Excellent news from commentor Daryljfontaine:
Here is proof of life for the rescue kitten (thanks Alien Bunnyman and her mom for taking great care of him!). He’s been checked out by two vets, and cleared for FeLV and FIV. I have some drops to put in his ears, and appointments for his distemper booster and rabies vaccine in a few weeks. He is a proper little monkey, climbing like a pro, eating like a horse, and sleeping like he invented it. He’s currently laying on my stomach buzzing away. Still a day or so before he and Mango, my five-year-old cat, get to meet.
His name? Hamilton, or Ham for short. (*wave* at Mnemosyne)
He’s just like his country, he’s young, scrappy and hungry.
***********
Is there a better way to start the morning? Even a Mardi Gras morning!
Apart from happy kitten news, what’s on the agenda until we start scrapping about the NH primary results?
satby
No better way to start the day! Thanks to Alien Bunnyman and Daryljfontaine for rescuing Hamilton!
satby
And laissez les bon temps roulez!
Montarvillois
Nothing more cute than a happy kitten.
PurpleGirl
Squeee!!!!!! Such nice kitteh pictures. He has a smudgie nose. Thank you Alien Bunnyman and Daryljfontaine.
David *Rafael* Koch
Have you guys seen the photo of Barbara Bush scolding ¿Jeb?
Mustang Bobby
Aw, don’t show me these pictures! Now I want one but can’t have one. The pics will have to do.
I’m not Catholic, I’m not religious, but I will not pass up the chance to have pancakes for breakfast on Shrove Tuesday.
JPL
What a cute kitten. The votes have been counted in Dixville Notch, NH and Kasich beat the Trump. Sanders took all the votes on the democratic side.
David *Rafael* Koch
Geez. Even ¿Jeb?’s tweets are low energy.?
Baud
@JPL:
In keeping with polls.
@David *Rafael* Koch:
I’m tempted to follow Jeb for the lulz.
Schlemazel (parmesan rancor)
@David *Rafael* Koch:
<3 that is perfect!
I noticed the overnight thread was started as how awful Ted Crudz is but ended up being a handful of folks pissing on each other about who was worse, Hil or Bern. Is my memory going in my dotage or is this nastier earlier than 08?
Baud
@Schlemazel (parmesan rancor): I think it’s worse this time.
Schlemazel (parmesan rancor)
Marco Robotio could have his reputation sealed as the meme is spreading very well
Schlemazel (parmesan rancor)
@Baud:
I was afraid of that. Hope these assholes enjoy President Crudz, that will teach us all a lesson!
JPL
@Schlemazel (parmesan rancor): 08 was nastier. The president said Hillary was likable enough and several people lost their shit..
Baud
@JPL: I wasn’t here then. I remember 2008 being contentious, but not as personal as this year has started out to be.
satby
@Baud:
I agree. And I think a couple of them are ratfuckers who we should ignore.
raven
@JPL: Yesterday, Bill Clinton’s stumping for his wife in New Hampshire took on an angry tone, and his attacks on Bernie Sanders became very antagonistic. In doing so, he clarified for all of us that the era of Clinton as a liberal hero are coming to a conclusive end.
GOS warning
gene108
@Schlemazel (parmesan rancor):
Definitely worse.
In 2008, both Barack and Hillary agreed on the main substantive parts of their platforms, with the real wedge with Democrats being Hillary’s Iraq war vote in the Senate and Obama’s statements against the war.
Right now the Democrats are in a life-and-death struggle over the future of humanity (in America).
On one side, you have the shrill power hungry Lady Macbeth-stand-in and understudy, Hillary Clinton, who will sell the first born child of every American to Goldman Sachs and the rest of her Wall Street buddies.
On the other side you have Bernie Sanders, who is the only hope for America to escape this future.
Major Major Major Major
OMG kitten is adorable
Also, open thread, what better way to start the day than by reading my early Valentine’s Day supplement to my silly little fish-disappearing story, featuring Captain Kat Peoples?
Baud
In 2008, I was supremely confident we’d win regardless of who won the nomination. I’m not this year. So maybe that’s affecting my perception.
Baud
@gene108:
#AndThenTheresBaud.
JPL
@raven: Thanks.
Schlemazel (parmesan rancor)
@raven:
I know Clinton went after Obama in 08 but I don’t remember it being this aggressive, could it be ‘last chance’ desperation? It is a horrible mistake win or lose the nomination. I appreciated Sanders telling the bros to knock it the hell off but his is not entirely free from GOP-infused attacks on her.
