(D.B. Echo at Another Monkey)
__
Professor Krugman is tired of listening to high-level Republicans lie:
… Obviously nobody cares how fast Mr. Ryan can run, and even his strange marathon misstatement wouldn’t be worth talking about in isolation. What makes this incident so striking is, instead, the way it resonates with the essential Rosie-Ruizness of Mr. Ryan’s whole political persona, which is built around big boasts about accomplishments he hasn’t accomplished.
For Mr. Ryan, as you may recall, has positioned himself as an icon of truth-telling and fiscal responsibility, while offering policy proposals that are neither honest nor responsible. He calls for huge tax cuts, while proposing specific spending cuts that, while inflicting immense hardship on our most vulnerable citizens, would fall far short of making up for the revenue loss. His claims to reduce the deficit therefore rely on assertions that he would make up for the lost revenue by closing loopholes that he refuses to specify, and achieve further huge spending cuts in ways that he also refuses to specify…
Still, Mitt Romney, not Mr. Ryan, is the presidential candidate, although that’s sometimes hard to remember. So how does Romney/Ryan differ from Ryan alone? It’s worse. Like the Ryan plan, the Romney plan offers huge tax breaks to corporations and the wealthy, while pledging to offset these cuts by closing unspecified loopholes; but Mr. Romney adds to the implausibility by also demanding higher defense spending and eliminating the Medicare cost savings contained in Obamacare. Realistically, the Romney plan would explode the deficit, not reduce it…
So what is this election about? To be sure, it’s about different visions of society — about Medicare versus Vouchercare, about preserving the safety net versus destroying it. But it’s also a test of how far politicians can bend the truth. This is surely the first time one of our major parties has run a campaign so completely fraudulent, making claims so at odds with the reality of its policy proposals. But if the Romney/Ryan ticket wins, it won’t be the last.
He’s not too crazy about the Rosie Ruiz Republicans’ Media Village enablers, either:
Everybody Does It
That seems to be the new Beltway line, now that the shock over the lie-fest in Tampa has died down a bit. At the Washington Post (except at Ezra’s blog), at Politico, and so on, it’s excuse time — sure, Ryan and Romney told a few whoppers, but isn’t that just how politics is?It’s not hard to understand why this is happening. For one thing, there’s the views-differ-on-shape-of-planet ethos that has imbued political journalism for many years now. On top of that, a lot of people in DC have major reputational capital at stake. After all the puff pieces on Paul Ryan, after all the op-eds praising his truthfulness and responsibility, after not one, not two, but three Pete Peterson-backed deficit-hawk organizations gave Ryan an award for fiscal responsibility, admitting that he’s actually a big low-body-fat liar would be extremely painful…
This is something new in American politics, and everyone trying to deny that fact is in effect an enabler.
I had not heard, incidentally, that the infamous Hugh Hewitt, John ‘Hindrocket’ Hindracker‘s Powerline partner, was the man who first deep-throated Ryan’s sub-three-hour marathon lie. It must be very strange to be Professor Krugman, a man of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius, doggedly reporting the truth about “pink slime economics“. A man ahead of his time, and who unveils one masterpiece after another to a reception that, when not bored, is hostile: self-interested political grifters and MBA-bearing morons fulminating about balance and harsh choices and broken calculators…
***********
Apart from waiting for further dispatches from Angry/Crank2012 at the Charlotte convention, what’s on the agenda for The All-American Holiday That Is Entirely Different from Commie-Socialistic May Day?
piratedan
it’s getting to the point where I just wanna tell my family members and friends who still support Republicans that it’s a shame that they can’t pay enough attention to the facts that they would support a couple of pompous douchebags who would make your wives and daughters carry rapists babies to term. In addition to their financial ethics resembling the guys that can’t even be trusted to give you the right change in the drive thru without suspecting that they’ve spat on your food.
mai naem
I know this is going to sound stupid but I think Paul Ryan’s lying about his height as well. He’s supposed to be 6’2″ as is Romney. Obama’s supposed to be 6’1″ and Biden’s supposed to be 6′. If you see any pics or video with Romney and Ryan together, Ryan looks shorter than Romney. If you see pics of Obama and Ryan(very very few of those) Ryan looks shorter or the same. I know there’s angles,lighting etc. but that doesn’t explain Obama but not Romney. Also too, I know this isn’t anything important but I just think it demonstrates that he will lie about anything.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
The question in my mind is why they’re getting away with blatantly lying. I have no solid theories about this. Ordinarily the newspapers would call them out and shame them for lying. But it’s possible that traditional journalism in the modern infotainment world is being drowned out by partisans in ‘new media’. As well as plenty of the old media being in the tank for the GOP and giving not a shit for the truth as long as they keep their seats at the dinner parties of the wealthy and powerful.
raven
Big bomb in Pakistan.
