Charlie Pierce has an excellent post up over at Esquire: The Resistance Cannot Wait Until 2018. It addresses a thought that occurred to me while watching (with disgust, and only until I located the remote!) the Republicans high-five and swill Bud Lite to celebrate the House passage of Trumpcare and rip healthcare away from tens of millions.
My thought was: “I know they’re cruel, but are these motherfuckers stupid?” I was seeing the visions of attack ad story boards dancing in Democratic ad makers’ heads, juxtaposing shots of photogenic families facing medical bankruptcy, plutocrats wallowing in piles of cash and those gleeful Republican assholes high-fiving.
But Pierce is right — the GOPers aren’t worried about what normal people think of all this shit. If they were, they wouldn’t have passed a bill that has a 17% approval rate:
And, as much as I hate to doubt the good heartland people who voted for this guy, I think they’d react worse to losing an illusory victory over Them than they will to losing their actual healthcare. For the foreseeable future, Republican politicians, House and Senate, remain more threatened by the wrath of The Base than they are by any unfortunate mother and child who pop up on the local news. Whatever emerges from this process will be a Republican bill, thickly coated in banalities about freedom and marketplace solutions, but with nothing resembling a commitment to the same goals that animated the passage of the Affordable Care Act.
Sounds about right. We’ve got to make the bastards fear us, and as Pierce notes, a win for Ossoff in Georgia and Quist in Montana would be a good first step. Swing Left just blew past $1 million in contributions since the GOP healthcare atrocity yesterday:
We just hit $1 million! This movement is amazing. Keep it up and let's take our country back: https://t.co/IrBD3TYfoW pic.twitter.com/6KXuIlARgP
— Swing Left (@swingleft) May 5, 2017
Pierce is correct: 2018 will be too late. We’ve got to make it sting for these evil shithooks every single day between now and then. I certainly plan to devote myself to that task.
Lapassionara
Preach it, Betty! Rock on!
Yutsano
It’s well past time to go all in on Quist. Then Osoff. It’s time for ALL of them to start worrying about their seats.
EDIT: last poll I could find on March 20th had Quist ahead. Very curious where that sits now with everything else happening.
RepubAnon
We’ve also got to find a way to make people understand that this stuff affects them personally. Too many people view government as a sporting event, where one roots for one’s team. The idea that the government’s actions will affect them personally doesn’t seem the sink in for many people.
Side note: in a free market, folks only do business if they can turn a profit. This doesn’t bode well for folks with expensive illnesses. For that matter, one may wish to point out that the logic of “why should I pay for some very sick person’s health care” could also apply to folks who live in Tornado Alley, or in a hurricane zone…
Yarrow
TPM has annotated photos of the celebration, in case you want to mention you saw your Rep there when you call to tell them you’re voting them out of office. Which everyone should do, of course. Every day. Call your Republican Rep’s office and let their staffers know that their boss’s votes have consequences.
Tim C.
Related news story.
http://katu.com/news/local/oregon-man-accused-of-sexually-assaulting-a-chicken
schrodingers_cat
Where was this wisdom when CP was pimping BS and slagging on HRC during primaries, way past the expiration date of the senator’s presidential campaign. And is it just me who does not like CP’s 5 adjectives where none is necessary, style? In a small way he is responsible for what happened yesterday too. If HRC were President we wouldn’t be worried about the continuous existence of ACA.
/prepares for brick bats.
Betty Cracker
@RepubAnon: You’ve got that right. Fox News is flat-out lying about what’s in the bill and saying that only 7% of the population will be affected, which is utter bullshit.
Corner Stone
@Tim C.:
Somebody check that man’s campaign website. He’s got to be running for R elected office.
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
@schrodingers_cat: We were and are always going to have to worry about the ACA, Medicare, Medicaid, and SS.
Yarrow
@schrodingers_cat:
I struggle with his style as well.
schrodingers_cat
@Tilda Swintons Bald Cap: Especially with bros like CP attacking the Dems from the left for not being perfect all the damn time.
trollhattan
@Tim C.: Oregon? Hell of a long drive from Florida.
tobie
I was really struck by the depth of the local activism for the special state senate election in Delaware. Granted, this was a Democratic district but with still sizable pockets of deep red rural and exurban voters. The base needs to hit the ground in all special elections. Montana will be tough because of the sheer size of the state. I’ve save up enough miles to fund airfare and hotel for a visit to Georgia for a few days before the special election. I’ve given to various Democratic organizations as well as Quist and Ossoff’s campaign. What else can I do? Honest question. I’m mad as hell.
Brachiator
A little hot breaking news
I imagine that Trump is starting up his Twitter Machine.
schrodingers_cat
@Yarrow:
This tortured sentence is but one example.
Betty Cracker
@schrodingers_cat: I don’t think that’s a fair representation of Pierce’s commentary, but even if it is, I’m willing to move past the 2016 primary with people who support Democrats and oppose Trump. Anyone who’s saying that the Democrats are no better than Trump, etc., can go DIAF, but I don’t put Pierce in that category, though we had our disagreements last year. YMMV.
A Ghost to Most
Charlie’s back.
germy
@schrodingers_cat:
He’s old school. He came up at a time when journalists were paid well per word. Force of habit.
germy
@Brachiator: Mark was the guy who said universal healthcare would keep citizens from moving towards jesus.
He seemed nice.
DocSardonic
The sad part is these assholes wouldn’t even celebrate by supporting an American brewer. Bud is owned by a Belgium homed conglomerate.
Turgidson
@RepubAnon:
You touch on a phenomenon I would find funny if it wasn’t so infuriating. I agree that what government does is an abstraction to too many people, to the point where it’s viewed more as a sporting event than real, consequential business. The combination of the volunteer military, TV and internet available to most at all times, and the success of prior generations of liberals in cementing SS, Medicare, worker protections, and more have all contributed to this. I mean, the average voter, even the average demented “small government” teabagger dipshit, doesn’t really believe that Medicare can be taken away from them. It’s such a pillar of being an American that a lot of people think it must be enshrined in the Constitution or something.
Yet, that same teabagger dipshit who thinks Medicare is some sort of immutable fact of life, is totally fucking sure that his hard-earned money is being confiscated by the government (I just call it paying taxes, but whatever) and handed over to some undeserving [other]. That he, personally, is paying “Jamal H. Osama”, to get free stuff. So they can totally personalize that sort of thing, even though it’s a clueless, idiotic way to view paying taxes, based on some hate rant from Rush or a Rush wannabe, but not the all too real consequences of replacing the ACA with the cyanide-laced shit sandwich the soulless goons in the House GOP passed yesterday, which is just one more political scrimmage that doesn’t affect them.
And that doesn’t even get at your typical Republican true believer who thinks the free market is always better than the government in all things at all times. You have to be both willfully clueless and somewhat heartless to believe that, but believe it they do.
germy
@Turgidson: Most people only know government from what they see in their towns, and from my experience lots of local government is corrupt, unfortunately.
NotMax
Haven’t had time to read closely through the bill. Anyone happen to know if the bastards kept in the provision exempting Congress from AHCA (essentially retaining full ACA coverage for themselves)?
@Brachiator
Losing count as to whether that’s #3 or #4 who has withdrawn from nomination to that post.
