Washington is a funny town.
I took a break from work and went for a walk. It was a hot day, so I stopped and got a nice cranberry lemonade. Very refreshing. I took a sip, turned the corner and saw the above image in a free distribution box. I laughed so hard I sprayed in a full-on spit take.
Some how I would never describe John McCain as the “Conscience of the Senate”. Even though he was against torture, he still reversed himself and supported it when Bush was President. Despite stated misgivings, he was still solid for Bush’s Iraq war . Hell, for more than a decade, John McCain has never heard of a conflict anywhere in the world that he doesn’t want to turn into a full blown shooting war (I thinks he’s wanted to send US troops to fight in a dozen conflicts so far this year).
John McCain is not a foreign policy expert, unless “foreign policy expert” is a new term of art for an old coot who is always wrong about any and every world event.
McCain is also firmly pro-corruption. Remember when he stopped investigating the Abramoff scandal in exchange for Grover Norquist’s support for his failed 2008 WH run? Oh, and then there was the Keating Five and the long, long list of many other scandals that will always follow him around.
Calling John McCain the “Conscience of the Senate” is risible.
I would have gone with “Angry Old Man of the Senate” or ‘Raging Irrational ID of the Senate” or “Endless War Cheerleader of the Senate” or “Bitter Defeated-by-a black-man Crank of the Senate” or “Aging Asshole of the Senate” or something else.
There were lots of choices the little-read conservative rag could have used, but connecting McCain to “conscience” is just funny. Especially if you know anything about the auto-partisan, pro-corruption, war-infatuated very, very senior Senator from Arizona.
How about another open thread.
Cheers
Cacti
Washington, DC:
Where an angry, ranting, warmonger can get labeled as a “conscience” of government.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
Hey, you motherfuckers, you know he was a POW, right? I know that he doesn’t like to make hay of it, but still….
scav
Apparently an angry ranting confused warmonger busy constently wandering the talk shows is about as cool and moderate a “conscience” as the GOP can muster.
Wag
John McCain. The little red devil that pops out of Elmer Fudd’s head to offer contrarian options and to oppose anything recommended by the angel in white that pops out the other side.
Maybe that makes McCain the Cleek of the Seenate.
Citizen_X
So, “conscience” = “WHY AREN’T WE BOMBING [fill in the blank] ALREADY?”, eh?
TheMightyTrowel
But Dengre, he’s a maverick! What do you have against mavericks? Do you hate freedom eagles?
ETA: Obvs this is good news for John McCain….
Culture of Truth
“cool…” um… have you they seen the man?
GregB
he’s such a one trick pony. If McCain were around in the Civil War I gather his response would have been to arm the rebels, even if he was on the Union side.
David Koch
I think they’re right. Seeing how the senate is old, corrupt, and dysfunctional, what better symbol than McSame.
piratedan
on a completely different note, going to be in San Francisco at the end of the month for work for close to a week, anyone local have a list of should do’s and/or must do’s?
Ruckus
Little johnny is as close to a conscience as the GOP has in either house.
And you do notice the spelling of conscience don’t you?
Con…science. Perfectly fitting for the Gory Old People’s party.
MikeJ
@Citizen_X:
I can’t remember which side of the conflict in Syria he wants to bomb this week. He started out wanting to bomb the government, then he wanted to bomb the rebels.
Elizabelle
“Sitting Pretty” on TCM, started at 1. Seems to be the first of the “Mr. Belvedere” movies.
Robert Young and Maureen O’Hara need a babysitter for their 3 suburban kids.
Neighborhood looks like Wisteria Lane in B&W.
Higgs Boson's Mate
Conscience? Senate? They’re Mandarins.
NotMax
Have to go all the way to Japan to find a town named Obama.
It’s a village of mostly fishemen.
Right there in McCain’s Arizona, there’s a town named Maverick.
It’s a ghost town.
Elizabelle
Conscience of the Senate or anything, my ass.
McCain should have a chain necklace of crazy Palin faces around his neck. We can imagine one, every time we see him.
Villago Delenda Est
The Village MUST be destroyed. This is the thinking with his fucking dick dumbass who gave Sarah Palin national “prominence”.
If this clown actually had a conscience, he would have demanded the impeachment and removal from office of the deserting coward and the Dark Lord for doing to others what the North Vietnamese did to him. But he sold his motherfucking soul for the 2008 nomination.
He is damned for that. There is no redemption for the savage self destruction of your own integrity like that.
The scum of the Village support the shithead. For that reason alone, they must be destroyed.
Wipe them out. All of them.
Higgs Boson's Mate
The fundamentals of our economy are strong.
John McCain, Sept. 15th, 2008
Suzanne
This reminds me of how the media tried to convince me that Newt Gingrich was a public intellectual during the 2012 primaries. Like, DOOD. I KNOW WHAT WORDS MEAN, and that alone puts me in front of Newt Gingrich in intellectual prowess.
amk
only in murka.
⚽️ Martin
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: You should note that Sept. 16th, 2008, Reserve Primary Fund (the oldest money market) broke the buck, something that should never, ever happen. By the 27th, $3.4 trillion were withdrawn from money market funds. Basically, 5% of all the money in the safest financial instruments outside of US Treasuries simply vanished from the economy – stuffed under mattresses.
From Sept 15-19, at which point the Treasury stepped up to guarantee the money market assets, the fundamentals of our economy had not been weaker in the previous 80 years. Had that run continued, the financial sector would have been wiped off the map, along with damn near all pension and retirement savings.