Like in 08 I am trying to ignore the assholes who support a candidate, there are enough to go around in each race & rarely are they the fault of the candidate themselves. I know last night at least was spun up by a couple of real life assholes & potential ratfuckers but I do find then depressing. I know when I phone or door knock for whomever wins I am going to hear this shit from some number of people
EDIT:
@gene108:
so, which camp do you fall into , asshole or ratfucker?
gene108
@raven:
I don’t get why Hillary Clinton has to take responsibility for Steinam’s comments. Is Steinam working for Hillz in any capacity?
She said something stupid on a talk show all on her own. She also has a history of making off color remarks about things not in her wheel-house.
OzarkHillbilly
@Schlemazel (parmesan rancor): Much worse the last time, People are having to work overtime at getting their panties in a bunch. Last week BooMan thought this was the nastiest thing ever said by a political opponent (Debbie Stabenow) :
Ooooooohhhhh, feel the burn? Or is it Bern? And I have seen Hillbots overreact just as badly too.
Matt McIrvin
@Schlemazel (parmesan rancor): I notice that, out of all the big Bernie fans on this blog, that argument was mostly driven by one person.
satby
@Baud: In 2008 I wasn’t confident that we’d win at all, possibly because I’ve lived in integrated areas almost all my life so had less illusions of just how racist this country is. And then Obama won and I learned I wasn’t anywhere near cynical enough about how badly racists and ignorant people are willing to screw themselves over just to keep screwing minorities worse.
I’ve been politically engaged since the 70s when I was still a kid, and I’m gobsmacked on a daily basis with how little people have learned in the past 50 years. It just depresses me now: it’s like a country with half the population suffering from Alzheimer’s, and not just old people. All of them.
satby
@Matt McIrvin: one person who can be relied on to show up and argue with just about everyone else as offensively as possible.
BillinGlendaleCA
@satby:
I’ve been assured here that it’s just the Boomers(Spawn of Satan), who should just go ahead and die already.
gene108
Link CNN
Followed some links from Raven’s GOS link. This is the sort of thing Bill is “slandering” Sanders about.
I know Sanders supporters keep harping on Hillary’s shortcomings, but they need to be able to defend Bernie’s record without going into attacks on Hillary.
The GOS piece was about Bill attacking Bernie’s record followed by several paragraphs of how horrible Hillary is.
BillinGlendaleCA
@gene108: The things that bother me the most are attacks that I hear from Republicans being made against other Democrats by folk who claim to be Democrats. Other than that, Politics is a full contact sport(including biting).
gene108
@Baud:
I wish I could run for President.
Good luck to you.
BillinGlendaleCA
@gene108: I stopped visiting GOS when I stopped drinking.
satby
@BillinGlendaleCA:
It is, and I grew up in Chicago, but our side shouldn’t echo right wing bullshit.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: For me it’s more the level of downside risk that’s scaring the hell out of me. I was not at all sure we’d win in 2008, but I thought of John McCain as the probable R nominee, and as a guy who was at least marginally acquainted with reality (though he seemed like more and more of an unhinged warmonger as the campaign went on). Same deal with Romney, really. I knew that if they won a lot of things I wouldn’t like would happen, but these guys at least had some nodding acquaintance with governing.
This time around, the most likely establishment candidate is Marco Rubio, Tea Party favorite. And Donald Trump (rich TV clown dabbling in fascist totalitarianism) and Ted Cruz (possessed ventriloquist’s dummy for the Republic of Gilead) are the front-runners. The downside risk is unlike anything we’ve really seen in a long time, if ever.
It makes me prioritize winning the general election over absolutely any difference between the Democratic candidates, who are both broadly acceptable, perfectly fine with me. I have no idea which candidate actually would be better at winning the general election; I know Hillary Clinton is generally perceived as more electable but I am not at all sure this perception is correct.
However, I am scared shitless of Democrats tearing down any possible nominee in ways that the Republican candidate is going to be able to use as ammunition. And I see supporters of both candidates doing this with abandon. The Bernie fans got in earlier but the Hillary fans are hitting back hard now.
And I don’t think they entirely see how many of us might be killed if the Republicans win.
gene108
@Schlemazel (parmesan rancor):
Who peed in your Cornflakes this morning?
I have questions about Bernie’s candidacy. I am not convinced he is a viable candidate. He will be better than Republicans, but that is a low bar.
satby
@Matt McIrvin: consigned. And why I think there’s a lot of ratfucking going on.