Mnemosyne
An article from Medium that I think we should all read right now:
How to Stay Sane if Trump is Driving You Insane
Short version: accept that horrible shit is happening, mourn the fact that horrible shit is happening, take action to mitigate the horrible shit in your community, repeat.
schrodingers_cat
@Betty Cracker:
This is what he wrote, yesterday.
piratedan
Seething that my former Congresswoman (I am represented by Grijalva now) was a driving force to getting this deal done. Martha McSally, supposed veterans advocate (guess who is also crewed by this bill, three guesses and the first two don’t count) led the charge to ram this through before too much of the bill came to light and more pressure could be brought to bear on this. Clinton carried her district by nearly 5 points last election… I hope that she has her big donor money banked because her ass is grass in 2018.
Tim C.
@trollhattan: We’re smaller, so we have to try harder.
narya
@schrodingers_cat: No brickbats, but I respectfully disagree quite strongly with that assignment of responsibility to Pierce. You may not like his style (I disagree with you on that, too, but that one’s a matter of taste). I don’t think Pierce’s commentary either pimped Bernie or slagged HRC, and he has detailed Clinton Derangement Syndrome as recently as his first day back from surgery. Pierce’s place and this joint are the only things that keep me anywhere within hailing distance of sanity.
Lapassionara
@schrodingers_cat: CP nearly always works this thought into his posts mentioning R antics. In a normal world, most people would recognize that the R’s are crazy, but in this alternate universe, people do not. I honestly don’t know what to do when the news media is basically an outlet for R propaganda, and facts don’t matter.
Ruemara
What I’ve been saying since before 9/8/16. We don’t have the luxury of time. You’re welcome, white guy people may listen to. Wish you’d been there some time earlier, like August 2016.
I’m at beautiful Burbank Bob Hope Airport. If my travelling companion doesn’t give me a quiet break from her constant babble, I may be up on charges for justifiable homicide.
CM
Trumpcare is to health care as Trump University was to a college education.
Mnemosyne
@Yarrow:
Are you feeling slightly better from yesterday? I still think you had the wrong perspective on the basket of baby otters. You saw cute baby animals. I saw adorably vicious predators that could swarm Paul Ryan by the dozens, rip the flesh from his bones as he screamed in agony, and then groom the bits of his flesh and blood off each other’s fur before settling down in a big fuzzy pile for a nap.
That visualization turned my frown upside-down right away. ?
raven
I’m gonna post this again
“Lakoff’s message is simple, but it is couched in the language of cognitive linguistics and neuroscience. The problem is that political candidates rely on pollsters and PR people, not linguists or neuroscientists.m.So when Lakoff repeatedly says that ‘voters don’t vote their self-interest, they vote their values,’ progressive politicians continually ignore him. His ideas don’t fit in with their worldview, so they can’t hear hi”
trollhattan
A new series of leaked WH documents begins today, with a Gorka note of complaint to his McDonald’s server.
Lapassionara
Also too, I knew Lamar Alexander when he was in college. He was an East Tennessee Republican, which in those days meant a moderate. His journey to the dark side has been painful to watch. He is completely untrustworthy.
Mnemosyne
@Ruemara:
Hey, you! You’re about three miles from my present location. Just changing planes while passing through?
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
The Hill is reporting that Colbert is going to be investigated by the FCC.
Yarrow
@schrodingers_cat: I don’t think that’s as hard to follow as some of his writing. Sometimes I found I would just quit halfway through a column because I’d gotten lost along the way. But if he works for some people, that’s great.
The Moar You Know
@raven: I read the whole damn article and then went to his website. I think he’s onto something that, unfortunately, people of the Dem persuasion will not read, or if they do, won’t understand or dismiss.
I think he’s got the damn key to the problem.
Ruemara
@NotMax: they exempted themselves.
Omnes Omnibus
@trollhattan: That has to be a joke.
Ruemara
@Mnemosyne: wedding tomorrow. Here until Sunday.
Montanareddog
@DocSardonic: Bud is owned by a Belgian brewer! Shame on them! It’s enough to make a Trappist go on a Betty rant!
rikyrah
There are two groups.
The stupid muthaphuckas who voted for the GOP and are now getting burned?
I don’t know, and don’t care if they get it.
Who I want is to focus on is the Democratic mother/daughter/sister/niece of someone with a pre-existing condition/ Dad’s in a nursing home/ child is special needs…you know.
THIS person needs to understand – without hesitation – who took away that sense of security from them.
THESE are the people we need to get.
And, because I’m petty – not because I think they’ll vote Dem, but because these muthaphuckas should know who is making their life insecure….all those folks with Employer backed healthcare who didn’t think Trumpcare applied to them and found out on the day of the vote, that yes, Boo, your azz should be worried too. I’d just want to taunt them. If they catch a clue, that would be helpful…but, someone needs to needle their smug azzes, who couldn’t be bothered to be concerned about THOSE PEOPLE helped by Obamacare.
schrodingers_cat
@Tilda Swintons Bald Cap: Silencing of opponents has begun, we are all Russians now.
Frosty Fred
@schrodingers_cat: And he’s damned well right.
raven
@The Moar You Know: Did you read the one by the French dude on why his dad votes La Pen?
germy
@Yarrow: I’d have an easier time with CP’s column if the esquire website wasn’t so shitty and infested with ads.
NotMax
@Ruemara
Ironically one a the few pieces of property in the area which Hope didn’t own.
;)
Mnemosyne
@Ruemara:
I’m hopping on the train to SLO first thing in the morning, but if you want to grab drinks or dinner tonight, email or text me.
piratedan
@Tilda Swintons Bald Cap: that is truly awesome… I wonder what the FCC will find? Think that the GOP is going to simply turn things over to the Dems if they get shellacked in the next election if they’re already playing the fascist card now?
tobie
@Tilda Swintons Bald Cap: Do you know what his supposed violation is?
Betty Cracker
@Omnes Omnibus: It’s Owen Ellickson — absolutely a joke.
The Thin Black Duke
@schrodingers_cat: I remember what happened to the Smothers Brothers. Sigh.
schrodingers_cat
@Frosty Fred: Did Obama sell us out by not going for single payer?
The Moar You Know
@raven: No. Today’s been jammed at the workplace. But Lakoff’s was worth the time even so.
Yarrow
@Mnemosyne: If anything I’m worse. Borderline suicidal and I have the means to go through with it. The title of the post was “basket of adorables” and it was billed as cute baby otters, so I was influenced by that framing. I could not see cute yesterday, and it seemed that others who are facing loss of everything, couldn’t see it that way either.
efgoldman
@Brachiator:
There are 330 million fucking people in this country, half of whom (a guess) are adults, and Mango Malignancy can’t find ONE fucking qualified person?
Fuckem
germy
@The Thin Black Duke: I remember what happened to Phil Donahue
schrodingers_cat
@Yarrow: I agree. His references are stuck in the 80s, the monkey brains reference is from the shitty Indiana Jones movie.
raven
@The Moar You Know: Why My Father Votes for Le Pen
efgoldman
@schrodingers_cat:
Doesn’t bother me, but I’ve been reading him since he wrote for the alternative weekly Boston Phoenix in the 1970s.
We were both much younger.
NotMax
@efgoldman
Probable there’s not an age requirement, and Barron doesn’t have a title yet….
;)
Yarrow
@raven: Thanks for linking that. I had missed it when you linked it previously. I think he’s on to something. I hope it has impact.
bemused
@piratedan:
Obscenity complaints: as Bill Maher says, whiney little bitches.