Frankensteinbeck
It must be strange to be Paul Krugman, stating the obvious about economics and calling lies so blatant any five year old could spot them lies, and have that make him a lone voice in the wilderness. I assume he has to interact personally with the ‘views-differ-on-shape-of-planet ethos’, with the actual people who push it at the public because they believe it. Can you imagine how surreal that is?
c u n d gulag
Before anyyone gets too giddy about the MSM finally pointing out some of Romney and Ryan’s lies, I say, “Be careful what we wished for.”
The MSM felt like they were forced to acknowedge the Republican parties open lies, because they were too huge and too frequent to remain obscure.
Believe me, given the chance, most of them would have ‘la-dee-dah’d’ right through the week, and typed their already well-ingrained meme’s about Mitt, the businessman, and Ryan, the wonk.
But their lies were “Joe Isuzu” egregious!
The MSM HATED doing that, because it’s against all of the bullsh*t “He-said/she-said” instinct that’s been taught to them, and reinforced, over the decades by righties screaming “LIBERAL MEDIA!”
It’s now so ingrained, that even Pavlov would be envious of how the MSM has been trained to have better and faster instinctive reactions to doing that in every situation, than the reactions he got from his dogs, after he’d trained them to salivate whenever he rang a bell.
And they’ll take having to actually do their jobs, instead of just mailing-it-in, out on the Democrats.
Oh yeah, they’ll be tired – and PISSED when the get to Charlotte!
They’ll parse EVERY syllable from EVERY Democrat, for even a hint of embellishment.
And then come down with the wrath of the FSM on them!
And this time, they won’t parse it the same way they did with the Republicans. No, “mis-truths,” “exaggerations,” or ‘mis-speaking.”
NO!
They’ll openly call them “LIERS!” at ANY and EVERY opportunity!
Remember – the first rule of modern journalism and punditry is, “Thou SHALL Equivocate!”
So now, after Tampa Bay, it’ll be, “Ok – He lied/BUT SHE’S REALLY LYING!”
Even if they have to twist themselves up like strands of DNA to do it.
After all, they’ve been comfortable screaming “LIER!” at every Democrat, ever since Gore may or may not have mis-spoken some truths about himself – but certainly DIDN’T OPENLY LIE!
This could REALLY get ugly!
After calling Ryan out on his lies, I’m almost afraid of what the MSM will do to Joe Biden.
Joe better not make a singe mistake, or exaggerate even a smidge, or they’ll be on him like a nightstick on a N*gger’s skull after the sun’s gone down in a rural Southern town 80 years ago.
TheMightyTrowel
flying around the world again on Wed. actually looking forward to 29 hours in transit as it means I’ll be forced not to watch any news.
Narcissus
@piratedan: I have the reverse problem. I turned my parents onto Obama back in 2008 and have watched them drift into denial and then shock and then anger at the way Republicans behave, and I think they subconsciously blame me. Whenever a conservative does something completely fucked up, they ask me questions like “Did you see what Boehner said? Did you see it? What is that supposed to mean?” Like I let the dog destroy the furniture or something.
Previously they hadn’t really paid attention to politics.
jayboat
@c u n d gulag:
I think a little more (or a lot) of truth-telling on the part of the msm can only be a good thing.
waratah
Watching a little Soledad on CNN this morning and she is really working on her panel to not sidetrack and tell the truth.
SteveinSC
John Cole is huge and disgustingly fat. Fortunately, somewhere inside all that blubber is a very good brain. What happened to that svelt body circa desert storm? Sic transit gloria mundi?.
RAVEN
@SteveinSC: Is that really necessary?
JPL
@c u n d gulag: All I can say is I hope you are wrong.
@RAVEN: Thanks..
c u n d gulag
@JPL:
Me too!
kay
@mai naem:
I do, too. Look, it doesn’t matter that much, but that is an extremely common exaggeration in my experience, that specific addition to get to 6’2″. I don’t get it. If you’re close enough to 6 feet to lie about it, you’re tall. It’s like it’s got to be that magic number.