Baud
@satby: I guess I was blissfully in a better bubble then.
@gene108: I’m glad you’re not. I’d hate to go negative on you.
@Matt McIrvin: Plus they control Congress this time.
OzarkHillbilly
@Schlemazel (parmesan rancor):
I see you have forgotten the run up to SC. Much worse.
@Baud: For good reason. In 2008 we were in the middle of the worse Presidency ever: 2 wars, war crimes were being committed, black sites, deficits out the ass, the bottom of the bottom of the bottom was dropping out of the economy… Every time it seemed like things couldn’t get any worse, they did. Jesus himself could not have won that election if had an (R) after his name. And that isn’t even counting the once in a lifetime candidate Obama.
Things are a hell of a lot better now, but we can all feel the discontent that is out there. The angry dissipation of white privilege is just the tip of it. Nobody would say the economy is what we would like it to be, the GOP has done everything in it’s power to stop Obama on even the smallest issue. They have Satan and Beelzebub vying for the GOP nom and people love them. And we Dems have 2 old fvckers who have both been in DC since the death of Christ arguing over who is the least “establishment”.
It feels like a dangerous moment in history. Maybe it is.
Baud
@satby:
I couldn’t agree more.
BillinGlendaleCA
@satby: I agree, it’s a problem when I can’t tell the difference between what some commenters say here and what I hear from Joe of the Morning.
OzarkHillbilly
@BillinGlendaleCA: I’m working on it I’m working on it. Jeezz, don’t people know this dying stuff is hard work?
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud:
Gene108’s likable enough.
David *Rafael* Koch
I guess it’s all a matter of personal perspective which year was worse.
And when things do go as planned people get frustrated and then blow up over anything – major or minor. Also people get tired as a campaign goes on and short fuses develop.
It’s like a sporting contest: fights don’t break out at beginning of a game (unless it’s the Bengals), they break out after a number of shots have been traded.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
I’m not so much worried about ammunition for the GOP as I am the ability to rally around whoever wins the nomination. I currently have difficulty seeing that happening in sufficient numbers regardless of who the nominee is.
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: this
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: I’m a young Boomer, and I plan to stick around annoying the generation-come-latelies as long as possible.
Applejinx
@gene108: That’s fair. He polls really well against Republicans, but Trump also polled very well until he fizzled in Iowa.
We will just have to keep working and turn out Democratic voters until results show he’s the viable candidate we believe he is. Then it’ll be obvious.
Me, I’m biased because I learn about macroeconomics, so for me the important thing is keeping out neoliberals and neocons, so to me he seems like the only viable candidate. But that’s me :)
David *Rafael* Koch
CNN/WMUR —- New Hampshire Poll — Feb 4 thur 8
Sanders………61%
Clinton………..35%
polls close at 7PM Eastern
A 25 point victory will be very handsome.
gene108
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Especially the part where Bill Clinton is responsible for everything wrong in the economy today, as if the 43rd President never happened.
amk
kasichmentum?
gene108
@Applejinx:
Fair enough. One question for you or someone in your office: How is Bernie going to get Democrats on board with his agenda, should he be the nominee? Nancy Pelosi has stated she will not have House Dems running on a platform of raising everyone’s taxes, which is needed for single payer.
Princess
It is pretty clear to me that a couple (and not much more than a couple) of the loudest Sanders “supporters” on here are GOP ratfucker trolls.
BillinGlendaleCA
@gene108: Or the 40th, then again I forgot that was all the Boomers’ fault.
OzarkHillbilly
@Matt McIrvin:
This is nothing to fear. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that Bernie or Hillary could say about the other, that the GOP has not already thought of. The benefit of a primary challenge is to work out the eventual nominees arguments against the inevitable attacks. If they can’t defend themselves against an ally, how in the hell can they ever do it against their sworn enemy?
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: Well, it’s always hard to see that in the middle of a primary campaign. I think the current primary fight is actually pretty typical. But the shitshow on the Republican side is so richly horrible.
BillinGlendaleCA
@gene108: Nancy Polosi remembers Mondale.
Baud
@amk: Possibly. Trump is well ahead, but we now know that is less important than coming in third.
Sherparick
@gene108: Really, you have to recycle Republican memes about the Clintons. The Democratic primary struggle is not a life or death struggle. The November election will be a life or death struggle. And it may be death if Bloomberg runs and essentially throws the the election to whoever runs on the Republican ticket. Even if the Democrat wins the plurality, if he or she does not get 270 electoral votes, it goes to the House. Which will be just fine with Republicans as the control the majority of the state delegations (each state gets one vote). Please read the Constitution some time. Finally, third, you will be surprised that President gets to sign or veto laws passed by Congress, but cannot enact them.
