I’m unable to form any coherent blog posts not because I’m actually working but because I’m feeling guilty about not working. But here’s some stuff I’ve noticed “trending”, as the kids say:
(1) Krugman picked up on the Republican “sugar high” meme. One of you said you’d heard a whole bunch of right-wing luminaries talk about “sugar highs”, but I can’t remember who. I’d like to flesh this one out.
(2) It’s not just robot sex aficionados who are losing their shit, it’s also faux economists best known for hosting game shows on Comedy Central (no, I admit that I don’t know for sure that Ben Stein is not also a robot sex aficionado). Other examples of wingnut apocalypse fantasies out there I should know about? I feel like it’s in the air. When Obama wins in November, will wingers just write apocalyptic blog posts or will they start blowing things up? My hope is that since they’re old and tired, it will be the former.
Any other trending memes on your radar?
Jerzy Russian
I get caught up in loops like that myself.
arguingwithsignposts
I really wish someone would just find the headwaters of the RW Puke Funnel, tap into the mainline and reveal it to the world.
I mean, really, we know they’re all choreographed, but I’d love to see an actual “This week, you will say X” memo.
The Dangerman
Start? Eric Rudolph on Line 2 for you.
jwb
Definitely apocalyptic blog posts. Actually blowing stuff up takes work and it is a young person’s game. So long as conservatives keep pissing off young people we’re safe.
quannlace
Who knew a sugar-high could last for two weeks?
Valdivia
Is it weird that I totally get what you mean.
I have an OT bleg for all my BJ peeps: I am off to Shanghai for the month of October. If you have tips and recs and most of all, know anyone who is not a business type living there please give me a shout. :)
Chris
An impeachment attempts.
On any possible charge. Doesn’t even matter that it won’t have enough votes to pass (in fact it’s probably better that it doesn’t), it’ll shore up the congressmen and senators with their base.
dricey
I vote for them blowing things up.
They’ll try to tie up the election results in the court system, with all sorts of gum-up-the-works challenges alleging voter and vote-count fraud. But in some states where they control both houses of the legislature and the governor’s mansion, they’ll begin efforts to secede from the Union. Meanwhile, if they retain control of the House, and definitely if they gain control of the Senate as well as keeping the House, they’ll launch impeachment proceedings.
We ain’t even begun to see The Crazy yet.
Bruce S
Metaphorically speaking, Stein would have more credibility if he worried over the imminent absence of Ferris Bueller due to fear of his death in a domestic terrorist attack while participating in the Von Steuben Day Parade. Quoting Revelations isn’t his strong suit. And he can keep his money, if that’s what he’s subliminally worried about.
Chris
@dricey:
Literally, yes.
I don’t see politicians actually trying to secede – besides the fact that they remember last time, the gravy train is also just too good. But an upswing in terrorist activity from individual citizens, oh yes.
muddy
This condition is spoken of in my house as, “O the thought of it…”. It’s really paralyzing, and I get annoyed with myself because I took much longer thinking about not doing it than the damn task would have taken in the first place. Or shivering in bed because I don’t want to get up in the cold(er) and get another blanket, same phenomenon.
But the dog doesn’t play this, we will eat and we will walk promptly at the proper time. Dognabbit. But sometimes even dogs get caught up in sniffing one spot way too long instead of deciding to piss on it or not.
Get pissy, mister.
MattF
I see early signs of a noir revival, which would be a good thing. Richard Stark (aka Donald Westlake), Jim Thompson. Enlightened self-interest, and all that.
BGinCHI
Anyone else wonder if we might be getting close to a high tide of right wing insanity?
If Obama wins decisively, the media will have a greater incentive to finally unload on the Tea Party part of the GOP (which is most of it right now) and stop buying what they’re selling. They could do this easily if they would just get interested in their jobs.
Add to this the aging of the demographic that is batshit crazy. The sugar high thing says “get off my lawn” and with a younger, browner electorate changes are gonna come.
Maybe I’m just Pollyanna, since the dudes with the fat stacks of cash are mostly crazy right wing types and they can buy noise machines for a long time.
John 2.0
I assumed that the ‘sugar-high’ talk is meant to suggest that Democrats are short-sighted children. Score another one for the ‘it’s always projection’ theory.
Chris
OT: Sun Belt is apparently a lot less popular for today’s retirees. Article only mentions changes in attitude, e.g. “oh the Sun Belt was good for our parents, we prefer places with four seasons,” but there’s usually economic reasons for shifts like this too…
quannlace
Can there finally come a time when this hysterical branch of the RW finally exhausts itself like tantrum=ridden toddlers; are put to bed for a decent night’s sleep so they can wake up relieved from their paranoid delusions?