PurpleGirl
I know it’s because of his injuries that he holds himself so ramrod straight. But I have always thought of a little strutting rooster when looking at him. And he looks ridiculous and absurd. I could never take him seriously.
srv
Open thread?
How about we open the bomb bay doors and throw McWalnuts out?
Ruckus
@PurpleGirl:
Little strutting rooster. Perfect description. What isn’t noise is dick.
PurpleGirl
@PurpleGirl: Forgot to add, that his strutting around also reminds me of Benito Mussolini, another absurd little man. (It’s these absurd little men who are so dangerous to the peace of the world.)
srv
For those of you who liked Donald Pleasence, be aware that his classic, thought lost, Wake In Fright movie in on Netflix.
I’m guessing the Australian Chamber of Commerce or Tourist bureau buried every copy of the movie and someone dug it up in the Outback. It is truly the seminal depiction of All Things Australian.
NotMax
@srv
Wake In Fright is well made, but barbaric and brutal. Been out on DVD since ’09.
The nadir of Pleasance’s on-screen work, IMHO, was his turn in drag as a French maid in Frankenstein’s Great Aunt Tillie.
⚽️ Martin
Oh, my. Someone is playing with the plumbing…
srv
@NotMax:
Clearly, you missed The Don as Dr. Freedom in Mr. Freedom.
Chris
@David Koch:
And the worst part is, it’s still better than the House.
Chris
@Suzanne:
Newt Gingrich has always been the epitome of the phrase “a stupid person’s idea of what a smart person sounds like.”
RavenRant
When you’re assessing the character of this serial adulterer, you can’t dismiss the fact that he abandoned his disabled first wife and their three children. He carried on a lengthy adulterous affair with Cindy before marrying her. Then her felonious father bought him a congressional seat, not too tough a task for a multimillionaire, seeing that the entire population of Arizona was less than 3 million.
Questions:
A) If Michele Obama’s father was a convicted felon, like Cindy Hensley McCain’s father was, would we have ever heard the end of it?
B) If Michelle Obama had admitted, on national television, to being a drug addict and a thief, like Cindy McCain did, would we have ever heard the end of it?
FromTheBackOfTheRoom
Balloon Juice is a funny place.
I took a break from reality and went for a stroll. It was a hot day, so I stopped and got a nice cuppa dennisthemenace. Very enervating. I took a sip, turned the corner, tripped over 2012 and saw this horse shit on a free electronical distribution box monitor. I laughed so hard I sprayed in a full-on spit take before realizing that I didn’t actually laugh nor spit since I’m not retarded and haven’t done a “spit-take” since I was about 18 months old.
Some how I would never describe Obama as the “Conscience of the Country”. Even though he was against torture, he still reversed himself and supported it when he became President. Despite stated misgivings, he was still solid for Bush’s Iraq war . Hell, for more than a decade, Obama has never heard of a conflict anywhere in the world that he doesn’t want to reluctantly, sadly, turn into a full blown shooting war as long as he can send a robot to wreak the havoc(I thinks he’s sent US troops to fight in a dozen conflicts so far this year).
Obama is not a foreign policy expert, unless “foreign policy expert” is a new term of art for an empty suit who is always wrong about any and every world event except possibly Syria..time will tell.
Obama is also firmly pro-corruption. Remember when he stopped investigating Wall Street in exchange for Goldman Sach’s support for his re-election? Oh, and then there was the inspiring “Look Forward & Ignore Your Ass-Rape” election strategy and the long, long list of many other unexamined scandals that will always follow him around.
Calling Obama the “Conscience of the Country” is risible.
I would have gone with “Empty Suit” or ‘Raging Eleventh Dimensional Chess Master” or “Endless Freedom Bomber Cheerleader ” or “Bitter Angered by those Dang Hippies Who Always Get It Right Crank in The White House” or “Aging Asshole ” or something else.
There were lots of choices the little-read blog for recovering conservatives could have used, but connecting Obama to “conscience” is just funny. Especially if you know anything about the auto-partisan, pro-corruption, war-infatuated very, very not an Ickey Leftie nosiree not me President.
Eljai
@piratedan: Take the ferry to Sausalito and have drinks and appetizers at Copita. Walk through North Beach and stop in at City Lights Books. Take the cable car up to Nob Hill and while you’re up there you can walk the labyrinth at Grace Cathedral, or have a cocktail at the Top of the Mark.
Amir Khalid
@FromTheBackOfTheRoom:
Wrong. Barack Obama =/= John McCain.
Allan
@FromTheBackOfTheRoom: Don’t quit your day job.
Amir Khalid
An interesting explanation for Brazil’s somewhat unexpected setback in the World Cup: Mick Jagger jinxed them.
Ruckus
@Allan:
You really think that someone who makes so many mistaken conclusions could hold down a job?
BillinGlendaleCA
@Ruckus: Sure, a position with a corner office.
Eric U.
@Ruckus: pretty sure this is the product of wingnut welfare, McCain himself, or a college republican. Not enough bengahzi mentions and misspellings for a tea partier.
Elizabelle
Dengre’s photo makes me laugh.
“Conscience of the Senate” and underneath:
FREE
because you never want to pay for that quality of reportage.
Villago Delenda Est
@BillinGlendaleCA: Secured for him by dear old dad, no doubt.
Ruckus
@BillinGlendaleCA:
@Eric U.:
@Villago Delenda Est:
So it must be little johnny hisself then.
raven
Halperin is explaining that “there were calls to impeach Bush. . .a lot”.
