Here’s my (recycled) contribution to the ridiculous War on Christmas Starbucks sippy cup trolling:
After listening to the wretched troglodytes in both horrible Republican debates, I couldn’t sleep. So I decided to watch the Democratic forum Maddow hosted last week, which I’d missed.
I know I’m biased. But I like our chances.
What’s keeping you up tonight?
Wag
Hanging out in the ER with my 80 year old dad. He’s been on blood thinners and has a nosebleed like you’ve never seen. Transfusions. It sucks. He’s resting comfortably now and it looks like the bleeding has finally stopped.
BGinCHI
Catching up on all the threads on the GOP debate. Wowzers. So much stupid in one place should be an alternate form of energy.
And just to state the obvious. The GOP debates have not mirrored Reality TV shows like The Apprentice and others where rich people master the dreams of less rich people. They ARE that reality TV. Look at how they control the moderators and the authorities that want to get away from that format. They are actively trying to wrest everything away for themselves.
That tells us everything we need to know.
piratedan7
@BGinCHI: kind of implies that they really don’t feel like they’re answerable to us, the voters, doesn’t it?
Amir Khalid
Non-Republican commentators keep saying that the consistent winner of these debates is Hillary Clinton. The R candidates look less and less like presidents each time out; she looks more and more like one in comparison. And yet the expectation remains that whichever clown wins the nomination is assured of 45% or so of the vote against her. Even if she wins an electoral-college landslide, like Obama did twice. That always amazes me.
PurpleGirl
I slept for a few hours and now I’m awake again. Thought I’d catch up on the debate threads and see what I missed by sleeping early.
I hadn’t realized it was Diwali already. I’ll have to eat Indian food tonight by candlelight.
BGinCHI
@piratedan7: Republicans want to be bossed around. They want a Daddy who will tell them everything is all right but also that everything that is wrong is someone else’s fault. They don’t want facts and they don’t want to be told to change. They want the assurance that the past was great and that the future is rotten. They hate education and competition, and they hate responsibility most of all. Almost as much as they hate themselves.
Marc
Just got off work. Looked around the web for what I missed, and I figure I saved some IQ. I fear I’ll have to completely unplug from all ‘news’ sites once the New Year kicks off, for fear of being contaminated by teh stupit. Once it reaches critical levels, I’m sure something awful will happen, and I don’t want to be near a vector for contamination. Aside from pointing and laughing, is there any reason to watch the (R) debates?
BillinGlendaleCA
Best part of the debate was Cole’s twitter feed to the right, where he was wondering which channel the debate was on. He then realizes he should look at his own fucking website. Good on Tommy for adding the twitter feed.
PurpleGirl
@Marc: A better and more productive use of your time is playing with Miri’s kittens. They must be climbing all over the place now.
Marc
@PurpleGirl: Yeah, I’ve been meaning to send in a post with pictures, but life has been busy. I’ll try to get something for the blog this weekend. But yes, the kittens and Miri are much more enjoyable than anything on that stage.
Zinsky
Betty – I’m sorry you have insomnia. The so-called debate last night was a theater of the absurd. Republicans just don’t do economics well. Not one of the dweebs on stage seemed to be aware (or they were and kept quiet about it) that the inevitable consequence of a flat tax is this – the rich will pay less, while the poor and the middle class will pay more. It is simple arithmetic! Something tells me the mindless rubes in that audience who were clapping so gleefully while the GOP hucksters expounded on “how much more money they would have”, would not be down with a flat tax, if they knew this!
Elizabelle
@Wag: Good luck to you and your dad, Wag. How worrisome.
Stayed away from the GOP debates. Figure it’s weapons grade level of stupid, since focus was economy. Cannot put up with such bellicose obtuseness.
Elizabelle
Betty: Love the Starbucks cup decorations.
Will be fun to decorate our own little cups, for Christmas or however we wish. With the appropriate letters blacked out.
Wag
@Elizabelle:
Thanks.
And at least I had a distraction that kept me from being sucked into debate hell.
Uncle Cosmo
@Elizabelle: You & Miz Cracker bring back fond memories from literally a half century ago, when I was in high school. I have no idea what the drill is now (lifelong bachelor), but in those ancient days public schools issued us textbooks which we were required to cover, & enterprising locals would print up heavy-paper sheets usable as covers (I can still fold one of those in about 30 seconds) with ads for local shops, stores & commodities. One such was on medium-brown paper with dark blue printing, & the ad prominent on the first page, in reverse type (i.e. inked background, letters uninked) was for SCHMIDT’s Blue Ribbon Bread.
One of the upperclassmen showed me the, mmm, interesting effect produced by using a standard dark-blue ballpoint to ink in every other letter, starting with the C…;^)
(Ah, the golden days of my misspent youth…which, if I’d known I was going to survive this long, I would have spent a lot more time & effort misspending…)
Satby
@Wag: Hope your dad is better already, but that must have been awful. Best wishes for him and you.
J R in WV
@Wag:
Been there, done that, with my dad when he was 79-80. Exactly.
I’m sorry you’re going through it, but after the dust settles you will be glad you were there when he needed you.
Good luck to all of you.
cmorenc
@Amir Khalid:
The biggest risk to Hillary’s chances of winning 2016 will be if GOP voter suppression tactics in a handful of key swing states are successful in giving them razor-thin electoral college wins in those states, despite Hillary winning the national popular vote by 1.5 to 3% (which isn’t how the winner is determined in the present system).
Uncle Cosmo
@Wag: Wag, I feel for you. Went through that with my dad for 20 years, starting with his first infarct a couple of years after he retired.
One night he was taken to the ER with arrhythmia & when I called in for his status was told, If you have anything you’ve been waiting on saying to him, come in now–he’s conscious & aware but we’re not optimistic we can get this under control.. I did, & I did. They managed to stabilize him pending a bypass operation. He came through that like a champ (at age 84) but didn’t survive the recuperation.
Everyone: Treasure every day your aged parent is mentally sharp. We lost Mom at 102 this past August, relatively healthy until the last year except for the dementia that set in when she was 94. The Long Goodbye is torture for all concerned.
Lynnd
@Wag:
I’ve been to the ER plenty of times with my Dad because of the blood thinners he’s taking. I’m glad everything turned out OK for your Dad.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Lynnd:
My mom took herself to the ER because she fell on a cactus while she was living by herself in Arizona. We finally managed to pressure her to move in with my brother in Illinois, so at least she has someone who can take care of her if necessary. Those were some pretty worrisome months, though, because she’s stubborn and didn’t want to have to move.
Wag
@Elizabelle:
@Lynnd:
@Uncle Cosmo:
@J R in WV:
It really strange how the empathy of strangers is so helpful. Thanks everyone.
Life is strange.
Paul in KY
@Zinsky: Probably most of crowd was rich.
Paul in KY
@Uncle Cosmo: I hear ya! Mine are 91 & 90 right now. Father has dementia. Mother OK. Both not getting any younger.