Sherparick
@Princess: Probably true. For the True Believing Conservative ratf##king is a sacrament of highest order.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly:
I think it is. There’s always been an authoritarian streak in people, but this really is the first time in my lifetime (memory, since I was just born as McCarthyism faded) that a major political party has gone so far into outright fascism, to the applause of a fairly significant portion of the electorate.
BillinGlendaleCA
As a diversion, some pics of LA at night: This is the City….
David *Rafael* Koch
@BillinGlendaleCA: wow. look at all those colors.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA: Nice.
satby
@BillinGlendaleCA: Nancy’s not the only one.
She probably remembers McGovern and Dukakis too. I know I do, and we really can’t afford a replay.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: I kind of wish there were an Evan Bayh character in the primary who could serve the role of vetter.
satby
@BillinGlendaleCA: Beautiful!
Baud
@satby: Bill Clinton successfully ran on raising taxes. It’s not impossible. But Bernie has a bigger challenge because his plans are much grander.
BillinGlendaleCA
@David *Rafael* Koch:
@Baud:
@satby: Thanks much, I made a slight mistake with setting the aperture; so the depth of field was a little off.
Baud
Wow. Two trains collide in Germany.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Obviously, the Republicans are right about that high speed rail thing.
Just One More Canuck
@David *Rafael* Koch: ARG has Sanders 53 , Clinton 44 for +9. His lead from yesterday’s ARG poll shrunk by 3
satby
@Baud: his plans are bigger, his proposed tax increase would be bigger, and his math doesn’t add up. Not encouraging.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: As the child of a born and bred Texan, we did more than a little traveling in the early 60’s South. I have memories of “Colored” and “Whites” signs. I think, or maybe just hope, what we are seeing now is the death throes of racism in America. It will continue around the edges, this is America after all, but people will no longer be able to ignore the obvious. BLM won’t let us. Right or wrong tho, no matter what, we aren’t going back to a new apartheid.
David *Rafael* Koch
@Just One More Canuck: ARG has a poor history. WMUR has a positive history in NH.
Iowa Old Lady
@Matt McIrvin: Their candidates are much worse this time, but even more troubling, if one of them wins, both houses of congress will certainly remain in the hands of the Rs and the rise of the Tea Party means congress can be counted on to pass truly horrifying legislation.
Patricia Kayden
What a pretty kitty cat! I love this blog for all its focus on pets – especially those which rescue us.
@Schlemazel (parmesan rancor): Bill Clinton went after Candidate Obama very aggressively in 2008.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/jan/21/uselections2008.barackobama
MomSense
Sweet, little Ham. What a cutie.
Baud
@Patricia Kayden: I don’t think the candidates are worse this time. I think the rancor of the supporters is worse, and that’s troubling given how little negativity there has been from the candidates.
debbie
@Baud:
You’re really pretty pessimistic this morning. I think the odiousness of whoever is the GOP nominee will keep people from staying home.
Baud
@debbie: I’ve been pessimistic for the last few weeks.
Kay
@gene108:
Because it’s guilt by association and since Sanders was made responsible for everything anyone said about him on Twitter, the Sanders people are just gleefully firing back. The whole guilt by association thing is dumb in my opinion because it’s endless, it has no boundaries, no definition, but once it starts it’s predictable that both sides will use it.
If the Clinton campaign doesn’t want to be held responsible for everything anyone says about Hillary Clinton then they can’t hold Sanders responsible for mean emails Joan Walsh gets from Sanders supporters. It’s so attenuated now it’s ludicrous. There’s 2nd hand guilt by association now, thanks to Bill Clinton bringing it in yesterday- Joan Walsh attacked by Sanders supporters is Hillary Clinton getting attacked.
MomSense
Ted Cruz reminds me of Tom Riddle before he went full Voldemort. Let’s not find out what that would be like in our muggle world.
Iowa Old Lady
Also, I want people to stop using “boomer” as a synonym for all old people. By definition US baby boomers were born between 1946 and 1954, so they are now between 52 and 70. So most of them are still working and the folks in scooters at Tea Party rallies are probably not part of this group.
Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class
@Baud:
That uncompromising enterprising anything but tranquilizing…
Right on, baud!