EconWatcher
Ryan reminds me very much of John Edwards. Both appear to be able to lie about anything, and both give off a creepy vibe. Which makes me think that, just like Edwards, Ryan may have a skeleton in his closet big enough to sink him and his party, if it can be found in time.
TheMightyTrowel
FSM doesn’t love us enough for that skeleton to be named John or Fred or Jimbo or Bessie the cow but isn’t it fun to speculate?
JPL
Besides clothes shopping, do ABL and Cranky John have other plans?
bemused
@SteveinSC:
One sperm says to another sperm, “Let’s let the slow one win”.
That would explain a lot about you.
Nethead Jay
@EconWatcher: You know, that’s an interesting comparison. And I say that as someone who was sympathetically inclined early on, but also had a nagging voice in the head saying something was off. Even if there isn’t a huge skeleton (other than his sociopathic politics), getting the idea out there could hopefully damage him a little.
SixStringFanatic
This is a fantastic editorial from The Baltimore Sun:
WereBear
@SixStringFanatic: I do despair that we are celebrating an editorial which STATES THE FREAKIN’ OBVIOUS.
No one has that kind of money except rich old sociopaths, who won’t spend it on that kind of humanitarian goal. So the people involved must band together and create such infrastructure; and now you have government.
Only people who have no clue whatsoever fall for this kind of crap, and we seem to have a large number of them. Tides, you can’t explain that, etc.
The Ancient Randonneur
The RobMe/Lyin’ 2012 campaign (and much of the last 50 years of most Republican campaigns) is built on the idea that the American anti-intellectual streak is to be exploited, not ignored. This quote from the late, great Isaac Asimov is quite appropriate:
So, why not lie? Desperate times call for desperate measures! Onward, Christian soldiers! Yada, yada, yada …
Culture of Truth
It’s just another pantsless Monday
Culture of Truth
Their ignorance is better than your knowledge, since they know they’re right and your knowledge is just a theory.
arguingwithsignposts
@Culture of Truth:
This. Fundamentalism is a helluva drug.
kay
@WereBear:
I think we need more signs. I’m at Lake Michigan, and there’s a huge sign at the pier that says that the recent upgrades to the pier came from a Rural Development federal grant. So every small tourist business that faces that pier (so, basically every small business) will benefit because the tourists they rely on can safely traverse the pier without falling into Lake Michigan.
I know they’re a little slow on the Right, but more signage and this would start to sink in :)
Obama (or, actually House members from Great Lakes states) put lots of stimulus money into Great Lakes water quality projects. The signs are on the public beaches here, with the EPA seal prominently displayed. It’s a great idea. People take these things for granted. They have to be told where the money comes from.
SFAW
@The Ancient Randonneur:
Win. And stolen by me.
JPL
@kay: When someone touts to me Boortz or Limbaugh nonsense, I simply respond that I’m not anti-government. The look on their faces is priceless.
schrodinger's cat
@mai naem: I too think that he is lying about his height. I had a friend like that she would exaggerate everything to make herself look good, even when it was completely unnecessary.
schrodinger's cat
About the we built it nonsense, a stable government is absolutely necessary for capitalism to thrive. The greatest capitalist powers in the past as well as those in the here and now have had remarkably stable internal polities (England,
Holland, USA, Japan and so on.)
cathyx
My take on the media complicity in the lies is they want a close race. A close race means more viewers and higher ratings. A runaway race means the opposite. Think of a sporting event. The highest rated games are ones where it is so close, everyone tunes in up to the very end. If it’s a blowout, then even the fans in the stadium leave early.
All the media cares about is making money. That is all. They don’t even care who wins, they just want to make a lot of money. A close race will give it to them.
mamayaga
@EconWatcher:
When I first heard about the marathon boast, I thought it sounded like something a man would say to impress a woman (though I never hear what they say to impress men when women aren’t around), and it occurred to me that we might see a bimbo eruption in his future. The exaggerated height just adds to that impression.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
One of my new co-workers appears to be what I call a first-order Small Government thinker. They go: “New Orleans floods! Why should I pay for levees so people can live there?” and conclude that the government is picking their pocket to compensate for someone else’s stupid housing decisions. Obvious answer: the Mississippi is a critical shipping resource and New Orleans is a major port. We need both and they’re worth spending on.
And this particular guy is not stupid. Far from it, just not thinking past first-order appearances.
debit
@SteveinSC: I bet you’re one of those assholes who randomly calls complete strangers “Fatty.” Because, being fat is bad, amirite? And fat people are so bad and stupid that they probably don’t even know they’re fat!
