"Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds" 2014 edition –>
http://t.co/eUcvlorHWe
— Billmon (@billmon1) October 28, 2014
You can’t win, and you can’t break even
You can’t get out of the game;
You shouldn’t stay, but you ain’t leaving
‘Cause your luck could change again…
piratedan
well our national media has been covering more pressing issues like whether or not Obama snuck a cigarette or if he deserved to play golf once in a while or the mystery airliner that disappeared and Rick Perry flying in helicopters in some weird recreation of Apocalypse Now . It’s hard to keep reporting on a Congress that doesn’t do any fucking thing except repeal the ACA symbolically and shut down the government. How the fuck are they gonna spin that into news when the people that own the fucking networks direct the news entities not to cover shit like that?
Ruckus
There are a bigger number of young people who have never seen news that isn’t slanted, who you’d hope would have some empathy and common sense given the economy of the last few years, but they don’t. They have swallowed the Greasy Old Poop party line. They sound just like 75 yr old codgers with their heads up their asses when they talk about any new story they have heard. When the old conservative fuckers die off, nothing will change, as a good portion of our citizens are batshit crazy and many of their children are following in their footsteps.
Mike E
Hey, my daughter voted for the first time and, as it turns out, on the same day I did! It must be in the genes :-)
The Dangerman
Last night ABC News was pushing Jeb as a viable candidate for 2016; oh, sure, surviving THAT primary with his immigration positions should be an interesting “challenge” (read: NFW).
The Right will keep burning shit down until they win the Presidency but arsonists can’t win the Presidency…
…and the Savior is supposed to be Jeb BUSH? I don’t f’ing think so.
ETA: And it’s not like Hillary is a great candidate either; her comments on jobs was kinda whacked.
The Dangerman
Just to be clear, I generally agree with what I think Hillary was trying to say (trickle down economics is a crock of shit) but she mangled her words so badly that it will cause her great grief.
WereBear
Let me be clear:
Most people don’t know how things work.
Our journalism has bailed on explaining. There’s tons of people with access to mass media who love to explain it wrong. Schools don’t teach civics or economics or even how to use words to explain.
But maybe it’s better that some institutions break down into dust. Institutions can have such ossified resistance to any kind of change that the only way progress can be made is for them to GO AWAY.
It just takes so much longer than it needs to.
BillinGlendaleCA
@The Dangerman: The great savior of the Republic Party for 2016 is Willard, but they’ll have to ask him nicely. He won’t sully his good name in the primaries like he did the last two times.
Mustang Bobby
When I read about this columnist in the Charleston, West Virginia paper who said that Michael Brown was “an animal” that had to be “put down” (he later apologized for calling him an animal but said his shooting was “justifiable homicide” so we’re all good), the name Don Surber rang a bell.
I remembered seeing his droppings all over the blogosphere back in the early days of my blogging career. He was a wingnut picked up occasionally by Peter Daou’s blogaround column in Salon, and once or twice he stopped by my place to troll. I politely told him to get bent and that was the last I heard of him until now. He’s the point person on the Republican minority outreach effort, I see.
Amir Khalid
@Mustang Bobby:
Whose slogan seems to be, “I got mine, fuck you, vote for me!”
Linda
It’s not just Americans–most people are not all that smart. When the Soviet Union was falling apart, some folks pined for the good old days of Stalin. When times are uncertain, there are a percentage of people who long for someone who sounds confident and wishes to boss everybody around. The Republicans fill this bill.
raven
@Mustang Bobby: I thought of you yesterday when I saw this baby along with a B 17 and B 24. They wanted $3000 for a 1/2 hour ride in the Mustang!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpspJR6nZTc&feature=youtu.be
BillinGlendaleCA
@Linda:
Well, they got Putin.
Schlemazel
@raven:
There used to be a war birds air show here every year That sold rides on B-24s and 17s. They were $500 a hour but they were taking groups. The last one I saw had a B-29 doing it. THose would have been interesting rides I am sure. I never saw rides in fighters, not sure its worth 3 grand but damn that would be fun.
What surprised me the most about the fighters was the engine noise -deeper and much more powerful sounding then the movies make them sound. They did fly-by with 4 P-51’s and you could feel the ground shake!
