Mars was that it was sorta red-coloured. Today we (the human we, courtesy of the folks at JPL) are blasting rocks on Mars with a frickin’ nuclear-powered laser to figure out their chemical composition. Cassini/Huygens, the Hayabusa sample-return, the Hubble telescope and the forthcoming James Webb scope and more to come.

    Leaving aside space, there’s electronics, computers and the internet. Wonder drugs, vaccines, the eradication of smallpox, polio and guinea worm. Building construction like the Channel Tunnel and the Burg Kalifa, an understanding of weather and how it behaves, plate tectonics, earthquakes, hurricane tracking, disaster recovery, transportation, food production, the list goes on and on. The Golden Age is here and now, not in a dimly-remembered past.

    Colonel Armstrong is gone and it’s a sad day for the world, not just America but what he achieved is still here, and what he did laid a foundation for the hundreds of people who went into space after he did and even today routinely go where Armstrong went before.

  128. 128.

    rickstershierpa

    August 25, 2012 at 4:41 pm

    I would simply tell these folk that this is the “less Government” they voted for when they pulled the Republican lever in 2010. You reap what you sow.

  129. 129.

    rickstershierpa

    August 25, 2012 at 5:01 pm

    This area is part of Jo Ann Emerson. Although not a Tea Party Republican, I expect she has voted pretty regular Republican these last 16 years.

    But it is also something to remember that 40% of the folks in her district are not nuts.

  130. 130.

    ruemara

    August 25, 2012 at 5:21 pm

    @suzanne: can you point out to him that the bill he needed to save his cows are being held back by his Republicans and they are perfectly fine with him being destitute? You know, just to help him be a bit more informed than Rush makes him?

  131. 131.

    Princess

    August 25, 2012 at 5:47 pm

    @Doggie D: Stress may affect ovulation, which would explain the “relaxed women get pregnant” scenario. There is no reason to think it affects fertilization or implantation.

  132. 132.

    Haydnseek

    August 25, 2012 at 7:05 pm

    @Mnemosyne: No, talking horses aren’t a problem. Billions of People who think their imaginary friend sees all, knows all, and has infinite power? How could that possibly cause any problems? Wow, man, thanks for setting me straight.

  133. 133.

    Phoenician in a time of Romans

    August 25, 2012 at 7:21 pm

    @trollhattan:

    Don’t forget that the wingnuts were whining that Obama didn’t swim down into the Gulf of Mexico and personally plug the BP oil spill with his finger…

  134. 134.

    Mnemosyne

    August 25, 2012 at 8:17 pm

    @Haydnseek:

    You must be a barrel of laughs at parties. Have you figured out yet why people talk to you for five minutes and then suddenly discover an urgent need to get a refill on the drink in their hand even though you haven’t seen them take a sip from it yet?

  135. 135.

    Haydnseek

    August 25, 2012 at 9:11 pm

    @Mnemosyne: Let me clear it up for you. The guy that told me that joke had a really annoying habit of beating me over the head about what a fabulous christian he is, and this joke was just more proof. I issued a quick, clean rebuttal that shut him up, at least for awhile. That’s the context. If you choose not to offer a bit of pushback when someone bullshits you to your face, that’s your decision. You won’t do it, but a quick review of my comments on this blog should but your mind at ease with regard to the quality of my sense of humor. I hope we meet at a party sometime, as I find your comments cogent and interesting most of the time. We both live in SoCal, so who knows?

  136. 136.

    4jkb4ia

    August 27, 2012 at 1:29 am

    John, Akin represents St. Charles and Chesterfield and a very suburban area. He can cheerfully vote against the farm bill because he represents very few actual farmers. But the Missouri Farm Bureau, which will endorse any Republican, endorsed him, which is indeed fucked up.

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