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You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Friday Morning Open Thread: Doing the Work

Friday Morning Open Thread: Doing the Work

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Friday Morning Open Thread

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Reader Interactions

189Comments

  3. 3.

    Immanentize

    And, I say we accept Senator Graham’s offer.  Especially the falling over part.

  4. 4.

    debbie

    NPR was breathlessly reporting the tense atmosphere of the initial meeting with Chinese diplomats. Calls from RWNJs demanding a bombing raid in 3, 2, …

  5. 5.

    John S.

    This an interesting take on “cancel culture” from Thomas Frank (What’s the Matter with Kansas?). An excerpt:

    Or perhaps this new taste for censorship is an indication of Democratic healthiness. This is a party that has courted professional-managerial elites for decades, and now they have succeeded in winning them over, along with most of the wealthy areas where such people live. Liberals scold and supervise like an offended ruling class because to a certain extent that’s who they are.

    It’s part cautionary tale, and part concern-trolling. I’m not really sure what to make of it.

    ETA: Full disclosure, this is in The Guardian. Which despite their decent news coverage, at the best of times has a truly demented opinion section dedicated to shitting on liberals as Tony Jay has documented on many occasions.

  8. 8.

    Baud

    @John S.:

    The Dems aren’t doing anything with cancel culture. It’s a progressive social movement.  He’s partly correct that many progressive thought leaders are part of the elite.

  9. 9.

    SFAW

    Possible “talking filibuster” variation: to ensure the filibusterers are sincere, and willing to work for it, before they can take the floor, they must prove that they should be allowed to speak. Said “proof” would come in the form of them taking a test, wherein they (correctly) reply to questions written in Tagalog, or Arabic, or hieroglyphics (no help from the Rosetta Stone allowed!). The questions would deal with things like quantum computing, gene splicing, climate change. If they answer incorrectly — with Schumer or Ted Lieu or Adam Schiff or Senator Professor Warren being the decider — they do not get to speak, and get a “blanket party” for their troubles.

  10. 10.

    John S.

    @Baud: This whole cancel culture bullshit always just felt like political correctness 2.0 — another cause celebre from Conservatives looking for culture war red meat.

    Sure, there’s a grain of truth to what is happening on the progressive left, but it’s way more overblown than it really is (e.g. the Dr. Seuss bullshit).

  15. 15.

    Baud

    The GOP since forever has been dreaming about reaching out to Jews, Hispanics, African Americans, and Asians.  Their base won’t let them lie about their true nature anymore, however.

  17. 17.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @John S.: I’m sick of the talk of cancel culture mostly because I’m sick of being lied to and then expected to act as if that lie was just a legitimate difference of opinion.

    Also, for the love of god, people, there are real problems in this world. Must we waste our time on made-up ones?

  19. 19.

    Chyron HR

    @SFAW:
    You could ask them basic questions in American English about the legislation they’re filibustering and have the same effect.​

  20. 20.

    John S.

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Well, Republicans are the ones who want to dwell on cancel culture because they can’t or don’t want to fix jack shit.

    It’s baffling to frame it as a trap Republicans are laying for Democrats, and an own-goal. But perhaps Frank is slouching towards Greenwaldism as has been suggested.

  22. 22.

    Baud

    I heard that Biden is replacing his VETO stamp with a CANCEL stamp. Totally unconstitutional, but those elitist Dems just do what they want.

  24. 24.

    Geminid

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Conservatives contrive these arguments about issues like cancel culture precisely because they have no solutions to the real problems Americans face. Before too long, “cancel culture” will follow “participation trophy generation” into the dustbin of crappy slogans.

  27. 27.

    Nicole

    @John S.: Thank you for linking to that piece, although I confess I think I’m a little stupider after reading it.  Shame; I really enjoyed What’s the Matter With Kansas.

    I would say that article is 50% concern trolling and 50% bad faith arguments.

  32. 32.

    Immanentize

    @NotMax: I have a very long day ahead. A right hand man would be useful but no chance of that.  The combined thoughts have given me Blech²

  33. 33.

    Falling Diphthong

    It was lovely to read that the president and veep would visit the CDC and be absolutely confident that they would not emerge announcing “Every scientist I met was just astonished at my total genius and how I understand everything there is to know about the virus–that’s it, that’s all I noticed.”

  37. 37.

    Another Scott

    @John S.: There’s been a meme that many are pushing that the parties are in the process of switching places again – Democrats becoming the party of business and Wall Street, and Republicans becoming the party of workers and the middle and lower classes.

    It strikes me as taking tiny bits of information (Democrats aren’t insane and look at science and evidence; Republicans put patriotic symbolism above all in messaging, hate education) and constructing a huge rickety treehouse out of it.  But that’s what a lot of political operatives do to try to show that their advice is worth paying for.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  38. 38.

    Delk

    Funny that it is never cancel culture when it is any one of the numerous christian boycotts.

  40. 40.

    germy

    NEW: Joe Biden’s problems at the US-Mexico border may be exacerbated by Border Patrol agents and union officials working with Republicans to undermine the Biden Administration, say ex-DHS and Border Patrol insiders. https://t.co/SKKKY9zPHc

    — Andrew Feinberg (@AndrewFeinberg) March 16, 2021

    “This is a planned, coordinated attempt to sabotage the Biden administration,” said @JennBudd, a former Border Patrol agent-turned-immigrant rights activist. https://t.co/SKKKY9zPHc

    — Andrew Feinberg (@AndrewFeinberg) March 16, 202

    “An ex-DHS official who has served at senior levels in the GW Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations said another problem Biden faces in fixing the US immigration system is a Border Patrol union that acts as if it has a veto over immigration policy matters.”

  41. 41.