The Moar You Know
@Tilda Swintons Bald Cap: They could fine him. I actually expect that will happen. His segment met the obscenity definition, unfortunately, and they got a fair amount of complaints. I think he can afford it.
Theoretical problem is, they can lean on CBS and say, if it’s a recurring problem we can start pulling station licenses. That’s pretty unlikely and I bet CBS has enough money to litigate the FCC into bankruptcy, like AT&T did back in the 1970s. I don’t see that happening.
If he was on cable none of this could be an issue, the FCC does not have jurisdiction, but in what is rapidly becoming an anachronism in our time, he’s on the public airwaves. And Colbert spent his whole career on cable, he may simply not have known that the rules are a little different.
Baud
@Tilda Swintons Bald Cap: Someone probably filed a complaint. Nothing will come of it.
NotMax
@germy
Lay that squarely at the feet of Chris Matthews, who reportedly threatened to walk unless Donahue was given the ax.
eclare
@raven: Interesting read. Sounds like he understands the problem…not sure what the fix is other than his suggestion of changing terminology, e.g., regulations=protections. I’m sure there is more to it.
JMG
@The Moar You Know: I strongly disagree. IMO Lakoff is extremely simplistic, a guy who pops up after any election Democrats lose to sell this particular brand of snake oil. People vote their “values” only when they can afford to. A $50K hospital bill alters said “values” in a hurry. People who voted Trump knew he was a bad person and they didn’t care. Their “values” are shit.
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
@tobie: I believe it is over a monologue where Colbert said:
SiubhanDuinne
Posted sans comment:
Source.
Lizzy L
I just contributed to Swing Left, so thanks.
I like Charles P. Pierce’s style and substance. Occasionally he wiffs, but usually he connects. YMMV.
@Ruemara: It’s a little more complicated. They removed the flat “we are exempt from all this shit” section from the bill. But they snuck in a new section which allows them to take advantage of some very favorable terms which the rest of us mostly can’t use.
germy
@NotMax: another reason to hate chris.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@schrodingers_cat: I enjoy him, but I see where this style would grate on some.
A women I knew in grad school, one or both of whose parents was a prof at Vanderbilt, all three liberals, were fans of Lamar! in ’92. IIRC they all voted for him for Senate, but didn’t cross any lines when he ran for president.
tobie
@Tilda Swintons Bald Cap: Thanks for the information.
? Martin
@raven: In the case of healthcare, I don’t think that’s right. I think the general public wants government provided universal care (Medicare for all) but the Dems instead gave a well-intentioned, well-executived complex technocratic solution (because that’s the best they could get on votes) – that voters interpreted as a redistribution from voters to the health industry. Clinton wanted to make that an even more well-intentioned, even more well-executed, and even more complex technocratic solution (which the voters even more interpreted as a redistribution).
Trump said ‘it’s broken and I’ll fix it’ without even hinting at the fix. Voters read in Medicare for all as the fix. I don’t think they’re really sure what the reality is from what the GOP has voted on. Appreciate the difficulty of this topic as witnessed by our own healthcare blogger. This shit is complicated in ways that voters believe it should not be (whether thats realistic or not). And the last two republicans that got elected both seemed too dumb to understand, let alone craft such a complex system. I think that’s part of the flat tax appeal – not that their taxes will go necessarily, but that their tax return becomes a lot simpler. I think a lot of voters aren’t voting so much on values or interests, but on a demand for systems that they can understand. It’s hard to vote your interests when it’s damn near impossible to understand whether something is in your interest or not.
I think Democrats would do well to simplify the solutions they propose. Medicare for all is simple. Find a way to make the tax system simpler on the way to making it fairer – and sell it on the simplicity. Do that in other areas as well. I suspect that’s a lot of the regulatory push back as well from voters – we have overcomplicated and overwhelmed the public.
germy
@The Moar You Know:
Here’s what I don’t understand. It’s network television. I thought networks had “standards” departments that checked all material.
I remember SNL in the ’70s used to have the network go over scripts and cross out stuff they weren’t allowed to do. They fought all the time but in the end the network had final say.
LurkerNoLonger
Yes. If there was ever any doubt about how stupid they are just look at what they did yesterday. They R. Bud Dwyered themselves on live TV.
eclare
@JMG: I don’t know, look at all of the people on Kynect who voted for a governor who vowed to take it away. Interview with one woman who got insurance through Kynect and used it to monitor some blood disorder (I think)…she voted for the person who said he would take it away. Her rationale? “I’m a drop dead Republican”. Economics had no bearing.
efgoldman
@Tilda Swintons Bald Cap:
I expect the flying monkeys buried them in complaints, in which case they have to open an investigation. Nothing will come of it.
Remember the boycott some dingbat holy rolling bible banger’s “moral organization” organized in the 70s, against, I think Disney? I don’t even remember why. It did not go well.
cckids
@DocSardonic:
Also, it sucks. If they weren’t such horrifying, mean-spirited asshats, we’d be mocking them for celebrating with that swill. The reports I saw said it was Bud Lite.
EBT
https://twitter.com/pwnallthethings/status/860598356967600128
Wikileaks dumped 9 gigs of Marcon’s emails right before the election.
JMG
I am not sure I share Charlie’s total pessimism about the Senate. Oh, its bill will be bad, but I wonder if the Republicans will decide to let the “rules” make them cut a lot of stuff out of the House bill. Or even if we’ll wind up with two bills, but no law.
Aimai
@schrodingers_cat: could not agree more!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
OT: Dear Betty, Adam and other FloridaFolk,
How the fuck to you live there?
geg6
@schrodingers_cat:
I love that sentence so much, I want to marry it. YMMV.
Betty Cracker
@EBT: Let me guess: nothing on Le Pen?
eclare
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Hahaha….
? Martin
@Tilda Swintons Bald Cap: Let them. He’s protected by safe harbor for indecent material. At that hour he’s free to call Trump a pigfucker.
schrodingers_cat
@EBT: I am sure if I search for it in CP’s archives I will find him defending Wikileaks.
geg6
@schrodingers_cat:
I don’t have a problem with him saying that. There’s a lotta truth in that. I’m often on the same page as you, but I’m with Betty on this.
EBT
@Betty Cracker: And released 20 minutes before the quiet period too.
Mnemosyne
@Yarrow:
If you commit suicide, then they won. It really is that simple.
I’ll tell you the same thing I was telling ArchTeryx when the election first happened — make your preparations for what you need to do to be comfortable, but do everything you can to publicize your or your family member’s plight well before you need to do anything drastic. Don’t let the people around you think that their vote for Trump was cost-free.
And, really, picture Paul Ryan being eaten alive by sharp-toothed, merciless, yet adorable predators. It helps, even if only for a moment.
efgoldman
@germy: @The Thin Black Duke:
It’s not 1970-whatever any more. There was no cable then (not counting CATV). The FCC also hadn’t lost a court decision abut content
At most, there will be a fine. Maybe not even.
Based on the number of complaints I’m guessing they got, they’re required to open an inquiry.
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
mailmetothegop.com will send your ashes to the GOPer of your choice if you die from TrumpCare.
Spider-Dan
So that “17%” AHCA approval rate… of the people who disagree with it, how many are disagreeing from its right?
I doubt it’s enough to make a significant difference, but I hated the fact that pundits would lump “people who dislike Obamacare because it’s too liberal” and “people who dislike Obamacare because it’s not liberal enough” together to arrive at a consolidated number of “people who dislike Obamacare.” Let’s not repeat the same bad math (unless we are specifically making an apples-to-apples comparison of Obamacare approvals).