Baud
@Kay: Sounds like your saying Bill shouldn’t hold back.
bemused
@OzarkHillbilly:
White families acquiring more colorful grandchildren will also speed up the process.
Princess
I find Trump just as scary as Cruz and I don’t understand people who say he’s “just” an asshole (Come to think of that, the person who said that is my number one nominee for GOP ratfucker. Hmm.). People say he believes in nothing and stands for nothing, but I think he is a stone cold racist of long-standing, and that is genuine. What he says about the police and about torture chills me. Put it this way: If Cruz is Franco, Trump is Mussolini. Either one will shred the constitution and destroy the country.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Iowa Old Lady: Some folk, in my experience mostly GenXer’s, seem to think anyone older than 50 is a Boomer and is responsible for ALL THE WORLD’S PROBLEMS. Why, I don’t know.
Iowa Old Lady
@Iowa Old Lady: Oops. Make that between 1946 and 1964
Weaselone
@Princess:
The major difference is that Cruz comes with a heaping serving of theocracy.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA: Peterson foundation and libertarians. They’ve been pushing a generational divide for years to turn young people against deficits and Social Security.
satby
@Iowa Old Lady: 1945 to 1964, which is what I know you meant. And like every generation, there are some who are hopeless morans (sic) and others who are not. I’m sick of the ageist assumption that the olds should fuck off and die because we’re such a hindrance to the utopia that would arrive as soon as we all left. Because all the youngs have such an excellent grasp of everything.
And you fixed it :)
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud:
Ummmm, no. Remember the PUMA? And Obamabots were just as bad.
debbie
@Princess:
I think you’ve fallen for Trump’s schtick. Believe me, I’m not implying that he’d make a good president, but I don’t think Trump believes everything he says. I think he’s swaggering like a NYC businessman or financier. Empty silliness.
Kay
@Baud:
It permeates both sides. There’s a million photographs of Clinton standing next to the Goldman Sachs CEO and smiling in BernieLand, as if “aha! proof!”
They could find a photograph of Hillary Clinton standing next to just about every influential or powerful person, smiling. I eagerly await the damning “standing next to dictator photo”. I think that’s due out about now.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: I don’t remember Obots being this bad. PUMAs were, but I remember remember them as mostly irrelevant.
Princess
@Weaselone: You’re right. Which was pretty much the difference between Franco and Mussolini
David *Rafael* Koch
@satby: Nancy Smash actually went out on a date with Senator John F. Kennedy
Baud
@Kay: She needs to shiv a banker on live TV. It’s the only way she can make inroads with the young people.
bemused
@Iowa Old Lady:
Right. I’m a boomer and frankly, I am quite annoyed to be lumped in with cranky folks dressed in polyester who still think our ideal, proper way of life went to hell when the Beatles, Stones, hippies, etc. invaded America.
Iowa Old Lady
@BillinGlendaleCA: Well FSM knows, the Boomers are old enough to have been in charge for quite a while and numerous enough to be blocking the career paths of younger people, so we undoubtedly deserve a lot of blame. I just don’t find that generalization very useful.
I’m done with the Bernie/Hillary battle. I don’t find it very useful either. But then I already caucused and have my donation ready for whoever wins the D nomination in the end.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: I guess they’re finding some success with that.
debbie
@satby:
There was a movie in the late 60s, Wild in the Streets, which depicted the “youngs” taking over the government. Aside from wanting to pour LSD into the water supply, they wanted a mandatory retirement age of 30.
I remember watching it and thinking how far off 30 years old seemed!
Princess
@debbie: I wish you were right, but I think you are wrong. There is evidence that the racism goes way back, well into the period when he was funding Dem campaigns to get favours from them. The man kept a book of Hitler’s speeches by his bedside table. Look at what Woody Guthrie said about his father. This is ingrained in him since birth.
It makes sense: guy whose father has as much money as all the Manhattan WASPs but isn’t accepted by the WASPs. Som fights his whole life to be one of them, to be “classy” like they are. Knows he never will be one of them. Of course he hates the browns and the blacks and even the Italians (“Carly whatever her name is”)
If he didn’t truly believe this stuff, he’d be repulsed by the fact that the neo-Nazis love him. He isn’t; he loves it.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Iowa Old Lady:
That happens with every generation.
We don’t have our primary until June, I’m pretty sure the Democrats will have a nominee by then.
OzarkHillbilly
Why did Mississippi police release two versions of fatal shooting report?