BillinGlendaleCA
@raven: From who, random bloggers?
Mustang Bobby
@raven: And the response was always “How dare you attack the president in the middle of a war!” The fact that he started it was irrelevant.
Schlemizel
@Mustang Bobby:
followed by “Politics stops at the shore line”
another one-way valve.
pluege
funny that mccain could have in his head that he is against torture (war against an individual) but at the same time be for war (torture of a whole bunch of people). Amazing how wingnuts do that in what passes for their brains. The cognitive dissonance in there is staggering to try to imagine. Its no wonder wingnuts are so F-upped in so many ways incomprehensible to a sane decent person.
Randy P
@piratedan: Not a resident, just an occasional tourist. But I like the museum of old pinball and penny-arcade machines on Fisherman’s Wharf. I think it’s this place.
Also on the other side of the bay, you might check out Oakland (Jack London Square is their big tourist trap) and Berkeley (if you like artsy-hippie) neighborhoods.
AnonPhenom
Now and forevermore, to remind everyone of his crappy judgment, references to McCain should begin with the descriptor:
“the man who chose Sara Palin as a potential Vice President”
and refrences to Palin with the descriptor:
“the woman choosen to be Vice President by John McCain”.
Never again should one name be said without the other.
WereBear
is my favorite.
But there are many things that can be said about a man who failed spectacularly as a military officer, paid a steep price (that many paid who were not failures) and learned nothing from the experience. He comes back to something more suited to his talents: politics. And wangles his way to power, blackmailing his first wife with covering her medical expenses in exchange for her silence about his behavior.
I know there are people who would consider him a success; the many houses, the power and prestige, the fame and glory.
But he is, at base, a pathetic little criminal, and in his heart, he knows this.
WereBear
Precisely. Look at the way they cannot even apply the Golden Rule: do unto others as you would be done by.
They are happy to take food from the mouths of starving children for a tax break, but when it comes to them getting something from the government? Pull up a trough! And so forth, when it comes to… anything.
In a previous thread, a commenter noted that drivers with rude behaviors were far more likely to have right wing stickers on their vehicle, and that same day I pulled up behind a car at a light with a “Keep Christ in Christmas” sticker. Five minutes later they were throwing a butt out onto the road.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
The Washington Examiner is a right wing free daily. I think it’s something The Washington Times puts out to compete with the free Washington Post Express. If you’re a wingnut, McCain may appear to have a conscience, but only if you’re a wingnut.
Baud
@raven:
There were also grounds to impeach Bush… a lot.
danielx
Fixed.
gnomedad
At least the price is right.
gnomedad
Over in the NewsMax box:
NY Times: Liberal Kids Set To Be Conservative
The writer suggests the kids will forget how awful the Iraq War was. Yay!
MFA
“Unconscious in the Senate” is more like it; but then that headline would fit with so many pictures…
Patricia Kayden
@RavenRant: Actually, I didn’t know that info about Cindy McCain. Interesting. The things certain people can get away with is astonishing. And you are so right that if the same facts were applicable to Mrs. Obama, we wouldn’t hear the end of it.
Patricia Kayden
@raven: For impeachable offenses.
Uncle Cosmo
@FromTheBackOfTheRoom:
The content (such as it is) of the rest of your post shows you to be a liar.
Chyron HR
@FromTheBackOfTheRoom:
It’s been awhile since we’ve seen a self-proclaimed True Progressive utterly lose his shit because someone dared to criticize a Republican.
danielx
Amazing how Villagers finally get around to discerning what has been obvious to those in less rarified precincts for, oh, the last five years or thereabouts. The Dick Whisperer in today’s edition of the Bezos Beacon:
The tea party’s embrace of martyrdom
Now, my immediate reaction to this particular paragraph was along the lines of “in a pig’s ass”. (Amiable Republicans? Stop, you’re killing me!) But there is recognition of a number of salient points about Republicans, among them being: a) a great many Republicans are more interested in burning the motherfucker down than in governing and b) that increasingly, Republicans would prefer to burn at the stake of electoral defeat in ideologically pure flames rather than compromise in any way, shape or form. Which is, come to think of it, a restatement/extension of point a – you can’t govern if you can’t get elected because of your propensity for foaming at the mouth (unless you’re Louie Gohmert).
Fine, Br’er Milbank, but….you’re just getting around to noticing this? Kind of a lengthy flash to bang delay, eh?
Another Holocene Human
Since it’s an open thread:
I feel like so much racist, xenophobic sentiment has been whipped up, and the Fox news victims (and some of them are witting victims) are so angry, it makes me fear that civil society may break down again as it did when Reconstruction ended or like what happened in Eastern Ukraine.
Another thought, woke up this morning musing that almost 12 years of Catholic Sunday school (“CCD”) didn’t prepare me to live in a pluralistic, multiethnic society as much as the diversity training curriculum that was integrated into the learning experience at my elementary school in the Newton Public Schools that I and Louis CK attended. (My guess is he went to Countryside like a couple of my high school friends whereas I lived a couple “village”‘s over. He definitely went pre-MCAS like I did.)
My elementary school was actually a little crappy on academics, and some of the liberal cultural stuff went over the top, like singing “The Earth Is My Mother” on Earth Day, which, had I been a more assertive kid, I would have raised a stink about because the song seemed religious in nature (instead I just ridiculed it when the teachers weren’t looking). But the education they gave me about racism, and diversity, and history has saved me from so much grief during the years. It’s not like I don’t have the same evil thoughts and evil impulses. In a field fertilized with ignorance, they grow.