Schlemazel
@Linda:
My cousin, who was pressed into service as a 16 year old in 1945, was discussing German politics one time. He said “There is something in the German people that we like a leader who tells us what to do. Though it didn’t work out very well for us last time.”
I’m convinced its not just the Germans, many people want a strong daddy to tell them what to do and pretend they can keep them safe. Those people really are controlling the country at the moment.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: We have one of those at the community airport in Vienna. Never seen it fly but a buddy of mine talked to the owner once. Some rich guy with plenty of money for toys, which I wouldn’t mind so much if I could see it fly every now and again.
Mustang Bobby
@raven: Wow, that’s a beauty. Makes me wish I’d kept up my flying lessons back in the 70’s.
We do a benefit car show every year at the Wings Over Miami Air Museum and they have some fine planes on display, including a Catalina PBY undergoing restoration. We raffle off a flight in a small plane but nothing like that P-51.
OzarkHillbilly
@Schlemazel: I was hunting once and got buzzed by CAF P-47 about 50 feet off the tree tops. Hit the ground before I knew what it was.
Mustang Bobby
@Linda:
Which is a great paradox to their mantra of “Freedom!” and “Smaller Government!” But then being consistently inconsistent is their thing.
Iowa Old Lady
@The Dangerman: I heard a R flack pushing Jeb and saying that his wife will help draw Hispanic voters. IMHO, just like Sarah Palin drew the women voters who wanted Clinton. They have no respect for voters, though I suppose sometimes I feel that way too.
Elizabelle
@Iowa Old Lady: And let’s not forget how Dan Quayle was supposed to appeal to the ladies, too.
@Schlemazel:
Yup. Pains me to say this, but maybe Roger Ailes is a better student of history than I thought. Studied the wrong masters, but it’s working for him.
Schlemazel
@OzarkHillbilly:
At a deal at 29 Palms back in the 70’s and they did a low-level fly-over with a pair of F-4’s on full after burner. Even after being warned what would happen a lot of people were diving for cover!
low-tech cyclist
You’d think that, given the gulf between what’s true in our political system, and what people believe to be true, the folks in the MSM would at least do some serious soul-searching, because this says they’ve totally fucked up in their mission to inform the electorate.
And what’s the point of treating the Fourth Estate like it’s something special, if they don’t help people understand even the basics of what’s going on?
Not that there will be any soul-searching on their part, of course.
But the Democratic Party has also failed here. When the electorate understands things this poorly, it’s up to the Dems to fill the void, to go with simple, clear messages that clarify things for people.
But the Dems keep stepping on their own dicks with things like agreeing in advance to compromises with the GOP on Social Security and Medicare, so the GOP can turn around and hammer them for trying to cut these programs.
And a third party would be way more destructive than doing nothing.
It’s enough to make a guy want a stiff drink at 7 a.m.
Schlemazel
@Iowa Old Lady: @Elizabelle:
All politics is cynical to some extent but the goopers drive to pick ‘optical’ candidates is a level I find astounding. Pick the JFK wannabe to attract women and when that doesn’t work try picking an actual woman. Don’t bother trying to govern in ways that would make women more likely to vote for you, just pick a doo-dad the will impress them. That they think women are vapid enough that this will work indicates exactly what they think of them.
They are do that with African American candidates now. NPR interviewed some clown from Alabama or Mississippi the other day who is “one of several” blacks running under the GOP banner in the south”, What was funny was how he wanted to talk about gays & abortion but pretty much ignored anything else.
ThresherK
Nice lyric grab. I still can’t wrap my head around the idea of The Wiz with a 33-year-old playing Dorothy.
Being a musical geek I can always say “The next reinvention of a production will fix it”. See how much better “Flower Drum Song” plays as self-referentially knowing of its floor show-within-a-show cheesiness now v. when it was new in the 50s. See “Newsies” on stage v. the original movie.
But for movie musicals, you got one shot. Well, in the case of “A Star is Born”, one shot every decade and a half.
JPL
@Schlemazel: It seems that the republicans believe that it’s the gays and minorities preventing us from having nice things. White seniors vote for republicans even though the policies of the republicans have the potential of hurting them the most.