Orwell would be proud.
satby
@Baud: Nope. Then it would pivot to how that proves she’s a stone cold murderer and maybe the FBI should reopen the Foster investigation. NOTHING will satisfy that crowd.
debbie
@Kay:
This will never end. They’re still condemning Obama for associating with Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayres.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: I remember more than a few truly obnoxious Obots.
MomSense
WBUR just asked NH man why he supports Trump. “He wants to build a wall to keep out ISIS and other…” They cut off the end of the sentence.
satby
@debbie: I remember that movie too.
David *Rafael* Koch
Currently trending on Twitter: “I Miss Barack Obama”
Just One More Canuck
@David *Rafael* Koch: thanks – it will be interesting to see the reaction with the actual results
OzarkHillbilly
@David *Rafael* Koch: Heh. I love the irony of this:
satby
@Iowa Old Lady:
Well to be fair, a lot of boomers have been pushed out of jobs pre-retirement age, have lost value in their 401k accounts with all the economic churning, and now have to work well past when they had hoped and wanted to retire.
raven
@Iowa Old Lady: “Boomers are old enough to have been in charge for quite a while and numerous enough to be blocking the career paths of younger people”
please
satby
@raven: There you are! I’ve been wondering when you were going to come tell me what a chicken little I’m being this morning ;)
raven
@satby: I was here at 6:30.
ThresherK
@PurpleGirl: Whoohoo! A smuttynose!
(Yes, I have one of them.)
He marched right into the place; an alpha for sure.
gene108
@BillinGlendaleCA:
As a GenXer, I can say that growing up I was raised with a steady dose of shit was great in the 1950’s and 1960’s.
Back then crime was low, you could support a family with one income, kids weren’t getting knocked up as much (teen pregnancy rates, like crime rates started dropping in the 1990’s after climbing for decades), drug use was less, there was no “crack epidemic” in cities, etc.
And well, you kids are growing in a shit hole of a once great country. And it’s your fault for not being as well behaved or as well educated or as well mannered as your parents.
I also remember, when I was in my late teens and the Baby Boomers dubbed us with the title Generation X, because we did not stand for anything and were somewhat disaffected; as if we were a lost generation, unlike our Baby Boomer parents, who fought in / protested against the Vietnam War, pushed for integration, women’s rights, etc.
All we did was listen to grunge music, rap music and/or heavy metal and waste our lives away with indifference.
Kay
@debbie:
And, truthfully, no one did that as much as Hillary Clinton in ’08. I still remember the debate where Bill Ayres became Obama’s best friend and mentor. At the time I thought “is she insane, starting this? no one knows as many people as the Clintons”. THOUSANDS of association, guilt possibilities.
Chyron HR
Face it, boomers, there’s a revolution coming and our 74-year-old leader is going to purge all you geezers.
gene108
@David *Rafael* Koch:
Not a date. She was 16 at the time. Kennedy was throwing a shindig in D.C. and as the daughter of a Democratic Congressman from Baltimore she got invited.
Germy
Triumph traveled to New Hampshire yesterday to speak with young voters
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j556MWGVVqI
Matt McIrvin
@gene108:
Aaaaayyyy! Sit on it, Potsie! [Applause]
And, well, there was this little problem with racism back then but Martin Luther King fixed all that, we took out all the Colored water fountains; don’t worry your head about it any more.
Slacker, living in your mom’s basement! Until the 90s boom hit and suddenly we were the hard-working nucleus of the info-revolution. It’s like a work ethic spontaneously dropped out of the sky and made us not lazy shits any more. Nothing whatsoever to do with macroeconomic conditions.
And the millennials are getting all the same nonsense, only a hundred times worse.
OzarkHillbilly
If ya’ll are looking for something to worry about, look at this: New Madrid smelter to shut down next month after Noranda files for bankruptcy
That is what the ADHD electorate will hear. The rest of us will take note of a few more details:
But of course her’s the union busting spin:
And what are the fine folks in New Madrid supposed to do?
p.a.
If Hillary doesn’t lose by >30% it’s a fix job and the United States doesn’t deserve to survive as an independent nation. BERNVERINES!
satby
@gene108: The adults during the 50s and 60s were the generation before the boomers, the oldest of whom would have been aged 5 in 1950 and at most 25 at the end of the 60s. Not exactly in charge.
Iowa Old Lady
@satby: And a huge population bump of boomers had to compete with one another for jobs in the first place. Turns out nothing is perfect.
@raven: Hey, I heard that was a magic word!