I bet you’re trim and fit, and dashingly handsome with a great smile. Too bad you have the all charm and charisma of a weeping anal cyst.
El Cid
Romney looks taller than Ryan because Romney’s superiority to humans includes levitating above the ground a foot or so, in order to keep from contact with this dirtying, peasant soil.
Dennis SGMM
As I’ve aged past three score I was able to to accept that I wouldn’t understand the attraction of some things. Skinny jeans are an example. Most of the stuff that I just don’t get is completely harmless and it will go the rest of the way of the cavalcade. The GOP ticket and its headliners blatant lying is not harmless and the damage it’s doing, win or lose, will linger.
I suspect, in my darkest moments, that Romney and Ryan aren’t even lying because they have to; they’ll get roughly half of the popular vote even if they didn’t speak a word. They’re lying because they are contemptuous of the very people whom they pretend to want to govern.
From The Third Man
MARTINS
Have you ever seen any of your
victims?
HARRY
Do you know, I don’t ever feel
comfortable on these sort of
things…Victims?
He opens the door of the carriage.
HARRY
Don’t be melodramatic.
MED. SHOT – MARTINS
in L f.g., Harry opening door in b.g.
HARRY
Look down there…
LONG SHOT
from Martins’ eye line of the fair ground far below and the
people now on it.
HARRY (O.S.)
Would you feel any pity if one of
those dots stopped moving forever?
CLOSE SHOT – HARRY
looking off CL for Martins.
HARRY
If I offered you £20,000 for every
dot that stopped – would you
really, old man, tell me to keep my
money? Or would you calculate how
many dots you could afford to
spare?…Free of Income Tax, old
man…
SFAW
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist:
OK, so instead of “stupid”, how about “differently clued”? Or “dull normal”? Or “suffering from cranio-rectal insertion”? Or an “IGMFY asshole”?
cathyx
We can’t really say about the heights of these men because they could be wearing heels.
SFAW
@debit:
Why, yes, yes I am.
(Wait, what’s that? You mean today ISN’T Backwards Day? Shit.)
Never mind.
raven
@Dennis SGMM: Happy Anniversary to me, came home 43 years ago today.
SFAW
@El Cid:
Well, that, plus it would be more difficult to land aircraft on his shoulders (swoon!) if he were shorter.
NancyDarling
The always incredulous Bob Schieffer expressed his incredulity to Stephanie Cutter when she said lying has become a virtue for repubs.
It reminds me of the time in ’08 when he was shocked, shocked, I tell you, that Wes Clarke suggested McCain’s war-hero derring-do was not a qualifier for the presidency. (Duke Cunningham, anyone?)
Surely CBS can do better. It’s time to put Schieffer out to farm with his pearls and smelling salts.
Dennis SGMM
@raven:
Welcome home, brother.
SFAW
@raven:
Glad you’re here.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@SFAW:
Fair question. We’re in a deeply techy line of work. There’s a particular set of mental skills that’s necessary to survive and succeed. Find problem & fix problem. First diagnoses are generally right and you move on in a hurry to remediation. That’s the point of view that a lot of people bring to their work and it bleeds over into how they view other things in life.
That’s not to defend his view on New Orleans/flooding, which I find effectively dumb, but to explain how a techy person who doesn’t think much about politics could reach those conclusions.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@Doggie D:
Are you mocking Balloon Juice? If so, please take your turn. There are a lot of mockers here already and you’re too new to cut in line.
mamayaga
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist:
In my opinion, there seems to be more than just simplistic thinking there — maybe lack of empathy or lack of imagination? Did you ask him why the people of NOLA should pay FEMA to help him if his house is flattened by a tornado? After all, he’s the one foolish enough to live in the Midwest.
This kind of thinking always reminds me of adolescent reactions to “unreasonable” demands from their parents or teachers. It depends crucially on either not recognizing what those old people do for them, or not feeling any obligation to reciprocate. This immature and narcissistic approach to life is the reason wingnuts and libertarians have so much in common.
arguingwithsignposts
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist:
To be fair to the viewpoint, there are a lot of people who live in flood-prone areas (not to mention beachfronts) where it’s just stupid to put housing. And the US has done itself no favors with the way it’s tried to rein in the mighty Mississippi wrt Nawlins and the wetlands.
