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You are here: Home / Organizing & Resistance / Enhanced Protest Techniques / Pre-Dawn Open Thread: Oh, Look, the Zombie-Eyed Granny Starver Had A Town Hall!

Pre-Dawn Open Thread: Oh, Look, the Zombie-Eyed Granny Starver Had A Town Hall!

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I still haven’t been able to find any info on whether Trump decided to upstage Ryan with his Big Boy Great Game Adventure Speech, but would it be a surprise either way? Per Refinery29:

… The Ryan town hall began 30 minutes later than originally planned to accommodate Trump’s nationwide address where he outlined a new strategy for troops in Afghanistan…

CNN extended invitations to people from Ryan’s district and selected the questions that were asked. That has led to criticism from Democrats who say the Republican Ryan has been hiding from Wisconsin voters since he hasn’t held a town hall open to everyone since October 2015.

Ryan’s Democratic challenger, Randy Bryce, said he did not receive a ticket to the event. Instead, he raised money to run a pair of television ads during the broadcast, including one where he poses three questions for Ryan to answer about health insurance, Trump, and equal pay legislation.

Ryan has held numerous events in Wisconsin, but he’s only taken questions from the public in controlled environments such as private businesses.

“Hopefully the media event that occurred tonight will convince Paul Ryan that talking to his constituents is a good idea,” said U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, a Democrat representing a south-central Wisconsin congressional district that’s next to Ryan’s. “In the remaining weeks when Paul is home, he might want to schedule a real town hall or two and explain his health care bill that drops tens of millions of people’s coverage, as well as discuss his tax preferences that would give the top 1 percent more tax breaks while working Americans continue to struggle.”…

Per the Washington Post, “Paul Ryan defends tax breaks for Foxconn at town hall”.

Reader Interactions

22Comments

  1. 1.

    patrick II

    This Ryan town hall performance doesn’t quite top the one last fall where one of his constituents described how he had cancer and was only alive that day because of Obamacare — and Ryan had that f*#king Ryan smirk on his face when he told the guy that his new healthcare plan would be better and that he should go to Ryan’s web page to read it. I did. It was about five paragraphs long, and said it was going to be better and cheaper than Obamacare.
    As a good liberal, I generally don’t prefer violent talk, but I would really love to see someone knock that smirk off Ryan’s face when he essentially is telling the guy to his face f*#k you and die.

  2. 2.

    sharl

    It’s good to see Ironstache calling out ZEGS like that, and it may be brave to do so on the particular topic of Charlottesville, given WI-01’s >90% white population (per Wikipedia). I don’t know the district, but in my experience most of us white folks – outside of places like this – would rather not discuss the issues at the basis of the Charlottesville chaos.

    And C’ville itself had some real fireworks at a city council meeting this past evening. Despite that they did manage to get some stuff done.

  3. 3.

    NorthLeft12

    Lickspittle Ryan and the rest of the Fraidy Cat Caucus went out of their way to obstruct, taunt, and insult Real President Obama.
    I wonder what is different that they can’t muster a smidgen of courage to criticize Deadbeat Donald.
    Ya know, Ryan is more odious and repugnant than Trump IMO. Trump is the product of unchecked privilege and a raft of personality disorders. Ryan is just plain evil. He actually seems to get off on harming people and denying them assistance that he and his family eagerly took advantage of when he was much younger. Just freaking awful.

  4. 4.

    NorthLeft12

    @patrick II: That part of Ryan is particularly repulsive. His smug attitude that he knows better than you, and that you are too stupid to realize that you are being conned. I could never vote for a guy like that and can’t understand how people don’t see right through him.

  5. 5.

    ThresherK

    Has anyone seen a right-winger dust off the fake Schwarzkopf quote about “I don’t judge Muslims, as they think only their god can do that. But I’m more than happy to.arrange the meeting”?

    Sounds like with Trump’s latest noises we’ll be getting America’s greatest hits from every keyboard commando.

  6. 6.

    Gretchen

    My rep just ran an ad lying about what they’re doing. He had a factory worker say vote Yoder because he’s going to bring jobs back to the US and cut middle class taxes.

  8. 8.

    Chet

    Good question by the sister. I only wish she could have asked ZEGS to explain how his position was rooted in scripture (since it isn’t).

    “We’re in the 32nd year of the war on poverty; it’s time for a new approach.”—Wikipedia tells me LBJ declared war on poverty in 1964. But whatevs. We’ve had the poor for a hell of a lot longer than that. It’s not my fault someone tried to brand it a war. But ZEGS wants to wage war on the poor.

  9. 9.

    m.j.

    We’re in the 32nd year of the war on poverty
    Whose side are you on?

    This guy stopped being catholic when he started worshiping Ayn Rand.

  10. 10.