NotMax
@efgoldman
Must have been Donald Wildmon, who crafted a lucrative career of starting up and running various groups to boycott media.
Jim Parene
@DocSardonic: However, Anheiser/Bush (sp.?) is a Union shop.
Peter
@schrodingers_cat: There are a total of two adjectives in that sentence.
Mnemosyne
@efgoldman:
Focus on the Family and other religious orgs hate that Disney is LGBT-friendly and hosts “Gay Days” at their parks. Conservatives tried to organize a boycott and it was pathetic.
germy
@Jim Parene: I’m surprised they didn’t go with Coors.
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: This classic is my favorite:
JMG
@eclare: So don’t waste your time on that person. She’s so tribal as to no longer be a thinking individual. There’s no “frame” to reach her. No politics based only on appeal to people’s feelings can ever work. There has to be some rational basis for your proposals, or you’re just Trump.
schrodingers_cat
@Peter: Well you guys love CP when he exaggerates, I thought I would give that a try.
Mike J
@EBT: I read wikileaks is upset about a lot of the fake bank account stuff going around, saying all it will do is make the French anti-Russian, which seems like a big confession.
Ohio Mom
@Yarrow: No, No, No. Do not even joke about about being in such despair — if you are really feeling so hopeless, use your smarts and find a way to get yourself back on solid ground.
My favorite thoughts on this topic:
“It is not necessary to hope to persevere.”
And
“Where there is life, there is hope.”
Though I sometimes think those adages may contradict one another…
JMG
Colbert’s ratings are topping Jimmy Fallon. CBS hasn’t led in that time slot for 20 years. Les Moonves would let Colbert call HIM a pigfucker on the air.
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
@JMG: This.
efgoldman
@The Moar You Know:
You think a RWNJ Republiklown FCC is going to threaten a multi billion dollar conglomerate with anything like that?
I’ve got this bridge over here. It’s a distress sale, all you have to do is assume the mortgage.
donnah
I’m pissed all of the time about everything ever since Trump was elected, so I am now on the phone or texting or emailing someone in protest about one thing or another. I called Senators and Representatives again and again, I support Planned Parenthood and the ACLU. Trump will never know how much my loathing of him has made me more of a fighter than ever before.
I went to the CBS website and defended Stephen Colbert yesterday when I heard about a Twitter campaign against him. I stood up for Scott Pelley at CBS news when he was criticized for speaking truth about Trump’s lies.
I love Charles Pierce. He’s a political genius and I love his writing style. So I’ll defend him too, while I’m at it.
dimmsdale
@The Moar You Know: I’ve been pimping Lakoff to friends for a while now, because his formulations of worldview, neural makeup of the brain (everyone’s, not just trump voters’) and the primacy of story and metaphor over logic in messaging (of any kind, not just political) seems to me to kind of explain everything. Here’s a quick distillation of Lakoff’s ideas on Tavis Smiley, well worth the time (~30 min.) it takes to watch it.
I don’t quite understand how the soulless scumbags in the Republican party seem to have the keys to so many voters’ hearts, but they do. Lakoff’s view (to me anyway) explains why that is, and what WE need to do to counteract it. link
Jim, Foolish Literalist
To borrow from Colonel Cotton Hill, US Army (retired): When I die, put my head in a box and mail it to Paul Ryan. Fill my mouth with worms first, cause I wanna scare that son of a bitch.
ETA: @JMG: I think Moonves would fuck a pig live on the air for a couple of points in the ratings
Jim Parene
@germy: Coors would be fitting for this lot. An old bar owner I worked for described Coors as: “Like makin’ love in a canoe. Its f*n near water!” I learned a lot from Old Man Cagney.
geg6
@JMG:
This. Colbert is crushing Fallon ever since the election. NBC is in a panic and Les Moonves is laughing all the way to the bank.
Peter
@JMG: I agree completely, and would add: I’m really sick of linguists who think that being a linguist makes them an expert on everything.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Or because he enjoys it.
Brachiator
If the GOP lawmakers don’t even fear their own base, I am not sure how the Democrats can strike fear into their hearts, apart from winning elections in 2018.
Oddly enough, the Republican’s strength and their main vulnerability seems to be Trump himself. He desperately needs the love and admiration of his base. When he gets it, he glories in it, and it shields him and the GOP from any overall unpopularity in the polls. If Trump is rattled, or ever permanently loses the affection of his base, then all bets are off.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: Isn’t this a both/and blog?
efgoldman
@eclare:
They loved, loved, loved their Kynect, but hate, hate, hate Obamacare
Yes, I know. Nobody ever went broke., etc….
Ruemara
Now I am very far from Burbank. Sorry, Mem. No idea where I am, actually
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus: Good point.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker: they have an imposing quality, I admire them from afar. But I do not believe they mix well with domestic architecture. They scare the crap out of me. I think I’d rather run into a mountain lion.
@efgoldman: Did said candidate, now governor, run against Kynect? My recollection was he, like McConnell, said he was gonna save Kynect from Obamacare.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: Accidental, I am sure.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
No. Mountain lions turn faster and can jump.
efgoldman
@NotMax:
That was seperate (and also a failure). It was a dingbat housewife from Michigan.
les
@Betty Cracker:
Depends on what they mean by affected; that’s 22MM people or so.
Hortense
Ms. Cracker, I have been lurking here forever but am now concerned enough to write – is the swingleft organization legit? not concern trolling, I went to the intertubes to ask the question and found a suggestion at chapo trap house that it is just another scam that funnels money to people who skim their salaries off the top. see here
Lapassionara
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Lamar was a totally different person then. When he went to speak at Liberty University, I knew he had made a deal with the devil. And he just got worse and worse from there.
Anyway, he and the other R’s are not trustworthy. They make a show of hand wringing and tut tutting, then they fall in line behind Yertle.
KithKanan
@Mnemosyne: Sadly it’s not looking too good for you to see wildflowers on your way up. We had warm weather this week and our hills are a lot browner now than they were on Monday.
Ruemara
@Frosty Fred: He’s wrong. Not just that, he’s also fucking wrong.
debbie
@germy:
Also, back when adjectives served as a form of emphasis. If anyone finds that objectionable, I would invite to peruse the meanderings of Cotton Mather. Pierce could be a whole lot worse.
debbie
@Brachiator:
Someone seems to have poked Trump about his travel expenses:
NotMax
Something on which to keep an eye:
Those in New York state, time to dial up your legislators.
Mnemosyne
@dimmsdale:
There’s another guy who says similar things but he comes up with better ideas than Lakoff does because he’s a filmmaker who started as a scientist, Randy Olson. One of his big projects is called Story Circles and he trains scientists how to write their abstracts as compelling narratives so they can communicate better with the general public.
He’s really pissed off about the election and is working on some possible narratives for the Democrats now, or so he said when I heard him speak a few weeks ago.
germy
@debbie: One of my favorite writers was Robert Benchley, who never used two words when four or five would do. He called it the “elevated eyebrow” school.
EDIT: Although he could be terse when he wanted to. As a young reporter he found himself in Venice Italy. He sent a telegram to his editor: “Streets flooded. Please advise.”
debbie
@Lapassionara:
I agree. Didn’t he try a run for the presidency?
debbie
@Tilda Swintons Bald Cap:
Yes. he was a very bad boy and was very mean to the president. I couldn’t stop laughing at that bit.
les
@? Martin:
Citation needed. Even if true, the general public doesn’t vote in Congress.