ETA: By flood-prone, I mean I’ve know of neighborhoods that flood every time there’s a decent rainfall, and houses that sit right on the beach a few yards from where the posts from the last row that washed out to sea still stand.
Dennis SGMM
@mamayaga:
Many young men spend part of their lives believing that anyone who who is injured or who is killed did so because they screwed up. That’s why we send the young men off to war. Those of us who went and who returned with our faculties reasonably intact grew out of the above mentioned perspective. Being a conservative of a certain stripe is to have never outgrown my first sentence.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@mamayaga:
Hence the appeal of Randianism to adolescents. I agree. Both scenarios come from reacting emotionally and terminating further rational thought.
It’s worth stating that people in technical professions are susceptible to appeals to simple logic. If you’re repairing photocopiers, plumbing or HVAC systems there are no subtle factors to be considered and few trade-offs to be balanced. Analysis rarely goes past simple fact finding. I think the genius of people like Rush is that they can exploit first-order thinking and sell the conclusions of it.
HRA
This morning’s Buffalo News has front center “Truth Torn to Shreds” on the front page written by Jerry Zremski Washington Bureau chief for the News. At first glance seeing Obama’s picture I thought this was about the R & R lies. Mmmmm -nope it was as the first sentence say “The Democrats have been lying for months”.
Why did I expect anything different?
Dennis SGMM
@Doggie D:
Ya’ll aren’t packing the gear to fuck with us.
WereBear
And of course they will never screw up. All of their screwups are in the past where they survived and it doesn’t count.
I blame the socialization of males in our culture; they are told they are vulnerable when they screw up and they can never be vulnerable and so the imagination takes over for what Reality can never deliver.
TS
@EconWatcher:
I will never understand why lying about sex is often seen as so much more dire than lying about policy. What skeletons are in anyone’s personal life don’t impact me at all – but the policies that are lied about can have major impacts on both a personal and life changing level.
Thus said – I don’t care what defeats R&R as long as they lose.
Citizen_X
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist: It’s the newest incarnation of BoB. There’s plenty of mocking of him to be done.
Kane
If Romney/Ryan win, the electorate would be essentially condoning their pathological lies and their purposefully dishonest campaign. The public would also be saying that it’s unimportant for future political candidates to provide substantive financial documentation. And the public would be giving their seal of approval to the cynical political strategy of obstruction designed around the notion of making a democratically elected president a one-term president.
And if Romney/Ryan win, the voter purging, the war on women, the papers please legislation, the attempts to dismantle the saftey net, the union-busting, the birtherism, the opposition to marriage equality and economic equality and all the rest will have been rewarded.
Dennis SGMM
@WereBear:
I think that the origins of the phenomenon may run deeper than that. My thought is that it’s a subset of our denial of the fact that no one gets out of here alive.
I knew bright, highly trained people who, when a pilot made a mess of himself and his aircraft because it was storming and the aft end of the carrier he was trying to land on was pitching up and down more than fifteen feet, simply said “Well, he screwed up.”
WaterGirl
@SteveinSC: What kind of person would say something like that? Or even think it. Thoughtless and judgmental are the two kindest words I can find to describe what you said. Geez, take a minute and look at who you are.
wrb
Funny- Lying awake in the pre-dawn I was thinking just this: All of Ryan and his proposals are explained by the fact that he is an utterly shameless, bald face liar.
His numbers don’t add up because he never tried to make them add up- he’s just confident that he can put them across if lies with enough confidence and attitude.
Doggie D
When assessing one’s intellectual betters, in particular this visionary man of brilliance approaching genius Paul Krugman, it can be useful to view the conclusions of those who have attempted to do so in the past. As I set out upon my personal journey to properly appreciate this master of modern thought, my research Logically drew me to the cutting edge internet porthole ‘Men and Cats’.
View Men and Cats yourself.
In the photograph, note Mr. Krugman’s human female counterpart, who also loves cats. She seems very nice and is surely not one who goes to a restaurant primarily to bitch about the temperature of the air being too warm. She and Paul surely share much passion between them and all I can do, as a mere person who does not write for the New York Times, is admire Paul’s great intellect, his sex appeal, and his family cats.
I wonder what Paul’s favorite cat-treat is.
SteveinSC
@RAVEN:
It’s just my way of supporting John in his self-described, self-loathing, since, well, he feels better when he’s not feeling good. Anyway, I sent him money and directions to a great, famous, South Carolina greasy-spoon. No one who doesn’t love someone would ever share that.