WereBear
@Another Holocene Human: Chalk up another win for the hippies, eh?
Another Holocene Human
As far as churches go I’ve been to Methodist and UU churches as an adult where they were actively teaching kids about diversity and tolerance, which was really not a big part of or almost any part of our Catholic Sunday school education, which was all about sin, rules, Bible stories, rituals, and as we got older, endless discussions of “ethics” from a Catholic perspective, a more medieval than modern exercise because it always started from the premise of the Bishops’ understanding of reality and not a scientific one. And from there, you descend into horror.
I’m realizing now that many mainline Protestant denoms do a lot in the community because they’re taught from a young age to live their faith, faith in action. The Catholic version of faith in action I learned was “Last week did you tell any white lies? Did you yell at your mother? Did you hit your brother? Say five Hail Mary’s and two Our Father’s.”
Then Catholics want to sit on their laurels, oh, we weren’t the racist faith, because Catholic churches didn’t literally turn brown and black people away at the door. Irish Catholics can be as racist as anyone, and nothing in the religious training really says that’s a sin. In fact there’s a whole doctrine of justified war. What did those cops used to call it in the 80s (when affirmative action was a thing and the city was trying to desegregate the police force kicking and screaming)? A war. It was a war.
Not only did Catholic religious education lead me in part (mom helped too, she cray) to a suicidal depression as a young person, but it totally fails to create good citizens. I mean, the logic is that it’s more important to tell a priest that you committed a murder before you die than to face the community you harmed, accept responsibility, and fix what you broke. Gangster logic.
Another Holocene Human
@WereBear: Oh, certainly, although I think it goes back a lot earlier than hippies in New England society, check out Amos Bronson Alcott and other 19th century New England educational reformers.
But I’m pretty sure the hippies had something to do with us singing “I’m special! Special! Everyone is special! Every one is his or her own wayyyyy!”
I didn’t hate it as a child, as silly as it sounds now. I mean we were really, really young.
Also, the elementary school teacher who taught me about African-American history was actually not a hippy at all but one of those teachers from the Old School. I think they broke the mold on him. He kept a very disciplined classroom which was very good for those of us with ADHD issues. Nobody runs a classroom like that any more. (And he was not mean at all, but you definitely could get held after school for acting up. I think he gave up on my inability to sit properly in a student desk, though. Once we got to 64 repetitions of “Leaning back in your chair is dangerous” with perfect penmanship he made this face like it totally wasn’t working. Ironically a got moved to a job a couple of years ago where I had to sit at a desk and a) I still sit funny and b) my health is suffering. Sitting all day is super unhealthy.)
Keith P
At first, I thought “It’s not so bad. McCain’s usually awake in the Senate. Maybe not coherent, but the headline’s technically correct.” Then I realized I was looking at “Conscience”.
Another Holocene Human
@Another Holocene Human: wtf, that was me, FYWP!!
Another Holocene Human
Btw, just want to say what has been said so many times before, how much of a difference it makes to a child when an adult is kind and patient and doesn’t treat them like an annoyance. There were days where my elementary school principal was the only person in my life who didn’t bully me or act like my existence was a burden to them. I think he was the reason I was always excited to go to school. It’s not anything that was said, but what was done. And I want to send my thanks out into the ether wherever he is.
Higgs Boson's Mate
How can you be the conscience of anything when you don’t have a conscience? Anyone with a conscience would have hanged himself for enabling Sarah Palin. McCain didn’t even have the decency to withdraw from public life.
Another Holocene Human
@FromTheBackOfTheRoom:
No, because it never happened.
I’m guessing this refers to 2008 or possibly 2009, since it was never part of his election strategy but Nancy Pelosi announced in 2006 that they would not be seeking impeachment and Obama in 2009 affirmed this strategy, a strategy of elected officials to do the most good instead of wasting political capital on a probably unproductive political crusade.
Obama does look back a lot. He looks at how others attempted to achieve change and failed. That’s why he’s pursued a deliberate, patient strategy of effecting changes that can’t be easily reversed, and he’s pursued a lot of de-escalation in terms of executive overreach, though Congress has not really cooperated on that front. He can’t control GOP craziness, only use it against them, judo-style.
Which I will never enumerate because it is as empty as McCarthy’s list of Communists but just trust me, he did somethin’.
rikyrah
In the
WHAT-THE-FUCK news for today
……………………………
Michigan man kills 2-year-old girl by shooting her execution-style to torture her dad: police
Raymone Bernard Jackson, 24, walked up to the little girl as she sat on her porch with her dad and then opened fire, police said. Then he shot the child’s dad and a 12-year-old family friend. ‘Anybody that feels that they can execute a child in the state of Michigan, we’re going to go after them,’ state police said.
BY Deborah Hastings /
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS /
Thursday, July 3, 2014, 8:08 PM.
A little girl sitting on the porch with her daddy on a beautiful summer day was shot execution-style by a “coward” who wanted the child’s father to watch her die, police said Thursday.
Kamiya French, age 2, was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital on Tuesday in Inkster, Mich.
Dad Kenneth French, 34, and Chelsea Lancaster, 12, remain hospitalized and are expected to recover.
Raymone Bernard Jackson, 24, was charged Thursday with first-degree murder, torture and other charges, the Detroit Free Press reported.