Baud
@Schlemazel:
They want leader that will tell them their tribe is the best tribe.
Shakezula
Oh they’ll fix it all right.
danielx
@Schlemazel:
They are a whole lot louder than one might expect – I was on a boat out on a lake a little while back and a B-25 flew over surrounded by four P-51s. The surface of the water was vibrating and we could hear them coming from a long way off…”what the hell is that?” It must have been truly awe-inspiring to hear B-17s by the hundreds going by overhead.
I know y’all will be shocked, shocked that David Brooks’ latest, titled Why Partyism Is Wrong, amounts to one long howl of….
BOTH SIDES DO IT!
So many gems in this particular pile of dogshit that it’s hard to pick and choose among them, but…..
Well, yes, I guess I do have to question the basic decency of those who think Scott Walker and Paul Ryan are economic geniuses. As for basic loyalty, I don’t believe I’ve ever heard, say, Stephen Colbert or Jon Stewart question the basic loyalty of conservatives, though they very definitely have questioned how that patriotism is expressed. Conversely, I have read of or heard the likes of Limbaugh, Coulter, Malkin, Savage, etc not just question the loyalty of liberals but refer to them as out and out traitors. Many times.
Dave, ol’ buddy – this is purest, rankest bullshit. When was the last time you sat down and talked about guns with an Indiana pig farmer or a Tennessee agricultural machinery dealer about guns? They either need them or just like them. What they’re defending against, insofar as they think about it, isn’t urban snobbery but urban hordes, although they’re a lot more likely to have to defend themselves against the likes of Bristol Palin and her flame de jour on a meth binge.
This one may be my fave, though:
Don’t know if you’ve noticed, David, but there is this guy named Francis who is a noted theologian and head of a large religious organization at that, who has had a great deal to say about moral issues of late, particularly those economic and cultural issues so dear to Republican hearts. He says Republican values suck, if not so explicitly – and quite rightly, too. Then there’s the likes of Pat Robertson, whose response to the disaster of the day – any disaster – is that it’s completely the fault of the faggots and dirty fucking hippies, because God personally told him so. So yeah, there are public theologians out there making moral statements, you’re just not listening for them or you’re tuning them out. The latter of which, in Robertson’s case, is as understandable as Robertson is detestable.
If Brooks screams BOTH SIDES DO IT loudly enough, he may drown out the little voices in his head screaming COGNITIVE DISSONANCE. On the other hand, the six figure salary which he’s paid for producing this horseshit on a weekly basis may do an even better job of soothing the little voices.
ThresherK
@danielx: I went to college not far from an AFB, and now live close enough to recognize the airliner livery by sight when I hear them overhead.
It’s been long turned into background noise, but once in a while there’s one we can hear even inside the house and the cats will pick their heads up.
PS If you’re running for “Unofficial Driftglass Deputy”, I’ll vote for you.
Mustang Bobby
@JPL: Abstract fear of two men getting married (subliminal message: “agh! gay sex!”) trumps a cut to their Medicare benefits every time.
debbie
@Iowa Old Lady:
Promoting Jeb will also push the wingnuts further toward a third party or at least away from the establishment GOP. They absolutely abhor the thought of a third Bush.
Sounds like a fun watch.
danielx
@ThresherK:
High praise!
I know it’s pointless to rave about Brooksian rubbish, and some say (in the phrase of that noted philosopher George W. Bush) that even discussing what he writes is to give him more exposure than he deserves. But it gets my blood flowing, puts sparkle on my teeth and a spring in my step, all of which are badly needed early on Wednesday morning.
debbie
@danielx:
Along the same vein, Glenn Beck bemoans the divisiveness in the country and wonders how it happened.
Ben Cisco
The odious Douglas MacKinnon (of “the Southern states should secede and call their new country Reagan” fame) has seceded from his job at the Tampa Tribune.
Or perhaps he got fired – they’re not telling:
Well, off to Faux for him, I guess – failing upward is a constant after all…
aimai
@WereBear: My newly 18 year old just voted at college–absentee ballot for here because we are in the same state. I expect she will be very active in the 2016 elections for the dems. Things aren’t all bad.