Dennis SGMM
@Doggie D:
You’re the Comic Book Guy from “The Simpsons” made flesh and bone.
WaterGirl
@raven: Welcome home. So glad you are here!
One of the things that weighs on me about the two recent wars is that we don’t even give our soldiers that one thing to hang on to – knowing the date that they get to leave.
Boudica
@HRA: Wow, that Buffalo News article is a piece of work. First he lists the Soptic ad, not noting that it was paid for by a PAC that cannot coordinate with the Obama campaign. Then he notes an ad calling Romney a corporate raider and argues that one over semantics. Then Romney didn’t pay taxes for 10 years….Reid was lying. But that “lie” could easily be disproven by Romney….by showing his taxes!
And finally an ad that says Romney backed a bill that outlaws all abortions. I have no idea what bill the article or ad is talking about and the author never tells us. He just says Romney supports abortion as a choice for rape and incest victims as proof against the ad’s claim.
The readers’ comments are all just as bad.
Is this a normally right-wing paper?
ThresherK
I remember Runner’s World has always covered the fitness activities of candidates.
They’re pretty upbeat and evenhanded about the whole thing; the tenor is just what one would like in a mag that wants people to exercise. I particularly note they like how candidate Dole in ’96, given his age and condition, was treadmilling it and keeping active. No sneering stuff about how he was slower than the younger, heftier Clinton, just “Way to go”.
So it takes a bit of doing to piss them off. Congratulations, Rosie Ruiz Ryan!
arguingwithsignposts
Oh, that is definitely BOB.
cathyx
@SteveinSC: You sound like the kind of person who likes to hurt others in order to feel better about yourself.
Mystical Chick
What’s that saying about why someone would speak the truth when their very livelihood relies on them not doing so? IMO, that’s why we cannot haz truth.
Too much money in too many places. The influence is pervasive and tears us all down (except the 1%).
BTW, loving the Angry/Cranky DNC2012 tour! Clearly JC has a thang for horizontal stripes, doesn’t he? Can’t wait to hear more! (And pity the nice chick who is ABL’s wingman.)
Mystical Chick
RE: @SteveinSC: You sound like the kind of person who likes to hurt others in order to feel better about yourself.
@cathyx: IOW, a republican.
xian
@waratah: she’s been watching Newsroom
xian
@EconWatcher: someone’s comment on Janna Ryan at the convention (on the twitters) and the way she looks at Paul was “mark my words, that guy has texted his junk to someone.”
Kane
It is rather remarkable that a sitting congressman’s false image and motives can be promoted and maintained by the Beltway media for more than a decade, but it took less than a week of casual inspection to expose him for what he is.
The Beltway media has a tendency to create these false political personas, especially for Republicans. John McCain made entire political career from the media portrayal of being a maverick. Every unaccomplished young Republican is a described as rising star or a young gun. Every Republican that wants to dismantle the safety net is portrayed as a truth-teller. And then when these individuals are in a position of taking higher office, some in the media are shocked that the public wont discard these age-old political personas that they themselves helped to create.
SFAW
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist:
Ah, yes, the Customer Circus group.
Back in the before-time, when the rivers flowed backwards, I worked for a large computer company. Many of the engineers – especially the electrical and soft
headware people – were highly skilled at their jobs. So much so, that the company thrived for many years, despite having a Marketing group that made Dilbert’s marketeers look like Einsteins/Hawkings/Teslas/take-your-pick-of-genius. In other words, the engineers’ top-notch skills allowed them to overcome the (effective) non-existence of Marketing.This led far too many of them to become convinced that, since they were superb engineers, they were also highly intelligent about every other aspect of life. As you might guess, they were spectacularly wrong, and proceeded to demonstrate that daily. (The company had a number of non-work-related forums, including politics, to which any of us/them could post.)
Lack of self-awareness, while not exclusively a right-wing trait, seems to be part of the personality of an inordinately high number of wingnuts – technologically proficient or not.
My point? (If I have one, that is.) Your colleague deserves all the scorn that can be heaped on him. Being a tech whiz doesn’t earn one a free pass from being intelligent, compassionate, empathetic, or rational in non-tech endeavors. It just means you have a skill set which (currently) is in demand. Lots of people have been there, and they managed to keep their heads out of their asses.
presquevu
Assuming Ryan’s college girlfriend didn’t have his child, since no McCain 2000 ratfuking rumours have surfaced, did she practice any of the things that Ryan’s personhood bill would outlaw?