Ryan Garza/APRaymone Bernard Jackson, 24, was arraigned Thursday on murder and torture charges in the execution-style killing of 2-year-old Kamiya French and wounding her father and a 12-year-old playmate.
He is being held without bail. The torture charge comes from the suspect’s desire to inflict
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/michigan-man-charged-execution-style-shooting-2-year-old-girl-article-1.1854474
Viva BrisVegas
In other political news, in the world’s third largest democracy it looks like Jokowi Widodo has edged out Prabowo Subianto to become the next Indonesian president.
Which is just as well, as Widodo is a democratic reformer and Subianto was a former Suharto army hatchet man who left a trail of bodies from East Timor through West Papua and finally Jakarta itself.
Still, it looks like Widodo will be far less accommodating to the foibles of the current Australian government than the outgoing president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Tensions are already high over the mistreatment of boat refugees by the Abbott government, compounded by the violation of Indonesian territorial waters by RAN vessels in pursuit of said refugees.
It looks like a rocky road ahead for both countries.
Another Holocene Human
@piratedan: Good food in Chinatown on the trackless trolley line, Italian food there was primo as well. Cable car crowded and overrated to me. There is a surface streetcar line at cheap Muni prices with historic cars that takes you right through the City if you just want to see things. More fun than a Muni subway ride.
Another Holocene Human
@Viva BrisVegas: WTF happened to Australia, anyway? The 1% struck back? It seems that all over the world these reactionary, neoliberal, legalized kleptocracy regimes have come into power.
Belafon
So, in another case of Democrats helping Democrats, a Texas state legislature says to a camera “I hope this doesn’t turn into Obama’s Katrina. He needs to come down to the border.” You would think that people would understand that it wasn’t Bush’s failure to personally come down and hand out bottled water that made Bush own Katrina. It was his failure to see that the federal government wasn’t doing anywhere near as good as “Heck of a job, Brownie” implied.
Suffern ACE
@Another Holocene Human: @Another Holocene Human: yep. The 1% are far more organized that way. The right in general. Progressive politics are local. There isn’t a Netroots Nation -Davos edition.
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
@Another Holocene Human:
I know there was a significant freakout about carbon laws, but I hate to believe that Australia collectively hitched its star on the “Super Green Fascist Hoax!” crazy to the point of it being the big reason to elect Abbott, who may as well be a Murdoch puppet.
Belafon
@Another Holocene Human: Of course there are scandals:
Obama keeps letting black children play in the White House.
Obama sleeps with a black woman.
Obama refuses to kick the black man out of the White House who think he has the right to stay there every night.
MomSense
@Another Holocene Human:
That comment makes me so happy. I had a similar experience in that I moved just about every year and was always the new kid in school. The best first day was when the principal welcomed me at the office with the biggest smile and told me that ever since she found out I was joining her school she couldn’t wait to meet me. It probably wasn’t so much what she said, more her smile and the warmth of her greeting. She was always kind and knew every student’s name and something about them. I just loved that school.
MomSense
@rikyrah:
HORRIFYING.
sharl
@Another Holocene Human: Thanks for this and your previous personal and thoughtful comments – seriously, I appreciated them, especially your last one, mostly because of this:
I don’t have kids myself, but I have an appreciation of how tough it is to raise kids when the systems that govern so much of our lives conspire to make responsible and honorable child-rearing so difficult. It’s as though one is trying to run a ‘business’ (so to speak) with a 15-25 return-on-investment cycle, but within a world based on annual* R-o-Is (*at best; often more like quarterly). The $chool Reform initiatives so popular with our lazy and bought-off “opinion-makers” come to mind as just one example; frequent testing, whacking teachers for not getting instant results with limit resources and challenging classrooms (without cheating), and all that.
We’d be a lot healthier as a culture if we based our economy and services on the natural human life cycle rather than the artificial Wall Street beast we’ve created. I just don’t see how we easily dismount this hamster exercise wheel we’re trapped on,though.
Viva BrisVegas
@The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik:
Not “may as well be”, rather “is” a Murdoch puppet.
You would not have believed the campaign run by the Murdoch press over the last 4 years against the previous Labor government.
Imagine that the Washington Times was the only national newspaper and that every major city was served by a (slight) variation on the New York Post with little or no alternative. That’s the situation we have.
Abbott owes his job to Murdoch. On Abbott’s recent visit to New York, guess who his most important meeting was with. Hint: it wasn’t at the UN.
As an example of the benefits of of owning your own government, Labor was part way through a $45 billion national installation of optic fibre broadband to 93% of the population. That’s been thrown out by the Abbott government in favour of creating a far slower network using the existing copper network at a cost of around $40 billion.
Which of course means that Murdoch, who happens to have a monopoly on cable and satellite TV, won’t have to concern himself with any competition from internet streaming services for the foreseeable future.
We have seen the Tea Party and it’s name is Abbott.
lou
Ah, the Washington Examiner. It makes the Washington Times look moderate. I remember grabbing one from the street people handing them out as I boarded the Metro one morning. I’d forgotten my Kindle.
And the first story’s lede caused me to laugh out loud, startling a Metro car’s surly inhabitants. It read:
Cervantes
@Another Holocene Human:
Unforgettable, apparently.
Glad he was there for you and other kids.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Belafon:
The “Obama should come to the border,” meme makes no sense to me. Does anyone think that his presence their will affect the desire of parents in Central America to send their kids to a place where they won’t get their asses shot off by gangs? This is just a charade to distract from Republicans’ inability to craft and pass comprehensive immigration reform.