Matt McIrvin
@gene108:
This, by the way, is actually false. It’s true for crime, but the teen pregnancy rate was astronomically high in the 1950s, dropped continuously to a much lower plateau by the 1980s, rose a little bit to a small peak around 1990 and then started dropping again. I’m not sure what the reason for that pattern was.
In the 1950s, I think pregnant teenagers were more likely to either get forced into shotgun marriages, or get sequestered in secret until they could have the baby discreetly taken away.
OzarkHillbilly
@gene108:
Other than the grunge, rap and heavy metal, that sounds just like a lot of boomers.
p.a.
‘Baby Boomers’ generally considered born between 1949 & 1964 I believe. Some may push it back to ’46.
David *Rafael* Koch
@p.a.: Hillary used a two-headed coin to kill Jimmy Hoffa. It’s true. It’s true.
FlipYrWhig
@Baud:
Uh, no, it was really, really, obnoxious, in all the same ways: “corporate,” “neocon,” “warmonger,” “untrustworthy,” “unlikeable,” etc. Plus all of the incessant whining about how someone said something mean about their guy. Like how Bill Clinton saying that Jesse Jackson won South Carolina became the most racist thing since watermelon jokes.
Peale
@OzarkHillbilly: I think Edwards was still in it at this point. So a lot of the reason people are feeling that the rancor is starting earlier this time is that it was still diluted at this point last time.
ThresherK
@Matt McIrvin: For a certain set (think the Meghan McCains of the world) wasn’t there the “semester abroad”?
gene108
@OzarkHillbilly:
Mergers and acquisitions has been one of the biggest causes for fucking over the working man and transferring wealth upwards for the last 35 years.
Reagan’s Administration green lighted a bunch of takeovers industry was surprised got approved, but once the bigshots got a taste of sucking up money there has been no going back.
NAFTA, CAFTA, free trade, etc. would not be seen as much of a stumbling block for wage growth, if we had better M&A laws that limited abuses.
p.a.
@Matt McIrvin: I met a woman at breakfast several years ago who was shocked to discover she wasn’t qualified for Social Security. Her mom as an unwed pregnant teen was sent to a Canadian convent to have her. She returned after, put her daughter up for adoption, but apparently there was no documentary evidence she was an American citizen. How to go 60+ years without a SS number I don’t know, but IIRC at the time she seemed to be, for lack of a better word, a member of the ‘underclass’.
Steeplejack
@BillinGlendaleCA:
I really like that first picture. The black sky makes it look as if you’re looking off the edge of the Death Star. (“Hey, which way to the vulnerable exhaust port?”) And a nice touch having the person on the lower terrace lighted and visible. Sort of “grounds” the picture.
Bobby Thomson
@Princess: goblow72 has been ratfucking for years, starting back at the GOS.
Elmo
I’m an early GenX married to a late Boomer. Please stop telling her that everything isn’t all her fault – I’ve almost got her convinced!
Baud
@FlipYrWhig: Ok. Good news, I guess.
Kathleen
@satby: Scares the hell out of me. I believe many people were terrified when Goldwater ran (John Chancellor of NBC was kicked out of the GOP convention in 1964). Then George Wallace ran. in 1968 on the heels of RFK’s and MLK’s murders. The 60’s were scary as hell as I remember, and hatred of “The Other” (African Americans, young people, war protesters) was palpable. In retrospect I don’t know how we survived. But for some reason what’s happening now is scarier. I think it’s because at least in the 60’s the Republican Establishment had some hold on reality and decency and so the media marginalized the extremists. Today the media courts and flatters them. That to me is the biggest difference and the cause for most of my concern. Hatred, pride in ignorance, acceptance of public violence, has now been mainstreamed on the Today show and its ilk.
khead
@OzarkHillbilly:
So they pulled $500 mil from the joint and then burned it. That’s a LOT better than the restaurant in Goodfellas.
khead
Also, Hamilton is adorable.
MomSense
@Matt McIrvin:
This. The thing they didn’t tell us GenXers about how great life was in the 50s and 60s is that our country invested with unprecedented debt levels to educate people and to build the infrastructure that generated so much wealth and opportunity. And now they seem to have forgotten this and find it their mission not to saddle their children and grandchildren with debt. Meanwhile the roads and bridges crumble, our water and sewer systems are a wreck, and the electric grid, and the high speed internet infrastructure is not competitive. WTF America? This is the greatest nation on earth so let’s neglect it and let it deteriorate before our eyes.
danielx
Every day should begin with kittens.
kc
Beautiful kitten!
kc
@Schlemazel (parmesan rancor):
I think it’s about the same. Back then HRC fans were complaining about “Obama boys” (Google it). Now it’s “Bernie bros.”