OzarkHillbilly
Boy, you Georgians have a real peach of a Governor.
Sherparick
This is another one of my problems with the Tom Franks of the liberal world, who has spent the last three months slamming Obama and basically contributing to the meme’s of his “fecklessness” and responsibility for “economic malaise.” Yes, it would been a good idea to have gotten second stimulus program, one specifically targeted at the middle and working classes, infrastructure, and aid to states, but that shipped has sailed and has not been possible for the last four years except to extract a few concessions for extending the Bush upper class tax cuts and making them permanent. That was all the Republican establishment cared about and once they got that it was about making sure the economy stayed in depression and that Obama got the blame. There is a time to criticize Democrats and Democratic Presidents, but not during the run up to an election where the alternative is the sociopaths of the Republican Party.
ThresherK
@danielx: It’s not pointless. Remembering what’s important isn’t pointless until one gets to the point of doing it as if you were praying the rosary.
It promotes the “foxhole mentality” (note lower-case ‘f’).
*I’m a recovering Catholic; I can make this joke.
danielx
@Iowa Old Lady:
As with a lot of other things, political and otherwise, George Carlin had the definitive word – think about how stupid the average person is, and then realize that half of ’em are stupider than that.
It does explain a lot, actually.
@Schlemazel:
Semi-academic study, but very readable: The Authoritarians
Mike J
@Linda: For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.
People believe that a strong leader will step in and do all the things that are simple and obvious and miraculously everything will be better. There are almost always complex reasons for why things are fucked up in the particular manner they are fucked up. In the same way happy families are all alike and every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way, fucked up situations are the unique products of the situations that produced them. Simple, obvious solutions ignore the things that lead to the current situation.
Kropadope
@low-tech cyclist:
All our ads from the Dems and Dem-affiliated-groups in the MA governor race come down to GUNS! and ABORTION! It’s the mirror image of the things I’ve seen that put me off the Republicans. These are issues that aren’t going to come up in any major way governing this state, but they just want to scare you off the Republican candidate. It doesn’t appear to be working.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Without a doubt the GOP has hurt the economy with their lack of policy. But the article writer is assuming to much to think the GOP is even conscious of what they are doing. Just look at Oklahoma – complete control of the state government and they still trash the place.
Baud
@Sherparick:
Yep. Part of the problem.
@Kropadope:
I hate those ads too, but we keep saying Dems should hit the GOP like the GOP hits Dems. This is what it looks like.
Baud
@aimai:
Can we clone her?
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: Both Rick Scott and Nathan Deal are good Christians. There god is a grifter, I guess. A repub friend mentioned that she is appalled about affairs and I mentioned that I was appalled that someone would support a candidate that stole my hard earned tax dollar.
Kropadope
@Baud:
No, I don’t That’s why I voted for Obama and reason #2 on my “fear Hillary” list.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: Best I ever saw was on the road between Dong Tam and Vinh Long. They had blown a mine in the road and we were stuck in the ditch while the engineers came to repair it. There was fire from the tree line about a half a mile away and, suddenly, two F-106’s came in and pounded it. Yay jets was all we could say!
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: During a recent debate Nathan mentioned that he has been investigated and since he hasn’t been charged with a crime, he has done nothing wrong.
raven
@Mustang Bobby: Loved those PBY’s!
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@JPL: Ah, the old “if it’s not illegal, it’s ethical” defense. :-/
In other disappointing but not surprising news (that may have been mentioned here already), State court refuses to intervene over 40,000 “lost” voter registrations in Georgia.
People gotta get out and vote to protect the franchise of those who are trying to gain it. Don’t be disheartened, be part of the wave!
Cheers,
Scott.
Cervantes
@danielx:
Worth a look, sure, but there’s also Richard Hofstadter’s classic, “The Paranoid Style in American Politics,” an essay he published in Harper’s in November, 1964. It’s available via the magazine’s on-line archive. (The date is significant.)
Mustang Bobby
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: And Kansas. Down the financial crapper on purpose at the hand of Teahadist Governor Sam Brownback, and he will probably be re-elected.
Kropadope
@Mustang Bobby: It’s a coin flip at worst.