Eh. Ain’t holding my breath.
JoyfulA
@Valdivia: Don’t forget to vote absentee from Shanghai!
SiubhanDuinne
I wasn’t the one who mentioned it, but I was listening to Marketplace on NPR the other day (Friday) and if they used the phrase once they used it half a dozen times. I’m not exaggerating.
Chris
@BGinCHI:
Like I said a couple threads ago, the optimist in me (I have bipolar mood swings when it comes to politics) hopes 2010 goes down as Peak Wingnut.
I hesitate to believe my inner optimist just because it’s been incredibly resilient for the last couple decades, but there’s cause for hope.
BGinCHI
@quannlace:
@Chris:
Wishful thinking is still thinking.
? Martin
No, it seems that the GOP is even more desperate this year. They couldn’t really deny that the 2008 economy would be blamed on Bush, so losing to Obama – who outraised them by a huge amount at least was an outcome which could be attributed to rational things in their world.
But now – there’s Obamacare, and deficits, and Bush is long gone, and all of those unlimited corporate dollars – and they’re still losing! The whole premise behind ‘conservatism cannot be failed’ is that in aggregate, they should always win, that failures are attributed to exceptional circumstances. But they don’t have that now. Their VP is very serious and has 6-pack abs, and Adelson is spending tens of millions of dollars, and Obama is still, like, supah black! How can they be losing? The entire GOP cannot be failing conservatism? There is some kind of wizardry at work!
Or something like that.Suffern Ace
@Bruce S: Just a quibble, but I think Ben Stein would be more likely to quote Daniel than Revelations.
Mnemosyne
@SiubhanDuinne:
“Marketplace” is a very reliable transmitter of Republican talking points, safely coated in a tasty NPR veneer of respectability.
Bruce S
@BGinCHI:
The “high tide” will be in the wake of Obama’s re-election. The Crazy is going to get worse before it declines. And any bets on the press, re: “if they would just get interested in their jobs”, are I am afraid, delusional. Yeah, we’ll see more instances of Dana Milbank taking wingnuts to task, but the GOP will still get away with murder because there is no evidence that the press is “interested in DOING their jobs” when it’s so much more comfortable, and in many cases rewarding, to suck ass (which is “acess” spoken more-or-less backward.)
Donut
@Chris:
Agreed that red state pols are too addicted to federal dollars to go whole hog on secession, but I do think there will be a shit-ton more talk about it, regardless of who controls which house of Congress. That and, as already noted, another round of impeachment attempts, should our wingnuts manage to keep the House.
IowaOldLady
When Romney’s pollster (Newhouse?) sent that don’t-panic memo around a week or so ago, he referred to Obama’s convention bounce as a sugar high. That’s the first time I remember hearing it.
Chris
@? Martin:
What strikes me is the number of wingnuts I’ve heard conceding that “Romney might lose.” Far cry from the “UNLIMITED CORPORATE CAAAAAAAAASH!!” bluster we were hearing before that, especially towards the middle of Obama’s first term.
Bruce S
@BGinCHI:
The “high tide” will be in the wake of Obama’s re-election. The Crazy is going to get worse before it declines. And any bets on the press, re: “if they would just get interested in their jobs”, are I am afraid, delusional. Yeah, we’ll see more instances of Dana Milbank taking wingnuts to task, but the GOP will still get away with murder because there is no evidence that the press is “interested in DOING their jobs” when it’s so much more comfortable, and in many cases rewarding, to suck ass (which is “acess” spoken more-or-less backward.)
max
One of you said you’d heard a whole bunch of right-wing luminaries talk about “sugar highs”, but I can’t remember who.
Well, the origin of ‘sugar’ is here:
I don’t know where it got turned into ‘sugar-high’.
So, the source was fucking Geithner, soon to hit the swinging doors and collect his paycheck for his efforts on behalf of the banks. (Republican In Fact Democrat In Name Only… I dunno if RIFDINO works too well. Maybe RIFDIN works better. Like Third Way without the Mussolini.)
Other examples of wingnut apocalypse fantasies out there I should know about? I feel like it’s in the air.
At this point, I think they’re all in on that, and just working on variants now. I also think Peak Wingnut is ending right about now (with Bryan Fischer’s, ‘Romney should be winning by 20 points’ thing). I don’t mean they won’t be wingnutty anymore, I just think this year’s August Madness is past its sell-by date, is ceasing to be widely popular and we’re sorta seeing the crumbling of R denial about Mitt’s chances.