An alternate but maybe more unfavorable explanation of the marathon time lie is that he is just a “pretty face”, and not a details guy. Talking about his marathon time without regard for whether the numbers make sense resembles his budget positions.
quannlace
With all this talk about missing pants, just what the heck was John wearing on the drive down to Charlotte? A bathing suit?
JPL
@quannlace: They didn’t say and I didn’t ask.
xian
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist: well, he is kind of stupid, if only willfully. a smart person would keep thinkin’ till things made more sense overall.
dance around in your bones
Ok, so what is going on with them Wild Thangs at the Motel 6? Are they all passed out still? Heather, give us the update!
Inquiring minds wanna know!
Also, in honor of Labor Day, this article on HNN was pretty good.
Violet
I heard that motherfucker Chuck Todd on the Today Show this morning say, “Some say Ryan’s speech contained some misleading statements” or something like that. The whole “some say” got me shouting at my TV.
Pig Virus should go back to school and finish his degree. Maybe he’d finally learn that Both Sides Don’t Always Do It.
cathyx
@quannlace: Shorts, he’s wearing shorts.
Villago Delenda Est
@schrodinger’s cat:
Yup, this.
Also, contrast with post Soviet Russia, where internal government broke down to a remarkable degree, and the capitalist “boom” that all the fucktard ideologues predicted would take place never did, because it was missing that key ingredient, the stability that drastically reduces risk and gives you the predictability needed to take it.
These people are such fucking idiots. I say this all the time, but it’s true. An obscure Scotsman that these morons claim to revere figured all this shit out over two centuries ago.
JasperL
@wrb:
They can’t in fact add up. If anyone spells out the austerity required from the rest of us to pay for the tax cuts for the wealthy, the republicans wouldn’t ever win an election. So they cut taxes, then treat the later required austerity as something unrelated to those tax cuts. And unfortunately, there are enough people who don’t notice that link.
xian
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist: sounds like someone who will keep patching the code without ever finding the flaw in the architecture
Violet
@dance around in your bones: Follow ABL’s Twitter feed and you’ll see what’s happening sooner than here. She’s up says she is going to get her press credentials.
(You don’t have to be “on Twitter” to follow along. You can just watch from the sidelines. https://twitter.com/AngryBlackLady)
xian
@JasperL: it’s even more simple than that: they can’t admit that taxes are already fucking low
Hill Dweller
@Violet:
Todd, like the rest of the Village, is a self-interested careerist that couldn’t care less about the country.
Villago Delenda Est
@ThresherK:
Actually, the thing that pisses them off is one of those little matters of personal honor among runners that is sacrosanct. You DO NOT misrepresent your personal record time. You do not. Especially when it’s trivially easy to be checked.
To do so is to claim status to which you are not entitled within the community. It might fly with the vermin of the Village, but within the community, it’s a shunning offense.
Ryan’s brother has the taint now, and he did nothing to earn it. Other runners will look at him sideways.
If I were him, I’d be really really pissed, especially when Ryan’s pathetic walkbalk included him by name.
Violet
@EconWatcher:
Agreed. He’s not as squeaky clean as he portrays himself. He doesn’t strike me as the type to have had an affair. More like the frat boy drug dealer in college.
dance around in your bones
@Violet:
Thanks, Violet. I think I joined Twitter once but never did a twittertwat, haha. I have an aversion to ‘social media’ so I do prefer to follow from the sidelines.
I’m just relieved to know they made it through the night……alive.
Violet
@kay:
This is an excellent idea. The signs should have “We Built This!” prominently displayed across the top.
On a recent road trip, the highway improvements all had signs that said how much was state money and how much was Federal money. The Federal contribution was significantly more than the State contribution. If you were slowed down waiting for the flagger to let your line of traffic across that bridge, it was nice to be able to see where the money came from. More of this, please.
Violet
@cathyx:
This is true. But “Republicans in disarray” and “Republican chaos” is a much better storyline. Some of them are starting to see that, but they fall back into “both sides do it” far too easily. The first major network to proclaim “Republicans in chaos” will get viewers. Chaos is great for ratings.
JoyfulA
@SixStringFanatic: A fantastic editorial indeed; I tweeted it.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@xian:
When I was a mainframer we had some pinback buttons made up with a band aid and a red circle/slash over it: no patching. If you were serious you wore this or taped it to your monitor. There’s a definite hierarchy of brains in programming, from designer to code jockey.