Mustang Bobby
@raven: I had a friend who had a Grumman Mallard based at his FBO at Toledo Express. We used to take it up to Michigan in the summer and land on Grand Traverse Bay, and in the winter we’d fly up to Boyne Mountain for the day for skiing.
raven
@Mustang Bobby: Oh man the fishing possibilities are endless!
Baud
@Kropadope:
Maybe you don’t. But as a group, we send mixed messages. Dem campaigns always piss off somebody.
Cervantes
@danielx:
On decency: one can argue about definitions until the cows come home but if we agree up front that the Sermon on the Mount, say, is about decency, then Brooks and his heroes do not have a leg, or even a foot, to stand on. Similarly I think your pointed reference to the current Pope easily overwhelms whatever “argument” Brooks thinks he is offering up about politics versus morality.
Re “loyalty,” too, his language is deceptive. Leaving aside for a moment his use of “country,” Americans really are not all “loyal” to the same creeds. Millions of Americans were not loyal to Joe McCarthy’s America, or Nixon’s. Americans disagree about fundamental things. There’s nothing wrong with that and there’s certainly no point denying it. Of course, Brooks pretends not to see. He would like us to equate one particular creed with “country” and “patriotism” — but that’s just dishonest, the last refuge of scoundrels like him.
Cervantes
@ThresherK:
Your comment about “Flower Drum Song” interests me. I know only the original.
Cervantes
@Schlemazel:
Any thoughts on Tim Scott in South Carolina?
Cervantes
@Elizabelle:
What Ailes understands more than history is the use and abuse of television. He’s been at it for a long time.
bemused
@danielx:
The Authoritarians is excellent and at the top of my recommended reading list. Fascinating and I didn’t expect a book documenting decades of Prof. Altemeyer’s work could also be entertaining for lack of a better word.
@Sherparick:
When did Thomas Frank turn into a bitter liberal? I didn’t see it in What’s the Matter with Kansas or perhaps I didn’t pick up on it. His later opinion pieces turned me off and I haven’t read any more in years.
rikyrah
uh huh
UH HUH
…………….
BREAKING: Court Refuses To Intervene In Case of 40,000 Missing Voters In Georgia
by Alice Ollstein Posted on October 28, 2014 at 4:14 pm
ATLANTA, GEORGIA—On Tuesday, Judge Christopher Brasher of the Fulton County Superior Court denied a petition from civil rights advocates to force Georgia’s Secretary of State to process an estimated 40,000 voter registrations that have gone missing from the public database.
Though early voting is well underway in the state, Judge Brasher called the lawsuit “premature,” and said it was based on “merely set out suspicions and fears that the [state officials] will fail to carry out their mandatory duties.”
Angela Aldridge, an organizer with the group 9 to 5 Atlanta Working Women who has been working to register voters for several months, told ThinkProgress she was “furious” when she learned of the outcome: “That impedes people’s rights,” she said. “People need information before they go out to vote and they don’t even know if they’re registered or not. They were discouraged, upset, kind of frazzled, not really knowing what was going on. What can you even say to people who want to vote but possibly can’t? They might get disengaged and say, ‘Why vote? It doesn’t matter.’ It’s really disheartening.”
The New Georgia Project, who spearheaded the voter registration drive and brought the lawsuit against the state, vowed Tuesday to “continue to pursue all legal avenues available.” But with the election mere days away, there may be little remedy for the tens of thousands of people who submitted all necessary documents, but have still not received a registration card. Four of those impacted voters were present at the court hearing, but were denied the opportunity to testify.
Dr. Francys Johnson, President of the Georgia NAACP, who represented the 40 thousand voters in the court, called the ruling “outrageous.”
http://thinkprogress.org/election/2014/10/28/3585449/court-allows-voter-suppression/
MomSense
@Mustang Bobby:
There have been so many stories about how disastrous OK and KS have become under Republican leadership just like there have been so many stories about the California turnaround now that Democrats took over.
There have been so many stories about how Perry’s dream anti-regulation state fucked up the response to Ebola as compared to the Feds and public hospitals in other states.
What pisses me off is that there are people who are making decisions based upon the misinformation they are getting from the media.