Suffern ACE
@lou: yeah. The little boys who run Slate are jealous they didn’t think of it first.
Cervantes
@rikyrah: Unbelievable.
MomSense
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
I don’t want President Obama to go anywhere near the border given the stories about the wahoos who plan to shoot “illegals” to incite a revolution.
Citizen_X
From now on, every time Palin opens her yap, just think to yourself, “Thank you, Conscience of the Senate!”
Suffern ACE
@MomSense: nah. The right is convinced that these children are really dangerous gang members, sent as an invasion force. (They look older! You really can’t tell how old they are!) With so many violent gang members, it’s just not safe.
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
@Viva BrisVegas:
Thanks for the explanation. Couched my words because I’m not as followed up on Aussie politics enough to make that statement definitive.
MomSense
@Another Holocene Human:
I think what happens is that the population is on a nice path and relatively comfortable (like the US in the 90s) and the 1% ers run campaigns on really modest things that also appeal to self interest like lower your taxes, run government in a more efficient way, etc. Then they get elected because people are complacent and don’t expect the new 1%ers to engage in a radical agenda. They figure the new group will just make improvements to the existing good. By the time people catch up with the radical changes, an incredible amount of damage has been done.
Belafon
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: It makes sense if you believe that running a country involves making as many photo-ops as possible. And Perry would love to show that he got the president to come down to the mighty
countrystate of Texas.MomSense
@Suffern ACE:
I think Gohmert is convinced they are part of the anchor baby/future terrorist/reliable Demcratic voter scheme.
Mike in NC
The Washington Examiner is the free version of the Moonie rag and what Fred Hiatt aspired to do with the Washington Post. Kudos to Fred!
Mike in NC
Front page article in the local wingnut newspaper: “Middle East Future Unclear”
No shit?
Suffern ACE
@MomSense: the problem is apparently easy to solve by shouting out loud that the children don’t belong here.
Cervantes
@lou: Here’s how Harsha responded to that Examiner article:
Viva BrisVegas
@Suffern ACE:
It’s worth remembering that countries like Honduras and Guatemala are the festering shitholes that they are today largely because in the not so distant past, US interests spent a lot of effort strangling in the crib any reforming impulses in those countries.
Even today a lot of those kids are still dying for the United Fruit Company and the Dulles brothers.
Yatsuno
@FromTheBackOfTheRoom: Protip: going TL;DR is no way to start your first troll attempt son.
SuperHrefna
@rikyrah: That is heartbreaking. And wasn’t there another case like that recently? I remember reading about a case recently where a small child out with her mother was shot ” execution style” to punish the father. Is this some sick new meme amongst psychopaths? Or have I just never paid attention before?
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Suffern ACE:
My modest understanding is that the US actually exacerbates the already-bad gang situations in Central America by deporting gang members convicted here to their home countries. AFAIK, there is no alternative under the law. The problem is that we seed accomplished and vicious gang members, who also maintain their connections with gangs in the US, back into the very places where they can thrive. We’ve shortened the supply chain for illegal drugs and ensured that some of the money from their sale goes where it will have a huge effect.
Effective action to start winding down this situation would require taking a clear-eyed look at both our drug and immigration laws then legislating reforms of both. That sure as hell won’t happen in this Congress. I’m skeptical that it would happen even if our party had solid majorities in both houses of Congress.
piratedan
ty all for your suggestions
mai naem
I’m just wondering when McCain dies, will Princess Sarah of the Alaska Northwood Snowbillies be one of the ones giving a eulogy? Would Cinders let Sarah give a eulogy?
big ole hound
@piratedan: Bring warm clothes. We rarely get out of the cold foggy 60s in the summer. Most of our homes do not have AC….get the picture but if you go across the bridge all of summer is available.
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
I refuse to link to a Murdoch rag, so you’ll have to take my word for it, but the WSJ apparently has a story on a study that confirms what we basically all knew already: society rewards sociopathy, but corporate culture especially rewards it, until it’s usually too late. Also, fake empathy is seen as less of a sin than real empathy.
In other words: Nice Guys Finish Last, Because Everyone Loves Selfish Assholes More.
burnspbesq
If you expected anything non-risible from the Washington Examiner, you must be unfamiliar with that rag.
Amir Khalid
@mai naem:
I’m sure of this about Sarah Palin: her eulogy for John McCain, should his family be stupid enough to invite her to deliver one, would end up being all about Sarah Palin. This is surely why Johnny Three didn’t let her make a concession speech in 2008.
Belafon
@The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik:
Jesus got nailed to a cross for refusing to fake it.
catclub
@WereBear:
I still want a “Keep Thor in Thursday” sticker.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@catclub:
Seems reasonable to me. I want me a “Keep Caesar Augustus in August” sticker.
Belafon
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: “Keep Hel in Hell.”
Eric U.
@The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik: I never really understood how that worked. I have worked around a sociopath for a while and I think it’s just that people are lazy and sociopaths are good at duping them. Once they have power, there is no benefit to fighting them. Even the people that find out they got duped either just fade away or succumb to the sunk cost fallacy.
Cervantes
@burnspbesq: True, but this is special: it would be enough to kill Orwell and Kafka all over again.
Anyway, here’s something else:
That’s “Ogres,” a poem that W. S. Merwin delivered at Lincoln Center in early 2003.
And that, Dear Examiner, is an actual conscience at work.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Belafon:
Excellent; I had to Google “Hel.” Damn me, I should have known better than to even nod vaguely toward the esoteric in this crowd.