    (((CassandraLeo)))

    @m.j.: Ayn Rand wouldn’t have any time for Paul Ryan either. She was a terrible person, but she was a terrible person who was vehemently pro-choice and equally vehemently atheist. Paul Ryan is both a cafeteria Catholic and a cafeteria Objectivist.

  12. 12.

    zhena gogolia

    I didn’t hear any booing. That’s what I tuned in for.

    He is such a disgusting excuse for a “Catholic.” So sanctimonious.

  13. 13.

    Kay

    @Chet:

    Safety net programs actually work over time:

    To be sure, some economic and educational differences between blacks and whites have narrowed over time. While blacks are more than twice as likely as whites to be living in poverty, this actually reflects a marked improvement since the mid-1970s when blacks were almost four times as likely as whites to be poor. And the white-black gap in high school completion rates has almost disappeared since the 1960s, though blacks are still significantly less likely than whites to graduate from college.
    While education is widely viewed as the key to upward mobility for all races, the Pew Research Center analysis finds that the benefits of schooling often flow in unequal measure to blacks relative to whites. For example, among those with a bachelor’s degree, blacks earn significantly less than whites ($82,300 for black householders vs. $106,600 for whites). In fact, the income of blacks at all levels of educational attainment lags behind that of their white counterparts.

  14. 14.

    Kay

    This was a successful anti-poverty program too, but you won’t hear Paul Ryan mention it:

    For years, California has invested in comprehensive sex education and access to contraception, Daverth says. There, the teenage birth rate dropped by 74 percent from 1991 to 2012. The teen birth rate in Texas also fell, but only by 56 percent.

  15. 15.

    satby

    @Kay: safety net programs would work even better without the systemic racism that keeps minority earnings below the earning level of whites with the same education. But acknowledging that makes white folks feel threatened.

  17. 17.

    Chris

    @NorthLeft12:

    That part of Ryan is particularly repulsive. His smug attitude that he knows better than you, and that you are too stupid to realize that you are being conned.

    Once again it’s fascinating how much Republicans’ stars are exactly like their image of a left-wing college elitist – too much education, not enough goddamn common sense, smugly certain that his little ideological theories mean he knows better than anybody else How Society Ought To Be, and patronizingly telling you how lucky you are to have a Smart Man like him in charge of things.

  18. 18.

    Chris

    @Chet:

    “We’re in the 32nd year of the war on poverty; it’s time for a new approach.”—Wikipedia tells me LBJ declared war on poverty in 1964.

    At most, the war on poverty lasted maybe a decade and a half before Reagan got his chance to tear into the programs LBJ had created.

    We’re not in the 32nd year of the war on poverty. We’re in the 37th year of going back to pretending that poverty isn’t a problem, and if it is the government can’t do anything about it, and if the government can do anything about it it shouldn’t because that would make George Washington and the baby Jesus cry.

  19. 19.

    Aardvark Cheeselog

    > Oh, Look, the Zombie-Eyed Granny Starver Had A Town Hall!

    No, he had a carefully scripted media event, staged to look like a town hall if you weren’t paying much attention.

  20. 20.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    Isn’t this smarmy fraud where he is, in part, due to gubmint programs?

    Oh yeah… he is…

    From the time of his father’s death until his 18th birthday, Ryan received Social Security survivors benefits, which were saved for his college education…

    Not sure I’ve ever seen an emptier suit, which is saying a lot…

  21. 21.

    JDM

    Paul Ryan must be simply incapable of looking like an empathetic human being. Others can fake if even though they’re as insincere as he, but look at him. He always has this smug, tight-lipped, F-you face on. I’m sure his consultants have told him to try to drop that look, so it means he’s just not capable of doing so.

  22. 22.

    Austin G Loomis

    @NorthLeft12:

    I could never vote for a guy like that and can’t understand how people don’t see right through him.

    “Because they wear bird-hats! And because they smile so greasily and sweat so profusely!”
    — Effluvia, Maid of Mars, explaining to Miaowara Tomokato why she, like everyone else born beneath the hurtling moons of Bazoom, reflexively trusts the Holy Pterns, “A Fighting Cat of Mars” (Mark E. Rogers, The Further Adventures of Samurai Cat)

    @Chris:

    We’re in the 37th year of going back to pretending that poverty isn’t a problem, and if it is the government can’t do anything about it, and if the government can do anything about it it shouldn’t because that would make George Washington and the baby Jesus cry.

    ‘And you know; at least I hope you know;’ said Mr Podsnap, with severity, ‘that Providence has declared that you shall have the poor always with you?’
    The meek man also hoped he knew that.
    ‘I am glad to hear it,’ said Mr Podsnap with a portentous air. ‘I am glad to hear it. It will render you cautious how you fly in the face of Providence.’
    — Charles DIckens, Our Mutual Friend chapter 11, “Podsnappery”

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