BTW, the other John Cole put this up today:
max
[‘Gee, I hope that blockquoting worked right… let’s see…. shit.’]
Ann Rynd
After the election the older Israel first neo-cons will all go en masse to get their faces lifted so they will look merely in advanced middle age, instead of really old, when they have to battle the truly formidable Hilary Clinton in 2016.
As they recover they will write half hearted screeds calling for O’s impeachment, Paul Ryan’s enthronement as future king, and will chew their own legs off in fury because they know, in their borrowed hearts, that a black man wants to destroy Israel.
Ann Rynd
After the election the older Israel first neo-cons will all go en masse to get their faces lifted so they will look merely in advanced middle age, instead of really old, when they have to battle the truly formidable Hilary Clinton in 2016.
As they recover they will write half hearted screeds calling for O’s impeachment, Paul Ryan’s enthronement as future king, and will chew their own legs off in fury because they know, in their borrowed hearts, that a black man wants to destroy Israel.
Donut
@BGinCHI:
Hope you’re correct, but not optimistic about the near term. When they (hopefully) have four more years of Barack facing them, come November, I think we will then see them with gloves off. They are, believe it or not, still holding back, IMO.
smintheus
The “sugar high” thing is everywhere on conservative comment boards. Might be that a useful rebuttal is that stimulus is more like a blood transfusion for a weak patient. And that austerity is like applying leeches.
gnomedad
@Jerzy Russian:
Illogical, illogical. Norman – coordinate.
Valdivia
@JoyfulA:
:) I am coming back to vote! wouldn’t miss it for the world.
Donut
FYWP!
Bruce S
@Or something like that.Suffern Ace:
Yeah, but read the link. He’s talking “end times.”
Anya
So, when did Alan Dershowitz become reasonable? I thought he was in the “Israel can do no wrong” camp.
I must say I enjoyed these tweets from him:
making fun of Dancing Dave.
Here he is mocking Netanyahu’s claim about Iran.
And this one:
JS
It’s not a meme, but here’s something to consider – of the incredibly vague “super detailed” 59-point Romney economic plan..
Hold on, phone…
…
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-romneys-new-focus-20120915,0,7556272.story
…
of the incredibly vague “super detailed”
595 point Romney economic plan.. There’s only one detail Romney’s actually given anyone. Namely, that he’s going to “Make permanent, across-the-board 20 percent cut in marginal rates”.That’s the one and only specific he’s stated, and held firmly to. We know that’s because it’s really the only reason he’s running for the presidency. And I think that a big tax cut being his only real “platform” is starting to seep into the national consciousness.
gogol's wife
@IowaOldLady:
That’s what I recall as far as recent mentions of it. First it was in that Romney person’s “don’t panic” e-mail, then it got applied to the Fed action, I don’t know by whom first.
BGinCHI
@Anya: The Dersh sounds like The Douche.
Valdivia
@Anya:
really? you sure it is not a parody account? when did he have his come to jerusalem moment?
Litlebritdifrnt
@Valdivia:
Do not wander into a market without someone who is not a dog lover going ahead of you and turning you around if need be. I cannot elaborate but if you value your soul you will not do it.
Schlemizel
If the GOP retains the House I don’t see how they can do anything but double down on blowing shit up. They don’t have anything else. It will start with the Debt ceiling debate.
If they are successful at this the economic pain they will cause will certainly make the loose wingnuts blow shit up for real. My guess is the GOP has no plan for how to deal with that except to blame it on Obama. It could get very ugly.
My real fear is that in 4 years a complete demagog will be presented as our only hope. They could be a Republican of the Paultard faction or a Democrat playing the same part. Its the perfect environment for the rise of a real dictatorship.
Anya
DougJ @top:
I think both of these options are a huge possibility, plus impeachment.
shortstop
Doug and muddy: There’s absolutely nothing worse than not working and simultaneously not having fun because I’m fretting about not working. As much as possible, I try to live in either productive or enjoying-myself mode. I hate when I’m in limbo, doing neither. And I spent about five hours of today in it, boo.
Anya
@Valdivia: I know! When I was in University I seem to remember his constant attacks against Norman Finkelstein.
ETA: Just checked, indeed, it’s a parody account.
gogol's wife
@Anya:
That’s a relief. My worldview was shaken.
Citizen_X
Hmm, me neither. I’m gonna go with “Yes, he is,” just to be on the safe side.
Valdivia
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Thank you. I have made a note about markets and dogs–I can imagine and I don’t even want to be confronted with that. I am prepared for all sorts of horrors because everyone has told me that I will have all my senses assaulted in every way.