Patrick
Yes, that makes sense. This is the same GOP that destroyed the economy when they last were in power. What the f*** is wrong with people?
Ruckus
@Schlemazel:
Went to Oskosh for the fly in about 15 yrs ago. One of the highlights was a ride in a B-17. As I remember it was about $150 and worth every penny. Actually a lot quieter than I expected but then we just cruised around at maybe 150 max for about a half hour. Did get to look through a very decrepit Norton bombsight. I now have a much larger level of respect for the people who flew them and I wasn’t sure that was possible.
Elizabelle
@Patrick:
They believe in magic, even though they don’t think they do. One family member voted for Romney after supporting Obama in 2008 because PBO did not fix things fast enough. This is not a family member that follows politics closely, but considers himself highly rational.
For other people: tribalism. And not wanting to admit the party they have supported for so long has gone off the rails so badly.
blueskies
@WereBear:
Exactly. Couple that with what is almost never fully taken into account: The effect of a handful of wealthy people controlling or substantially influencing all forms of media.
Never forget that all of this was and is planned by extremely organized people who truly, truly want a system that is much closer to feudalism than you even want to think about. ALEC is one part of it. The Murdoch worldwide empire is another.
Elizabelle
Also, I think Democrats are very poor at messaging. They are running from President Obama, instead of explaining actual Democratic policies. Which are not as simplistic and futile as the GOP policies people who believe in magic like to believe in.
Plus, the mainstream media has its thumb on the scale for Republicans. Even people who didn’t see it earlier are seeing that now.
Elizabelle
@blueskies:
What you said. The sad thing is, it seems to be working.
For how long, I cannot say. Maybe we are seeing death throes of the GOP, and maybe we are seeing the birth of a much more awful and even less representative political system.
OT, but it makes me nervous as all get out to have all Democratic hopes in the Hillary Clinton basket. I don’t see her as a sure bet.
Ruckus
@Patrick:
What the f*** is wrong with people?
the answer could be many things but for the easy, and probably best answer….
See
@danielx:
Once again George Carlin has it.
Mustang Bobby
@Cervantes: Playwright David Henry Hwang worked on a re-working of the musical with the permission of the R&H estates, trying to remove the most blatant stereotypes that were baked into the original. It opened on Broadway in 2002 but didn’t go over as well as the original.
[/theatre nerd]
Patrick
@Elizabelle:
That is dumb on so many levels. First of all, it doesn’t work. Nobody believes them. Does anybody really believe Grimes when she refuses to say who she voted for. Why not say Obama and then explain why?
And second, it demoralizes the base. How does Grimes etc make people like me feel about voting when she won’t stand up for our party’s guy? It makes me think about simply just staying home on Nov 4.
Cervantes
@Patrick:
Really?
Cervantes
@Mustang Bobby:
Thanks! — which is why this comment interested me:
At any rate, speaking of stereotypes and cheesiness and worse, I’m reminded of coasters I once saw in someone’s San Francisco home — this is decades ago now — portraying three Chinese sisters: the pretty one named “Sum Fun Tu Woo,” the ugly one who inspired “No Yen Tu Woo,” and the youngest one, “Tu Yung Tu Woo.” (There might have been a fourth “joke” but, if there was, my mind is mercifully blocking it out.)
bemused
@Elizabelle:
R’s know their voters and tailor their messaging to short buzzwords like Death Panels, Voter Fraud, Personal Responsibility. I’ve noticed the Republican voters I know are adverse to nuance, context or analyzation.
As Al Franken said, Democratic messaging doesn’t fit on a bumper sticker. The Democratic bumper sticker would say to be continued on next bumper sticker.
Elizabelle
@bemused: Yup.
I think “Income Inequality” and “Reduced Opportunities because the game is rigged” could work really well. Plays to both fear and realism.
And they are Elizabeth Warren’s forte. Not Mrs. Clinton’s.
Some other messaging ideas, in a more positive vein: (and Obama has touched on all of these.)
Also: Green technology. Let’s protect the environment and improve our economy. For our children’s sake.
Let’s make capitalism work better. (By sensible regulation that levels the playing field.)
That could work.
Patrick
@Cervantes:
I obviously wasn’t clear, so I will try again.