Bago
Perhaps you could tie the phrase “bureaucratic shennagins” to Mitt and Ryan. Offshore tax havens, working in government, etc. Hell, his best success story is Staples. They shuffle papers, they don’t land on mars or pay for our troops.
Maxwel
Hmmm, 94-0. I guess that they can climb out of the black hole and start working on the Oh I dunno, the brown hole. They’ve got a good headstart on that as well as the female hole, the gays, etc. In 2016 the Dems will undoubtedly not nominate a black person. Then millions of those who won’t vote for a Ni-CLANG will wake up and move across the aisle. The popular vote for the rethugs may actually approach 27%. I believe that 2016 will be the last for them.
WaterGirl
@Maxwel: Here’s what I wonder when I see the 94-0 support for Obama:
What’s with the other 6%? Do they live in a cave? Are they not paying attention?
slag
@kay: I keep wanting to put up signs in areas I encounter with poor public infrastructure, and I want them to say: “This is the price we pay for a weak public sector.”
Maxwel
@WaterGirl
Yes.
danah gaz
Anne Laurie @ Top :
Please 2 not riff on Hindraker’s infamous line so brilliantly before 10am PST. There’s an excellent chance that I’m drinking coffee before then, and it’s extremely hard on my sinuses.
Kthx
JGabriel
__
__
Anne Laurie @ Top:
__
As I seem to do every May Day and Labor Day, I will remind everyone that:
Haymarket Square : USA :: Tiananmen Square : China.
Each year on May Day, the rest of the world celebrates labor by commemorating the deaths of workers in the Haymarket Massacre, a peaceful 1886 pro-labor rally that was bombed.
And each year on Labor Day, we in the US celebrate Labor by forgetting Haymarket Square, as was intended. When Labor Day was instituted, in the wake of the 1894 Pullman Strike, our corporate
leechesleaders didn’t want us using the day to remember the Haymarket Massacre or to communicate with fellow workers in the rest of the world. So the first Monday in September was set aside for Labor Day, rather than the May Day the rest of the world celebrates.And it worked. Like the Chinese who have forgotten or never learned of the Tiananmen Massacre, few of us in America remember the Haymarket Massacre. In a day set aside to remember labor, we shop.
So. When you’re celebrating Labor Day today, piss off the spirits and magnates of capitalism: Remember Haymarket Square. Teach your children.
(Yes, I know that Anne and much of the commentariat here already knows this history. It’s for the enlightenment and edification of those who do not or have forgotten.)
.
valency
Rosie Ruiz would be a fantastic nickname for Ryan. (She didn’t just cheat in the Boston marathon, she cheated in New York and obtained a fraud conviction besides.) Doubtless Republicans would be outraged by the comparison. A good reason to use it at every opportunity.
Donald Meinshausen
There is no difference between Ryan and Krugman. they are both advocates of Big Government as Ryan’s voting records prove that he voted for TARP and other bailouts. If you want an alternative that will be on the ballot and is for peace and against bailing out the rich vote for Gary Johnson, a former governor, and the candidate of the Libertarian Party.
kindness
I love how your worked that bush43 fluff session speech
into the piece at the end there. Bonus points.
LanceThruster
@Dennis SGMM:
But why didn’t they just ask their dads to get them in a Champaigne Squadron or go on a mission to fight the French and their love for wine?
Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God
@Kane:
Romney was governor here for four years, and was supposedly ‘vetted’ in the usual fashion for the 2002 election. Yet it’s looking more and more like he wasn’t even legally qualified to run for governor here (ie the residency requirements– he was probably declaring himself a citizen of Utah for tax reasons).
Granted, local media here has always had a ‘thing’ for Romney since at least 1994 (you should hear the tone of voice whenever a local anchor gets to speak his name)… but it’s all really just a bunch of bullshit, isn’t it?
And always has been.
Djur
@SFAW: Sun? SGI?
SFAW
@Djur:
Those amateurs? Nah.
Although Scott McNealy gives good hockey, I guess.
And, no, not that db company run by Teh King of All He Surveys But Who Still Has XXXXX Envy of Bill Gates.
OzoneR
Obama should definitely use the bully pulpit.
Catsy
@Donald Meinshausen:
Lolwut.
SFAW
@Donald Meinshausen:
From St. Ralph’s
asslips to FSM’s noodley ear-like appendages.Here’s 25 cents. Why don’t you toddle off and use it to buy a quarter-clue?