Miss Bianca
@Tim C.: oh. oh, dear.
chopper
goddamn, swing left – a million dollars in one fucking day.
MomSense
O/T but it is 40 effing degrees and raining. I have to put on my winter coat tonwalk the dog.
Happy frickin’ cinqo de mayo everyone.
At least I still have health insurance in case I get pneumonia from this excursion.
Yarrow
@Ohio Mom: I wasn’t joking.
GregB
Fuck Julian A**ange.
Fuck Nazi-leaks.
Mnemosyne
@Ruemara:
Just don’t let them drive you out into the desert. Bad things happen out there. ?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@debbie: IIRC, it was Lamar! who first drove an old red pickup truck around TN, an idea IIRC later shamelessly and successfully ripped off by Fred Thompson, in the same damn state. I’ll defer to locals if I have that wrong, but IIRC Thompson was busted driving the red pick around the corner from a rally and getting into the back of a Town Car while a staffer followed in the prop pick up to the next appearance.
I don’t know if Thompson also stole the flannel shirt idea. Speaking as a fellow larger gentleman, I suspect the flannel would’ve been a bit warm for Fred in the early Tennessee autumn.
debbie
@Tilda Swintons Bald Cap:
It was earlier this week (either Monday or Tuesday). That statement you posted was just the last little bit. He went on a tear about Trump’s interview with John Dickerson on FTN. I thought the whole monologue was brilliant, but there were more bleeps than usual. He was genuinely angry.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mnemosyne: No fuckin’ alligators out there, though
Mnemosyne
@KithKanan:
Oh well. I’m going to avoid some rain that’s expected down here, anyway. And I did get to do a gorgeous wildflower walk in Malibu a few weeks ago.
Mart
@narya: I am with you, think Pierce is great. No too many old white journos from Boston are liberals. For you haters, the adjectives are plastered on for humor and truthiness. And he was no Clinton basher. At worst think he planned to vote for Bernie in the primary, and knew would vote Hillary in the general. Plenty of us did the very same for reasons. We need more CP’s in this world. Who better to praise the fine deeds of Professor Warren, or slime of Scott Walker? Quit biting the hands that are trying to message us out of this mess.
Mike in NC
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Flannel might be a bit warm as Fred T roasts in hell.
Miss Bianca
@raven: I read that article. I suppose if I ever run for office in red, red CO as a Democrat, I’ll hire this guy for messaging tips, and Dr. Silverman for my “guns, guns, guns, law and order and did I mention the 2nd Amendment?” coaching. ; )
debbie
@germy:
CP does a weekly bit on NPR’s Only a Game. He’s excitable and he talks just like he writes. He’s an old guy on his porch, shaking a fist at the passing idiots. I couldn’t take him 24/7, but I like his approach and his sense of the absurd.
Lapassionara
@debbie: Yes. He was an uninspiring speaker, but he had won some elections with the folksy gimmick he adopted. The word was that he was on the short list for George H. W.’s vice-president, but GHWB picked Quayle instead. I think that was the closest he came to national elected office.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
basted in Aqua Velva
Omnes Omnibus
@debbie: Robert Benchley has an NPR gig? Odd that.
Mnemosyne
@Mart:
Some of us think that any claim that the Democrats are just as bad as the Republicans, or that the Democrats are responsible for the actions of the Republicans, is dangerous. If Pierce thinks that breaking through 30 years of Republican propaganda is so easy, he needs to roll up his sleeves and do that work rather than sitting back and blaming the Democrats for not cracking that nut that they’ve been trying to crack since Reagan.
Tenar Arha
@geg6: Heh, truth. If I’m reading the Huffington post right, NBC has someone in charge who has been trying to move the news towards the center, but his liberal stars who only nod at both-sides are the ones crushing the ratings since November. Yet, he still refuses to recalculate his network lineup or his plans to move to the center. That’s like craven stupidity for a network head. Gotta figure that if it’s the same guy making choices about late night, he wouldn’t understand why Fallon isn’t working but Seth Myers is.
ETA NB: When Maddow spends about 10-20 minutes every night on TrumpRussia, or interviews an author of that fluff piece in NYTimes on Ivanka and still critically deconstructs it, that’s what I mean by nodding at “both-sides.”
Miss Bianca
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: ayyyy-yeee!!
@Mnemosyne:
Tiny, cute, yet merciless predators who only attack people I hate…now that’s *my* kind of horror movie!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Omnes Omnibus: Meh, I’m all about podcasts, like Dorothy Parker’s “From My Corner of the Algonquin Round Table”
Tokyokie
@Betty Cracker: Even if it were true, only 7% of 350 million or so people? Gee, that’s not so bad. That’s only 24.5 million. Or, to put it another way, about 3 times as high as the Holocaust death toll. Surely reason to have a crappy beer!
debbie
@debbie:
Here’s the monologue if you want to listen. The bleeps on the broadcast are still there.
ETA: The clip that runs after this monologue deals with Trump’s statements about the Civil War. Also entertaining.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Yes, evil and stupid tend to go hand in hand.
Betty Cracker
@Hortense: I believe it’s a legit organization. DKos raised some alarms about it when it first came out because there was little info on the folks behind it, but IIRC, that was because it was a brand-new organization, and the founders didn’t expect it to blow up as quickly as it did. Here’s a story in the New Yorker about it. Seems legit to me. And folks who are plugged into party politics like Jon Favreau (Obama’s speechwriter) regularly link to it.
Ruemara
@Mnemosyne: if they involve silence for an hour, it might be worth it.
Mnemosyne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Well, actually …
Nah, I exaggerate — Reggie was in an urban park, not the desert. We do have tarantulas and scorpions in our deserts, which freak me out almost as much as alligators. Do. Not. Like. Arachnids.
debbie
@Omnes Omnibus:
Fixed. I had pronouns left over from work.
germy
@Omnes Omnibus:
Charlie Pierce does. Benchley’s been dead since shortly after WWII.
And wasn’t Pierce on some cable tv panel when steve king said only european culture had created anything worthwhile? (paraphrasing)
SatanicPanic
@raven: he makes some good points, I would like more info on how to do this.
Mnemosyne
@germy:
What’s funny is that the ancient Egyptians somehow end up being honorary Europeans whenever those kinds of assholes run their mouths, but not modern-day Egyptians.
germy
@Mnemosyne:
that’s part of their elitist gig: being able to move people around like chess pieces to make whatever lazy point they want to make.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
He’s done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mnemosyne: I guess we should just give in. They’ll be in St Louis and the Jersey Shore in a couple of years
I for one welcome our new Unevolved Lizard King Overlords.
@germy: I do believe that was on the Chris Hayes program.
efgoldman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
And later by Cosmo Boy Brown in MA, who never had an original idea in his life.
germy
@Steeplejack: He could have prevented the Civil War, but he was under the weather that day.
KithKanan
@Mnemosyne: That sounds like it must have been lovely. I’ve only passed through Malibu a couple times and I’ve never had time to stop and look around.
ETA: Somewhat ironic I suppose since I grew up on a street named Malibu Drive.