Paul in KY
@FromTheBackOfTheRoom: Guess McCain & Romney would have been better for the country, right oh crunchy asshole?
satby
John McCain will burn in hell (I hope, even though I don’t really believe in hell) for his sins. And Sara Palin is only one of them, though one of the more egregeous ones.
The thought that he gets no pleasure in life since he was thwarted in his quest for the presidency is some comfort.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: “Keep the Germanic Fertility Goddess in Easter” is a bit clunky, I guess
Southern Beale
Along the same lines, D’Nesh D’Souza is SO oppressed, you guys, and it’s all Obama’s fault!
Paul in KY
@Another Holocene Human: There are evidently a lot of yokels down under (as well as here).
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
@Eric U.:
That’s part of it. People with the right amount of selfishness, ambition, and manipulation, that know how to take gladhanding to the right level to flatter the right people into giving them what they want. I can’t chalk it up to laziness completely though, when even the guys with the ambition and drive can get shit on for being too nice and direct.
gorram
@Elizabelle: I wouldn’t say people should distrust all free media, but all free media should be suspect – what is it that keeps their lights on instead of their subscribers? (It could be a pledge-system like public access television, but this obviously isn’t… and that means something, sadly.)
Origuy
@piratedan: If you can, make it out to Golden Gate Park. It’s nice just to walk around in, and there are a lot of things to see that are free. The museums are good, if you have the time.
Tourists usually don’t go to the Mission District, but that’s part of the real SF. Around 24th St and Mission is the heart of it. Not just Mexican but a lot of Central American restaurants. Notice the murals on the walls in the alleys.
Mnemosyne
@Another Holocene Human:
I think I’m a little older than you (I was born in 1969) and it’s interesting that the Catholic Church I grew up in was so different. They really went all-in on Vatican II and were singing Beatles and Godspell songs in church. One of the priests had been transferred to our suburban church from the inner city of Chicago, and he had no qualms about telling us just how pampered and sheltered our lives really were (his name was Father Job, he was a great guy).
It started to change by the time I got to high school, though, and there was more and more focus on sex and sin instead of helping others. Still, it’s those early years of charity and pop music that stuck with me more than the later stuff.
Elizabelle
@Citizen_X:
Best comment of the thread. Laughing still.
Elizabelle
@The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik:
RE your WSJ story on sociopaths finding success, particularly in the corporate world:
Don’t link if you don’t want to, but please give us the title or a paragraph so we can find it.
geg6
@satby:
I love this whole idea. It’s what I’m always hoping for people who are such assholes in life that most others would love to hang or shoot or go at them with a rusty chainsaw. It’s not that I’m such a pacifist (because I’m definitely not). But I can’t imagine a worse existence than never being able to be happy or upbeat about life ever again. McCain totally deserves such a fate.
shelley
Ugh, so that’s why Buchanan has been showing up again, (Newsmax headlines). He’s got another paper doorstop to plug.
Elizabelle
I’d be interested in a thread about what to do about the Central American kids arriving at our southern border.
What a mess. What do you all think?
Belafon
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: That little fact is courtesy of my 14 year old mythology expert.
catclub
@danielx:
Milbank does not really understand the process. One does not need to show who those people voted for if they voted illegally and there were enough to sow doubt. However, Cochran’s side has given their tally of possible illegal votes and it is not enough. Apparently the training of pollworkers was sufficient to keep anyone who had voted in the Democratic primary from voting in the runoff.
schrodinger's cat
@Elizabelle: At the very least they should get the benefit of due process, as in a hearing before an immigration judge.
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
@Elizabelle:
“What Corporate Climbers Can Teach Us”
Mind, the story tries to be even handed in its own unique WSJ way by showing when said Sociopaths go too far, but at the same time, it’s usually after the fact, when they’ve already climbed into a position of significant power, considering its main example of ‘too far’ is a CEO.
Mnemosyne
@Another Holocene Human:
Also, too — when I did my first confession, they were pushing really hard that it was the “sacrament of reconciliation” and the most important part of it was that you atoned for what you had done and really thought about it rather than just saying your penance and leaving. There was also a movement away from giving something up for Lent and towards actively doing something extra (volunteer work, charity donation, etc.) instead. I don’t think that really stuck long-term either, though.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Belafon:
Thank you for mentioning that.
Davis X. Machina
@Mnemosyne: The Church that raised me, inter alia, had all 240 freshmen in my 9th grade religion class read John Hershey’s Hiroshima and Michael Harrington’s The Other America. In religion class.
I probably would have turned out a social democrat anyways. But it didn’t hurt.
catclub
@schrodinger’s cat: That is what kids from nations other than Mexico get, per the 2008 law signed by GWBush. Mexican kids get returned directly.
The problem is not enough resources supplied by the Congress to make it quick.
schrodinger's cat
@catclub: USCIS is grossly understaffed and underfunded.
ETA: And that was true even before this crisis hit.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@danielx:
McDaniel’s campaign recently received $70k from the Senate Conservatives Fund to assist it in challenging the election. In as much as the election has already been certified by the state Republican party, seventy grand probably wouldn’t get the McDaniel bunch much more than a coffee-and-pastry meeting with any law firm capable of mounting an effective legal challenge.
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
@Another Holocene Human:
@Mnemosyne:
@Davis X. Machina:
My experience with Catholic School was amazingly lasseiz faire. Then again, we had a theology teacher who would have been a genuine hippie if he was born 15 years earlier. He proudly displayed pictures of his time protesting the School of the Americas and we spent the last two years of High School Theology learning about everything but Christianity, save one day of watching the movie Romero.