@Anya:
I knew he was too crazy for that kind of thing. Still pretty funny as a parody.
PeakVT
The House can impeach (meaning refer charges to the Senate) Obama all it wants, but Republicans will never get the 2/3 majority needed for conviction in the Senate.
If the Repukes take the Senate I hope they do impeach Obama. That would blow up in their faces big-time.
Chris
@Schlemizel:
First of all, no fucking way does a demagogue emerge from the Democrats. There are no Huey Longs or William Jennings Bryans in today’s America, or even any Franklin Roosevelts, and few prospects for one emerging.
It’s very possible that a demagogue will emerge from the GOP – as I’ve said multiple times, if they lose two elections in a row to someone they see as a RINO, we’ll be lucky if the next person isn’t wearing white sheets and a dunce hat.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll be able to get any traction with the American public. The economy’s better now than it was four years ago; if we get four more years with a Democrat in the White House, it might have gotten back to more-or-less normal levels by 2016, plus the PPACA will have kicked in fully by then, which helps too. In those kinds of circumstances, the Republican demagogue may simply find himself unable to connect with the public, and summarily Goldwatered. Especially if you account for another four years of Angry White Conservatives dying off and nonwhite people reaching voting age.
(Yes, I know. Way too soon to have any idea how 2016 will look, especially since we still don’t know how this one will turn out. But one just has to speculate, or at least I do).
Or something like that.Suffern Ace
Meh. My guess is that because the debt ceiling and tax cuts come due at the same time the problem will be solved, but not before a freak out. I also guess that if the dems lose the senate, the president will have to learn how to run all the cabinet agencies himself as no one will be appointed to fill any positions. If the dems keep the senate, look for them to not change the rules and therefore the president will need to learn how to run the agencies…
Anya
@gogol’s wife: Mine too. I was checking to see if twitter was still mocking Dancing Dave and when I saw that tweet from Alan Fucking Dershowitz, I was like what the fuck!
gbear
My only prediction is that Rush Limbaugh will share the same fate as Andrew Breitbart before Obama’s second term is over.
Or something like that.Suffern Ace
@Chris: yeah. I’m going to guess that what will follow in 2016 will be a completion between white bread and a kaiser roll in terms of charisma. Similar to 2000 or 1988. The kaiser roll will be deemed more honest and straight talking, but it’s not really all that interesting when you get right down to it.
Or something like that.Suffern Ace
@gbear: I thought he was leaving middle earth for costa rica because of healthcare? Why don’t his listeners ever hold him accountable?
catclub
@PeakVT: I think if they succeed, Biden will ask a Mr Barack Obama to be his chief advisor, and be re-elected in 2016.
Lemonade!
Gore gets re-elected if Clinton impeachment succeeds.
You know who I blame for the massive expansion of the Federal Government under Lincoln? Idiotic southern states that seceded.
If they do not secede, they can filibuster any substantive changes to slavery laws. If they leave, they can’t. Petulant children.
Mr Stagger Lee
@Anya: Speaking of Finklestein.
jimPortlandOR
hints of the evolving plan are becoming clear:
– manipulating the vote count, where they can and contest the rest based on lies
– voter fraud charges nearly everywhere.
– prevent the electoral college from voting
If these don’t prevent O’s swearing in, then:
– denounce RMoney as a fake convervative that failed the ‘movement’ (this is beginning as we speak)
– refusal to vote in Congress on anything except tax cuts
– encouragement of civil unrest and threats of succession.
summary: refusal to accept democracy’s outcome and hysterical attacks daily (orchestrated, of course).
Or something like that.Suffern Ace
@jimPortlandOR: Hey. It’s just bringing their foreign policy home to roost.
WaterGirl
@Valdivia: So your dad must be doing pretty well and you’re off on an adventure?
ThresherK
@Chris: Love the headline about “Unconventional destinations”. That will be a meme which will hang on until I’m pushing up daisies, I guess.
I have no idea of the turnover in special retirement-built housing developments. At some point is that a section of the housing market that becomes overbuilt in locations, just like Bobo’s “Foreclosurevilles” out in some parts of ex-ex-exurban California, Colorado, Georgia and Arizona?
Sounds like a beat waiting to happen for someone.