Betty Cracker
@Tokyokie: True! But it’s just a bald-faced lie in any case. You can’t fuck with the insurance markets for one sector without having ripple effects. Folks with employer-based insurance will be affected. People on Medicare will be affected. It should be obvious to Fox News viewers, who’ve been told for the past eight years that Obamacare is destroying the republic — it affects everyone.
A Ghost to Most
@Mnemosyne: Don’t pay so much attention to the (mostly harmless) arachnids that you miss the rattlesnake
Brachiator
@Mnemosyne:
I don’t think it’s dangerous. It’s just factually incorrect.
However, it’s clear that some lefties and right wingers have a skewed perception of the world, consistent with their beliefs, but unmovable. I recently ran across a YouTube clip in which Noam Chomsky claimed that Obama and Trump were “equally” bad with respect to foreign policy. And I ran across a clip of someone explaining why Obama accepting $400,000 to speak to bankers was wrong. This wingnut, btw, had no problem with Obama having a $62 million book deal. It was the association with bankers, not the money itself, which was damning.
Still seemed stupid to me. But there’s not much you can do, because the world view of these people see Democrats and Republicans both keeping the souls of the pure out of ideological paradise.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@efgoldman: Not many people know that Fred Thompson was the first, and last, nude male centerfold in Collier’s Magazine. Dorothy Parker reportedly said it was brave of him to be so forthcoming with his shortcomings.
Raoul
@Betty Cracker: Even if the 7% figure is true, it’s horrible. Seven percent = 22,500,000 people! (IOW, close to the old CBO score, so maybe not even false, which is shocking for Faux Nooz)
germy
@Brachiator:
Another cunning linguist.
germy
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I remember him from the Watergate hearings. He rocked some serious sideburns. Hunter Thompson compared him to Elvis.
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack:
I would be so thrilled if Benchley could come back to life and comment on the passing scene.
Omnes Omnibus
@germy:
I know. Hence the “Odd that.”
zhena gogolia
@germy:
But Lowell Weicker was the cutest by far.
efgoldman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I didn’t, and absolutely didn’t need to
cain
Actually, you can easily make some interesting conservative based attack ads. For instance, the woman who used to give to a pro-life fund can no longer do so because of rising healthcare costs. The money she used to have left over would go these conservative causes. Then switch to conservative causes talking about how they don’t have any money anymore.
Then switch to shitty Republicans talking about how pro-life they are, and then switch non-christian elite rich assholes who are living it up and having a grand time golfing with Trump cuz they have more money now to just keep to themselves.
Brachiator
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Parker left her literary papers to Dr Martin Luther King and, on his death, to the NAACP. Her literary executor, Lillian Hellman (yes, her) was an ass, and maybe a bit racist, and made access to the papers difficult.
germy
@zhena gogolia:
I had no idea he’s still alive.
85 years old.
Has anyone interviewed him?
EBT
@Tokyokie: A little more than twice actually.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Brachiator: I knew the first part, didn’t know the second. I’m kind of surprised about Hellman, though all I really know about her is the Little Foxes, that Jane Fonda movie, and the thing Mary McCarthy said. (Every word she wrote was a lie, including “and” and “the”)
@germy: also one-time arm-candy, and client/employer, to Kellyanne Fitzpatrick, as was. Why do I know this?
Ruemara
@germy: it’s amazing how no one who constantly drew equivalencies or berated Dems for not being sufficiently attractive compared to obviously evil motherfuckers, ever takes some responsibility for people now thinking both sides are the same or “I know they’re evil but you haven’t really given me a reason to oppose them, harumph”.
germy
@Brachiator: Not many people know that Parker marched in support of Sacco & Vanzetti. And that Benchley actually testified at their trial. (Benchley was at a club and overheard the judge say that he was going to “get those guys good”) Benchley testified that the judge was biased, but he was treated like he’d made the whole thing up.
Parker continued fighting for good causes (especially during the Spanish civil war) but Benchley got discouraged and cynical.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@Yarrow:
Nevertheless, we need you to persist.
cain
My brother called me up today to rant about Republicans and all that good stuff. I finally got sick of it, because for all his ranting and what not, he hasn’t done one bit of activism to mitigate the things that are going on. He lives in a swing state so that activism is really important. He needs to stop ranting with me on the phone and channel that to somewhere that might have some effect. Call his representative and ask pressure them to explain their vote – what about Trump’s promise to keep pre-existing conditions in the health care? Hammer them, then go after their senate counterparts. I basically told him that he’s part of the problem if he’s not going to do anything actionable but rather do the easy task of just arguing with me.
My family while very democratic, are not very activism oriented. They don’t spend enough time to fight for what they believe in. I told my brother that I participated in a march, I called up my representatives, even though they are practically the head of the resistance. (so proud of you guys, Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden!) They need all the help they can get. We need to encourage as many people to show up at townhalls, call their representatives. It is time to stop being chattering but instead make a real effort to stop this train wreck because if you’re not part of it, you’re just depending on the rest of us to do that activism for you and you’re not pulling your weight.
efgoldman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Why do any of us know so much useless information?
cain
The wrath of the base are coming because everyone of them are going to know someone who got fucked over in the healthcare if not they themselves. They are going to feel the pain just like the rest of us. The difference is that those in blue states will try to mitigate the pain, but all those red states are going to be challenge. I’m sure news clips by Republicans saying they need to move out will go down really well with their base.
germy
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Fred Thompson KellyAnne
[ SHUDDER ]
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: The Little Foxes:
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: I read encyclopedias as a child.
SgrAstar
@The Moar You Know: Agree that Lakoff has the key. I heard him at Berkeley a few months ago and thought he nailed the dichotomy between the Authoritarian Daddy figure and the Nurturing Parent. In a normal world, DT- an obese old man with a bad dye job and an even worse makeup style- would not be taken seriously. Sadly for us, he performs the Authoritarian Daddy role brilliantly. We can’t convert the people who respond to this, but we can do a much better job of communicating to everyone else. We outnumber the reactionaries, so we should be able to win. Aux armes, citoyens! ❤️✊
efgoldman
Pizza’s here
SiubhanDuinne
@germy:
Pierce is occasionally a panelist on “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me.”
dimmsdale
@Mnemosyne: thanks, I’ll check on it. appreciate the tip.
germy
@SiubhanDuinne: Imagine if network television featured shows like that instead of “Family Feud” etc.?
Writers used to be all over game shows like “What’s My Line?” and “Information Please”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@SgrAstar: the Washington Post published excerpts of interviews with Obama-Trump voters. It’s what you’d expect– crazy, more than a little racist and devoid of any mention of policy, which is what struck me about this one:
I want to know what this woman thinks we (“we”) were supposed to during the Obama years that we didn’t, and that we’re gonna git’er done now.
TenguPhule
@RepubAnon:
Its impossible to do so to the true believers. They will spit on a Democrat while literally at death’s door.
The lazy mushy middle isn’t much better. Fee Fees matter then actual life or death.
EBT
@cain: The red states will tell them that the blue states are spending all the money on sanctuary cities and continue to be red states.
TenguPhule
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
The raping, beating, steal the money your mother gave you for lunch dad.
Nicole
@LurkerNoLonger:
Whoa. Now there’s a 5% reference. But, as a middle-aged native of PA who remembers, I salute you for it.
SgrAstar
@Yarrow: Yarrow, please stay with us. The battle has barely begun and every single one of us can help.
Ohio Mom
@Yarrow: Neither am I!
Do I have to contact a front pager to call 911 in your city?!!