Most attempts at prostelytizing rolled off most of my class’s back, and it felt mostly like outside of the occasional Wed. masses, it was mostly lip service for a private school that was Catholic in name only.
Elizabelle
@The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik:
Thank you. Will try to access it now. Not sure why I’m interested ….
schrodinger's cat
An immigration attorney’s take on the current refugee crisis and comparisons to past crises concerning child refugees.
Cervantes
@The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik: You can read about some of the underlying research at academia.edu if you don’t want the gloss that the Journal puts on it.
(You may need an account.)
schrodinger's cat
@The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik: Same here. It was a school run by Jesuits and the nuns were socially progressive and economically liberal. Almost no proselytizing, non Catholics did not have to attend mass or the religion class either. Excellent science education, no problems whatsoever with evolution.
Cervantes
@Davis X. Machina: Hersey.
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
@schrodinger’s cat:
We still had mandatory masses, but they pretty much didn’t require anything other kind of involvement past attendance. And definitely no crazy involving science. All creationism stuff was firmly planted in Theology class.
catclub
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
I am happy to see them waste any resources they care to on this.
I also think that if they had a case – i.e. could find enough (multiple thousands) examples of people who had voted in the Democratic primary and then voted in the runoff – that young Matt Damon could win the case. Having no facts like that, I suspect they are just fundraising from the suckers. Like I said, more power to them.
schrodinger's cat
@The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik: The nuns did say a lot our Fathers and Hail Marys.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: Sounds like a lot of money to the teatard contingent and that’s all that matters – that somebody look like they’re doing something, rather than actually doing something effective.
As you say, that amount of money will cover your first sit-down with a professional law firm and the snacks. People have no idea what a “real” lawsuit actually costs to persue. Hint: it’s a lot.
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
@schrodinger’s cat:
I honest to god don’t remember seeing more than a few nuns the entire time I was at that school. Mostly we just saw the priests. I don’t think our diocese even had actual nuns.
schrodinger's cat
@The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik: Mine was a girls school. All except one teacher were female and about a third were nuns. Some wore their habits some didn’t. Priest sightings occurred may be once a year or so.
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
@FromTheBackOfTheRoom:
Derp.
Scuffletuffle
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Keep the Bunny in Easter.
Ruckus
@Another Holocene Human:
Went one year to a catholic, all boys, technical hs in the early 60s. Most of the teachers were in the seminary next door. As a non catholic it was a strange and weird experience. They tried to make me go to confession every Thursday or to mass once a week during school. I refused but did read the confessional pamphlets one day. Are they obsessed about the sex they aren’t supposed to be getting or what? The positive experience for me was that even though I had pretty much decided religion wasn’t for me, they pushed me all the way away from any debate about the issue.
Shakezula
That was nearly my reaction to seeing The [Goat] Examiner is back in print. I’m afraid I gave the poor man who was handing them out a filthy look.
Davis X. Machina
@Cervantes: Chocolate covered Freudian slip.
Cervantes
@Davis X. Machina: Did you ever read Gore Vidal’s review of the Hiroshima piece? No chocolate coating there — he wasn’t kind at all:
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Cervantes:
In the US’ WWII invasion of Okinawa somewhere between 44,000 and 150,000 civilians were either killed or committed suicide. The US suffered 14,000 troops killed and a total of 65,000 casualties. Japan suffered the deaths of 77,000 troops through either combat or suicide. It was this experience that led to the astronomically high predictions of both military and civilian casualties if the US invaded the Japanese home islands. The leadership of Japan while publicly stating that the Japanese would fight to the death were trying to get the Russians to negotiate terms of surrender more advantageous to Japan. Unfortunately for that initiative, the Russians attacked Japanese troops in China – something that Russia had secretly agreed with the US to do.
It was this combination of events that led Truman to decide to drop the A bombs.
LAC
@Allan: especially if it involves dangerous machinery and long hours.
Cervantes
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: Thanks.
And I should have mentioned that Vidal’s review appeared in 1963.
drkrick
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: The Examiner is owned by Philip Anschutz, who also owns the Weekly Standard. There’s no ownership link to the Washington Times, although they’re certainly ideological allies.
drkrick
@Cervantes: Reviews that concentrate on what the author should have written instead of evaluating what they did write generally strike me as narcissistic wankery. In other words, right up Vidal’s alley.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Cervantes:
Anyone who has read any thing about the end of World War II from the Japanese perspective knows this line is utter rubbish. The idea among the Japanese leadership was if they could win just one battle at
Guadalcanal/ The Marianas/ The Philippines/ Iwo Jima/ Okinawa/Honshu the Americans would give up the war. And please keep in mind it was the Soviet Union’s invasion of Manchuria that really forced the Japanese government to capitulate.Cervantes
@drkrick:
In that light, is it OK or ironic that you are not commenting on what Vidal actually wrote?
Cervantes
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Be that as it may, Vidal, writing in 1963, was right that Hersey did not touch on an on-going and relevant public debate.
brantl
I would vote for his title being contrarian old get-off-my-lawn, publicity-seeking coot of the senate, but that’s just me, YMMV.
brantl
@FromTheBackOfTheRoom: Have you always been a douche-nozzle, or did it take practice? I’m guessing practice, otherwise, you’ve nailed it, right out of the gate.