In 2008, I volunteered my time and donated money, drove people to the polls. I will vote this election no matter what. I always do. But I have chosen not to volunteer at all, no donations and I am not driving people to the polls. Candidates that are going out of their way to distance themselves from the Democratic party is the reason. They apparently don’t want my help, so fine.
Cervantes
@Elizabelle:
I like the ideas. Who is the audience you have in mind? Is the goal to change their minds? Or is it to keep them engaged? Or … ?
Cervantes
@Patrick:
I understand the feelings involved.
Thanks for your engagement no matter what form it takes.
(Oh, and thanks for elaborating.)
Patrick
@Cervantes:
No problem. Thanks for your understanding. I long for 2008 again. Maybe 2016 can be like that…I’m still hoping :)
Gravenstone
@Schlemazel: In college during the early 80’s, I heard a roar out my dorm window and looked out to see an element of three IN ANG F-4’s heading west, and fairly low. All of a sudden, the roar increases and here comes their fourth member diving down down through them from behind, at full afterburner. It was quite impressive, although I was shocked at the time they he could use afterburner over a populated area and easily under 10000 feet.
agorabum
@Sherparick: yup; the left remains a circular firing squad, or one that just aims at the candidates. Every single dem would be better than the Republican they run against, but more than half the ink of people like Frank is spilled talking about how crummy those dems are.
Cervantes
@Gravenstone:
In my office in February, 1995, I saw a moving shadow and looked out the window to find a police helicopter coming right at me. Moments later it crashed into a nearby sailing pavilion and everyone on board died.
gene108
@Elizabelle:
Democrats have been running away from their Party’s leadership, since the Carter Administration.
This is why.
The Republican control of the media has allowed them to easily, without any repercussions, make Democratic Presidents toxic in many parts of the country, no matter what the Democratic President has accomplished.
Republicans know that if the Democrats get a charismatic leader into the White House, who is allowed to succeed, the agenda of their masters to recreate the Gilded Age will be over, so they keep pushing anything to drag down the popularity of the President, from Whitewater to impeachment, to basically grinding the government down to a halt, since 2009 and constantly attacking anything that has happened, since January 2009, no matter how trivial.
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
@gene108:
In other words, even when Republicans lose, they win, because they get to delegitimize Dems with almost zero repercussions and make the American electorate forget what shitheels they are, or at the very least, get them to believe Dems are the bigger shitheels instead.
There really is no fucking hope, is there?
grandpa john
@JPL: About those self proclaimed christians
New International Version (NIV)
Cervantes
@The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik:
Trivial observation: Hope and Great Expectations are not the same.
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
@Cervantes:
Great Expectations are nice and grand until you run into people who swing hard right out of spite when you try and convince them why the GOP are a bad sell on some issues, and become utterly unreachable on anything else. You just don’t see that shit the other way. This country is full on horrifically fucking hard-wired for conservatism at this point, and that doesn’t seem about to change any time soon no matter how much effort is put into it, and with the state of things now, any effort is bound to backfire hard because anything related to Obama and Dems has become toxic, and our leaders have only exacerbated that shit rather than try to address it.
Grassroots are fine unless our top names shit on the brand, which they have been doing consistently while running away from anything that might differentiate them from the GOP.
It’s fucking over at this point.
Cervantes
@The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik:
I was advising against great expectations.
Ruckus
@Gravenstone:
I used to own a business about 3-4 miles from Lockheed’s skunk works in the Santa Clarita area. The day they officially retired the SR71 I was in my shop with a couple of customers. We heard a noise and I said what the hell is that. One customer said the SR71. Not knowing that this was it’s last official day, I was skeptical. We walked outside and to the west about 5 miles was a plane flying south that looked like a fighter. It did a big 180 turn and flew right next to us, heading north. Just as it was next to us and we could see the pilot’s face, at about 300-400 ft flying almost in a stall, it turned right and hit both afterburners while flying over the skunk works. Just before he went supersonic he cut the throttles back. It was right impressive. Then about 5 yrs later I was at the Wright Paterson AFB museum and got to walk up to one and touch it. Impressive plane both to watch and to see up close.