OzarkHillbilly
@gene108: The thing that bothers me most about this one, is that it was just a flat out raid. Carl Icahn would be proud. Come in, get as much cash as you can out of it, and then dump it on some poor sucker. Those union steelworkers with the now underfunded pension? HAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…. fuck em.
OzarkHillbilly
@khead: Very good analogy that I completely missed. Thanx.
satby
@Kathleen:
This. I feel the same way.
schrodinger's cat
@OzarkHillbilly: Breaking up big banks will not rein in the private equity companies and hedge funds that basically play p$ker with the global economy.
schrodinger's cat
I am in moderation because I used the name of a card game in my reply to Ozarkhillbilly.
Schlemazel (parmesan rancor)
I got called away to deal with a catastrophe at work and couldn’t get back. I owe some replies which I will try to get into tomorrow mornings thread
FlipYrWhig
@schrodinger’s cat: I’m also not clear on how “breaking up big banks” addresses income inequality. A lot of people seem to talk about them as though they’re the same thing.
phoebes from highland park
What a lovely little fellow. I adopted a male tuxie from a local shelter 6 years ago, “Robin Obama”, and he’s been the delight of both me and his rescued tabby older sister, “Alice Obama”. Enjoy your tuxie, my friend.
Steeplejack
@debbie:
There was a great one-hit-wonder song from that movie: Max Frost and the Troopers, “Shape of Things to Come.”
Kay
@MomSense:
That’s why I’m sympathetic to the millennials. I have grown children who are in the group, but that isn’t why I’m sympathetic. I think the whole crew have a valid beef. We didn’t give them anything that lasts, that accrues value. It’s just such a rotten deal to replace investments in things that increase in value like education or throw off value like infrastructure with cheaper consumer goods or “flexibility”. It’s a bad deal. It wouldn’t matter if it had always been a bad deal, but they have a comparison that shows them they got screwed.
It’s not even true that we aren’t “burdening them with debt” by not investing in anything. We simply shifted the debt to them personally, instead of the public.
I genuinely feel bad. I don’t think we did a good job passing anything down.
Kay
@MomSense:
It would be bearable, the bad deal, if it wasn’t coupled with constant claims that they are more stupid, more shallow, less hard working, and on and on. We weren’t harder working and smarter! No, we weren’t! I was there so I know.
Matt McIrvin
@Kathleen: I’ve been seeing people arguing that it’s completely normal for Trump to encourage his supporters to beat the crap out of hecklers at rallies. They’re protesting our guy, they’re not supposed to be there! What are we supposed to do but beat them senseless and throw them out?
No, this is not the normal and healthy thing to do. Everyone gets hecklers. This is the way you deal with them if you’re a bad guy.
That famous imaginary-fascist-rally scene I was mentioning the other day from “Pink Floyd The Wall”? On YouTube it’s getting the jokes you’d expect about how it’s a Donald Trump rally. But I also just saw somebody complaining that he didn’t see why all those troublemakers were in there in the first place.
Mnemosyne
Hamilkitten! As he grows, I’m pretty sure that “Hamilcat” will swap in nicely as you sing along to “Guns & Ships.”
Not that I ever substitute the names of my cats into songs. Because that would be something only a crazy cat lady would do.
Mnemosyne
@Kay:
I don’t buy any of the “Millenials don’t work hard” crap because I was a Gen-Xer whose college graduating class had people “jokingly” holding “Will Work For Food” signs during the ceremony, so I know what the Millenials are having to deal with.
I also laugh harshly when companies complain that Kids These Days don’t have any loyalty and jump from job to job. Guys, you showed no loyalty to those kids’ parents when you laid them off and cut their hours, so why would you expect them to feel any loyalty to you?
J R in WV
@Matt McIrvin:
The troublemakers are there to worship their Lord Trump. No one who attends a Trump rally to protest doesn’t expect to get stomped by the Nazis in the crowd. It’s a form of protest, to show the rest of the world what Trump supporters are like. Nazis, that’s what they’re like. No, more accurately, Nazis is what they are, no simile necessary!
daryljfontaine
@Mnemosyne: Everyone give it up for America’s favorite fighting kitten!
D
Mnemosyne
@daryljfontaine:
Hamilcat!
No One You Know
@Iowa Old Lady: @bemused:
X3. And I can say there’s more science in astrology than psychographic segmentation; I am more acquainted with both than I’d like to admit..