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne:
Would you prefer roaches and centipedes?
cain
@EBT:
That might hold water, until they continue to feel the pain and the blue states continue to out perform them. Red states and their voters have no influence on blue states since after all it is a ‘states rights ‘ rights issue. Use their own words against them.
Schmendrick
@Yarrow: Hello Yarrow. You don’t know me but I am along-time lurker here. One of the things that improves my attitude these days is to try do do some little thing each day to strike back against the tide that can seem overwhelming these days. So this morning I donated $35 to SwingLeft – $1 for each of the cretins in their swing district target list. It may be a drop in the bucket, but it is my drop.
I would like to make a pledge to you for next month. Let us know how you are doing on June 1st and I will send $35 again on your behalf (as well as my own). That can be your drop in the bucket. Together we can do this. Of course, you have no way of knowing if I am for real, but I can forward my receipt to any of the front pagers if it will help.
With respect.
? Martin
@les: Pew Polling:
This was just before the inauguration. Notably, 52% of Republicans that earn 30K or less support it. Those would be the so-called economically anxious blue collar Trump supporters. Also notably, both high and low earning Dems poll the same on the issue. It’s only rich Republicans that want to fuck everyone over. I know, it’s a shock…
EBT
@cain: Remember the currently proposed AHCA would disallow any plan that would be legal to sell in CA or NY. They can sure take jabs and potshots. Speaking of which, Sessions must be champing at the bit to get to start raiding green states under the pretense of interstate trafficking happening.
TenguPhule
@efgoldman:
That depends, is the owner a branded liberal?
Baud
@? Martin: People hated Obamacare until the GOP tried to take it away. Treat such polls with a grain of salt.
? Martin
@Nicole: Me too. Was home that day from school. Got to watch it happen.
Hey man, nice shot.
HeleninEire
Help me BJ friends. In the pub. A West Virginia boy is talking to me. Where in WV is John from?
TenguPhule
@NotMax: Would not apply to them anyway. DC is a ACA friendly district. So they’d still get gold plated insurance.
? Martin
@Baud: What’s overlooked in that analysis is a decent number of people disliked Obamacare because it wasn’t single-payer. Everyone assumes the opposition to ACA all came from the right. That was never the case.
? Martin
@HeleninEire: Bethany. In that little spit of land that sticks up between Ohio and PA.
HeleninEire
@? Martin: Thanks
Baud
@? Martin: I get that. But until there’s an actual realistic plan on the table, polls are not trustworthy.
dww44
@JMG:Exactly! Those I know who voted for him were largely tribal voters and guilty of unacknowledged racism, even to themselves,contrary to their professed non racist beliefs There is NO other explanation for the grief that was given Obama for 8 plus years.
? Martin
@Baud: What was the actual, realistic plan that got Trump elected? That’s my point. Sanders didn’t have an actual, realistic plan either, but he had a simple to grasp goal that people liked – including a lot of voters that rejected Clinton. The only one with an actual, realistic plan was Clinton.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@HeleninEire: Panhandle part.
Baud
@? Martin: I’m not talking about campaign rhetoric. I’m talking about people actually supporting enactment of single payer.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: If they were we’d be complaining about President Clinton.
ArchTeryx
Been listening to the new Depeche Mode, “Revolution.”
‘The train is coming, the train is coming, so get on board, get on board…”
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Yup, people want the simplicity but they don’t want you to fuck with their health care. Obamacare only messed with a few people’s insurance and they squealed like greased pig.
Quinerly
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I actually remember when Fred Thompson was squiring the now Kellyann Conway around. They were considered a “Washington Power Couple.” His last wife was a much younger boney, fake blonde if I remember correctly from glimpses of her when he ran for president. I am naturally salt and pepper and am feeling a little catty tonight. But I digress…..meow.
geg6
@Nicole:
Oh my, I remember that well. Worked part-time during college at the newspaper where my mom was a reporter and they had it on a live feed in the newsroom. We all saw it. Felt really bad for those reporters who were in the room. He did it there in front of them to pay them back for what he felt they had done to destroy him. Another stupid white man who couldn’t take responsibility for his own actions. Maybe Trump could be convinced to do the same???
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Bill Clinton ran on health care reform. You know how that turned out.
efgoldman
@TenguPhule:
Stockholders own it.
They might slap a wrist. They’re not going to seriously fuck a $40 billion company
efgoldman
@? Martin:
[whine] Whyyyy didn’t she talk more about pooolicyyyy????[/whine]
Omnes Omnibus
@HeleninEire: Bethany.
MomSense
@Yarrow:
Hey Yarrow, I’m sending you the biggest hug. You have been such a stalwart for us here. We’ve come to depend on you so it makes me very sad that we haven’t realized that you need our support. Please do me a favor and make a call to a hotline. Or if you have a counselor or clergy person please call them.
It is so hard not to despair. I seem to be stuck at rage right now and trying to stave off feeling numb. In December I was feeling really vulnerable to depression and decided to get treatment and medication.
With the right help you will feel better, I can’t promise you will feel great, but you will feel better and we will be so grateful to have your friendship and your presence with us.
Please keep checking in. And please reach out for help where you live. Nobody gets left behind here in our vicious jackal pack.
Uncle Cosmo
@geg6: Cosign. Speaking as someone who over the last 50 years has written (for publication) poetry, short stories, book reviews, proposals and technical reports, I consider the quoted passage a fine example of excellent prose in my native language. IMHO those who think otherwise are, at best, tone-deaf to the language.
zhena gogolia
@germy:
Not just that, but I just did a puzzle that had “Joe Namath” as an answer, and discovered that he’s alive too!
HeleninEire
@?BillinGlendaleCA: @Omnes Omnibus: Thanks boys. He then started talking to the pretty girl next to me. A year or two ago I would have been pissed. Not tonight. Going home to sleep.
germy
@zhena gogolia: I’m sometimes surprised to learn that certain folks are still living. I guess because they stop getting the attention they used to get.
efgoldman
@zhena gogolia:
But probably not sober.
I was surprised to see he’s a year+ older than I am. I could have sworn he was younger
efgoldman
@HeleninEire:
Don’t feel bad. My daughter spent her whole four years in college as wingperson to her cuter than hell blond best friend and roommate.
Now each is married to a terrific guy, each with a kid of her own
Steeplejack (phone)
@geg6:
Wasn’t Dwyer partially vindicated later, or is this bullshit? Wikipedia:
I only vaguely remember his death, not the aftermath.
Felonius Monk
@zhena gogolia:
He was on Fox a few day ago. See this.
Schmendrick
@Betty Cracker: I am a cautious, skeptical person by nature. I guess it is a testament to the outrageousness of the ZEGS and his ilk that I was motivated to send off my $35 donation without my usual careful vetting. The concern expressed by Hortense took me aback for a moment but I feel much better after reading your New Yorker link. I will do some more checking before my June donation.
HeleninEire
@efgoldman: Nah. I’m good. But thanks for the rah rah. Also, too, Are we ever gonna get pics of efgoldmangrandaughter? Cuz she’s almost 4, and I am really tired of waiting for them. ;)
TenguPhule
@efgoldman:
We also didn’t think they’d be dumb enough to revise the AHCA three times to make it worse then it started, then vote to pass it in the House.