MaryRC
@IowaOldLady: Yes, I think that’s where it came from:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-convention-bounce-is-sugar-high-romney-pollster-says/2012/09/10/c32c5318-fb4d-11e1-8adc-499661afe377_story.html
Valdivia
@WaterGirl:
Hi! My dad is much much better. It was such a long, hard slog this summer. But he is back at work almost every day. And while there are still issues (balance for example because his left eye is pretty much useless now) we don’t have any major things scheduled except periodic check ups and I won’t miss any of them as I scheduled them around my trip (yes I am that neurotic).
So I leave feeling (hoping) things will be stable. I confess I am super nervous because it is an adventure of the heart but you can’t win if you don’t risk right?
Thanks for always asking how things are. I hope your summer was better than mine.
gene108
@smintheus:
(a)
The right-wing nuts must be whipped up by the right-wing (media) wurlitzer, lest they lose their frothiness and start becoming calm and able to be reasoned with; and
(b)
You assume right-wingers understand that doctors used to use leeches; and (i) they’ll recognize it as a negative and (ii) not assume that it’s just more proof science can’t be trusted, because “you [scientists] want us to trust you about Global Warming? You thought leeches were a good way to treat the sick.”
Ben Franklin
@gbear:
From your keyboard to God’s monitor.
WaterGirl
@Valdivia: Glad to hear the great update on your dad!
You deserve a vacation, and I’ll bet your dad appreciates that vote of confidence, if you know what I mean.
it is an adventure of the heart (please say more!) but you can’t win if you don’t risk right (I completely believe this, especially when it comes to adventures of the heart!).
My summer has been mostly very good!
DougJ
@Valdivia:
Glad to hear about your dad.
“Adventure of the heart” sounds scary, though. We all saw Lady From Shanghai.
Cacti
@BGinCHI:
The last time we hit peak wingnut nationally, Fort Sumter was attacked by South Carolina.
Maude
I read sugar high as a dismissive term for the bounce after the Democratic Convention.
The crazies have one foot next to the grave and the other on a banana peel.
It Obama wins, the Republicans will have a serious problem in trying to convince people that they are right about everything. The voters will have rejected them.
Makes me want to hum Tears of a Clown.
redshirt
Tell me about it! I’m unemployed for the first time in 20 years, living in paradise, yet ill at east with the whole thing.
arguingwithsignposts
@Citizen_X: It would be irresponsible to speculate. It would be irresponsible not to.
Heliopause
Oklahoma City happened in 1995. Olympic Park in Atlanta happened in 1996 though after it was all but obvious that Clinton would be re-elected. The nuts took a little break after that, maybe because they were distracted by the vastly more important issue of sex in the broom closet. I dunno, Obama’s personal life looks rock solid, that could be a bad omen.
Publius39
I get so pissed off when people like Paul Ryan and Ben Stein are called economists because they got a bachelor’s degree in economics. It would be like calling a person who majored in pre-law or pre-med a doctor or a lawyer. A bachelor’s degree does not mean that a person is a master in that profession, it simply means that they have a base of knowledge to infer from, and not a professional specialization therein.
Bill Arnold
@max:
I recommend armscontrolwonk.com if you’re interested in this sort of thing. Both the front pagers and many of the commenters know enough to do SWU calculations etc. Bottom line, Iran has enough 20% enriched uranium (plus some carefully cultivated uncertainty) that, worst case scenario, a several month breakout to a single bomb is already quite plausible, with a modern frugal uranium implosion design. It would be hard to do covertly though.
catclub
@Bill Arnold: I have read about seals that the IAEA has installed that would have to be broken, in that case. Looks like I will have to visit the site you cite, probably a far sight better than my guesses.
I guess my ignorance is out of date. I thought that nuclear weapons used very highly enriched Uranium — over 80%.
Valdivia
@WaterGirl:
yes I know exactly what you mean. I think it will be good for him to feel I am not hovering around all the time
About the adventure: just going to Shanghai seems demented to me on and off like 20 times a day. But: I truly think the object of affection if worth it, and can only hope things will work out. The long summer apart took its toll so we shall see. Keep your fingers crossed for me :)
@DougJ:
biggest grin ever. I know have images of that movie playing through my head and I truly hope nothing like that happens (though she did look smashing on that white bathing suit). And thanks for the kind words about my dad.
Bill Arnold
@catclub:
They do. Breakout in this case involves enriching the 20% uranium to 80-90%. Most of the separative work has already been done, so the remaining work could be done (presumably deep underground) in months, after breaking the IAEA seals or something similar. Then the UF6 needs to be converted into a bomb, which is not exactly trivial. And an implosion design can be tested with non-enriched uranium (not a real bomb test) but it would be hard to be 100% sure that it would work for real.
That’s the story line at least.
Corner Stone
@catclub:
This was nice. It has been seen.