Chet Murthy
@schrodingers_cat: Uh, with all due respect (and while agreeing that he’s not as stalwart a Dem as he should be), many of his metaphors have stuck — they’re viral:
(a) ZEGS
(b) goggle-eyed homculus running the Koch Bros subsidiary otherwise known as the state of Wisconsin
(c) prion disease that has afflicted the Republican Party since Ronald Reagan first fed it the monkeybrains in 1981.
(d) Libidinous Visitor
And if I thought more than 30 sec, I’m sure more would come to me.
He’s no Hemingway. But please, don’t dismiss his appeal, and the way his turns of phrase burrow into people’s brains
Kathleen
@dimmsdale: Republicans give them permission to hate.
Kathleen
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: He said he would get rid of it.
Lee Hartmann
@germy: awesome. Dave Barry called Benchley one of the funniest writers ever…
efgoldman
@HeleninEire:
I’d be glad to. Her mother won’t let me.
Chet Murthy
@schrodingers_cat: Doctors are the most-trust, most-respected professionals in most people’s lives. Medical-sector associations and PACs donate like mad in DC. All of these organizations and the well-heeled companies they represent would line up AGAINST single-payer. The IDEA that that can happen is ridiculous. And I’m in favor of a return to Eisenhower-era steep progressive taxation. That’s EASIER than single-payer. Miles easier.
As for the public option, let’s remember: Lieberman. Nelson. Bayh. And there were a buncha other senators. Oh, and that creep from PA with his god-bothering problems.
LGM has done a very, very thorough job of demonstrating that Obama got us probably the best that was available at the time. And as time has shown, he did it by assembling a coalition of those deep-pocketed interests, that would most naturally have OPPOSED such a scheme. Who could have predicted that the insurance companies, the hospitals and the doctors, are ALL up in arms about a return to the status quo ante? Who could have predicted.
No, it ain’t perfect. Yes, it can be improved. But geez, it’s naive to think he could have gotten even the public option thru.
ETA: It doesn’t matter *what* the American electorate thinks (and in VT&CO, they clearly didn’t think single-payer was all that). What matters is what the median-voting (and in the case of the Senate, 60th-voting Senator) thinks. That was (IIRC) Lieberman. Don’t blame Obama. Blame Lieberman. Blame his CT constitutents.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: Sensible daughter you have there. Obviously Mrs efg’s influence.
Chet Murthy
@efgoldman:
Oh teh funny. EFG, c’mon. A players hire A players. D- players hire fuckups. Li’l Limp Donnie’s a D- player. He has a history of not hiring people more-competent than himself (except as lawyers & accountants). This is par for the course. It’s the ONLY silver lining of this administration, and even at that, only until a real crisis transpires. But until then, it’s the only thing from which we can even extract that small, meager iota of grins.
Omnes Omnibus
@Chet Murthy: She wasn’t blaming Obama; she was calling out a purity pony. I know yesterday was a horrible day but have 85% of the commenters here lost any sense of satire, sarcasm, irony, and /or snark?
Chet Murthy
@schrodingers_cat: Uh, I think his reference isn’t to Indiana Jones. The monkey brains is in service to the “prion disease” part of the metaphor. B/c it’s the best-known way of getting Creutzfeld-Jakob disease (aka “bains like swiss cheese”). Well, there’s a better-known way, and that’s eating human nervous tissue (ugh), but that’d be a bridge too far for him. And the other well-known way (eating BSE-infected cattle, back in the 80s) is …. well, a little obscure.
Omnes Omnibus
@Lee Hartmann: I spent a lot of time during my freshman year in college reading Benchley instead of doing classwork. I do not consider that time wasted.
Chet Murthy
@JMG:
Preach it! Wouldn’t leave neither their wife&daughter, nor their wallet, alone with the man, but yeehaw, let’s leave our country alone with him! They knew he was a crook and a rapist. Just didn’t think he’d rip *them* off ….only them others over there, those undeserving …..
TenguPhule
@Omnes Omnibus:
Is that a trick question?
Omnes Omnibus
@TenguPhule: No, actually.
Chet Murthy
@Omnes Omnibus: @schrodingers_cat: Oof. s_c, sorry, I didn’t realize you were bein’ snarky. My, uh, partisan reflexes towards the ACA kickin’ in. Please accept my apologies.
Omnes Omnibus
@Chet Murthy: I suggest that for the next little while we assume good faith from the commenters we know usually post in good faith. If something seems off, assume snark. Once all of our meters have been snark recalibrated, we can go back to our usual mode.
Chet Murthy
Mnemosyne,
I want to call out a comment you made yesterday, that opened my eyes: HuffPost article about Mello
Gee, that’s really interesting, isn’t it? He goes from being rated 0% by PP Voters of Neb (Link to claiming he’s staunchly in PP’s corner? All without actually meeting with them? Really? really? really? And Googling, I can’t find any evidence that that’s changed.
I think it’s worth noting by contrast that even though Wilmer got interrupted on 9 Aug 2015, by Sept 17 2015 he was side-by-side with Keith Ellison (& Feb 2016 w/Benjamin Jealous), and it’s fair to say that he’s worked (I can’t say -hard-, b/c he’s still backslides) to reach out to people of color.
Still don’t know what to make of Mello; can’t say it outright smells, but boy, it’s hinky.
ETA: Mnem’s highlighting of key phrase.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
As I said a few days ago, I think the collective IQ here has dropped about 20-30 points since the election. (I include myself.) Maybe we should confine ourselves to puns and knock-knock jokes for the time being.
Hortense
@Betty Cracker: that is good to know, thanks, and for all you do, more thanks.
NotMax
@efgoldman
Ah, but can you carry off modeling panty hose as well as he?
(Young’uns can scratch their heads at that reference.)
efgoldman
@Chet Murthy:
You mean like Cornel West? /s
Gretchen
My rep’s team vigourusly denied that he went to a beer bash to celebrate kicking millions of people off of health care. It’s not a good look.
Raven Onthill
I keep wondering if they know there’s a fix in for the next election. On the other hand, the most vulnerable Republicans are the ones the fascists want to be shot of, so unless the Republicans completely lose their majority in the the House, this may be to their advantage. On yet a third hand, everyone has an interest in survival, so I suspect voters will remember
As to voting their interest, Philip Converse measured that back in the early 1960s. The largest plurality voted on a basis of “long-time Republican,” “long-time Democrat,” really hates African-Americans (these days it would be Muslims) etc., etc. “white,” “Christian,” and Republican are identities; the largest plurality votes on identity.
The Converse paper I keep citing is Philip E Converse, “The nature of belief systems in mass publics,” reprinted in Critical Review: A Journal of Politics and Society 18, no. 1 (2006): 1 – 74, and I recommend it to everyone with a serious interest in politics. It is available at fine academic libraries near you.
No One You Know
@raven: I’ve met him. He writes as he was taught; his book on metaphor spells out usage really well. when he talks, it’s clear. I wish we could hear him as easily as we can read him.
No One You Know
Judicial Watch ad on emails at the top of this post almost sent me postal.
I gave money. I’ll give it again, even though I’m unemployed. I sign and write memoirs on the Democratic surveys sent out and I stamp the damn things too. I marched, and will march again. I sign petitions.
And all I see is those dancing, beer swelling idiots, in the same headstone as the Wall Street’s champagne partiers.
Investigations can’t be counted on to be completed, unless they’re against people who don’t support this regime. Who arrests someone who laughs?
And so on. No we can’t wait for 2018. Who is waiting?