    Matt McIrvin

    @John S.: This sounds a lot like the line J. D. Vance is now pushing, that Democrats like illegal immigrants because Democrats are the wealthy economic elites who hire them (evidence: Vance met a bunch of these people at fancy dinner parties for the rich and famous; he’s just an old country boy who goes to these fancy dinner parties for some unfathomable reason). It’s a line he completely pulled out of his ass but now I’m wondering if it’s part of a coordinated talking-points list.

  42. 42.

    Jeffro

    A quick reminder that unless it comes from the Cancelle region of France, it’s not cancel culture, it’s just sparkling consequences.  ;)

    (Can’t remember who I ahem borrowed that from on Twitter, but I like it!)

  47. 47.

    debbie

    @Baud:

    The GOP just kept their anti- thoughts to themselves. They don’t disagree with the base. They’ve just preferred to think those thoughts to themselves.

  49. 49.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @John S.: Republicans dwell on cancel culture because they don’t like being held to account and aren’t used to it. They think they should be immune to the consequences of their words and deeds.

  50. 50.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Baud: Anyone who is still saying that Ds are the party of elitists and ignore working people is making a bad faith argument and should be ignored as a closet Republican and a Republican enabler.

  51. 51.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Speaking of Greenwald, he’s madly spinning out all over the map now that substack is having issues.

    The thing that people like Greenwald, Tracey, Taibbi et al seem to fail to understand is that punditry and journalism are two entirely different things.

  53. 53.

    Immanentize

    @germy: If this is all true, and provable, then it might be easier to solve the problem of Border patrol and ICE.

  57. 57.

    Baud

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Democrats like illegal immigrants because Democrats are the wealthy economic elites who hire them

     

    BTW, not that logic matters, but Dems are pushing to give people a pathway to citizenship and it’s the GOP that wants to keep them as part of the underclass.

  58. 58.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Gin & Tonic: Thank You. Most of  the political analysis even on D leaning blogs focuses on white people in general and white men in particular.

  59. 59.

    germy

    @Immanentize:

    “Ex-HUD Sec’y @JulianCastro said he would not be surprised if the Border Patrol union was colluding with Republicans to undermine Biden because Trump “allowed that agency to go rogue” and allowed the union to dictate policy.”

  61. 61.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Another Scott:

    There’s been a meme that many are pushing that the parties are in the process of switching places again – Democrats becoming the party of business and Wall Street, and Republicans becoming the party of workers and the middle and lower classes.

    It’s not really new; they’ve tried since forever to insist that the Republicans are the true party of the working class (subtext: “liberal elites are manipulating the brown welfare moochers to terrorize the white salt of the earth”, the even less nice version is what the Illinois Nazi was shouting through his bullhorn in “The Blues Brothers”; they nailed the gist of it).

  62. 62.

    Starfish

    @Matt McIrvin: Vance is considering a run for Senate from Ohio.

    A venture capitalist who is going to get his Senate campaign funded by Peter Thiel is not on solid ground pointing out “the real elite” if he does not include himself in that group.

  63. 63.

    Soprano2

    I like to remind conservatives that they created “cancellation”; they literally got Bill Mahr’s show cancelled after 9-11 because he said something outrageous about the hijackers. I also remind them that they “cancelled” the Dixie Chicks (now just The Chicks) because Natalie said something they didn’t like. So, “cancellation” is mostly in the eye of the beholder.

  64. 64.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @germy:

    The Cooch actually granted them that in the final couple of weeks of the Trump Administration in a new CBA.

    I’m normally pro-union, but am OK with Biden pulling a PATCO on them.

    Maybe giving them a goodly pay bump in order to relieve the provision – make them prioritize their desire for cruelty.

    Alternative is, “you’re fired – all of you”.

  65. 65.

    gene108

    @Geminid:

    “Cancel culture” is a thing, because conservatives lost the Culture Wars they so feverishly caught during the 1980’s and beyond.

    Society has passed them by, and they know this. Even some Trump insurrectionists, on 01/06/2021, were smoking joints in the Capitol.

  66. 66.

    germy

    Interesting thread on their tactics 21 years ago:

    ?Let me tell y’all a little story about how the Border Patrol manipulates to create crisis scenarios. It was 2000, and I was a Senior Patrol agent in Campo, CA. The Border Patrol wanted Bush to win, but illegal crossings were way down. They couldn’t create more crossings.

    — Jenn Budd (@BuddJenn) March 16, 2021

  71. 71.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: Yeah, for a long time I thought there was an irreconcilable tension between the xenophobic wing of the Republicans and the Republicans who hire undocumented immigrants, but then I realized that the employers love holding the threat of deportation over their workers to keep them docile. The trick is cracking down just hard enough that the supply of workers stays pliable but doesn’t get depleted.

  72. 72.

    Baud

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Right. Not new at all.  Pointy headed liberal and ivory tower liberal are as old as dirt.  Bush II in 2000 campaigned on compassionate conservatism.  It’s all about marketing to white people who would economically benefit from supporting Democrats.

  74. 74.

    Starfish

    @schrodingers_cat: Yes, but if you point out the word and make people see that whiteness is a thing, they get really uncomfortable about it.

    For example, someone asked what was the BEST local school in a town with average home prices approaching $1 million. I told her about the online tools that measure such things. I also pointed out that these tools rank schools higher when they concentrate a lot of college-educated white families. She closed the whole NextDoor thread and thanked everyone except the person who said unintelligible things about whiteness.

  78. 78.

    Matt McIrvin

    @gene108: There’s always a new rights struggle for them to fear-monger about, though, since some liberals will always want to extend freedom and justice to everyone. Now it’s trans people. The conservatives can’t get so much mileage out of saying the gays are coming for your kids but they can still yell about trans people in public restrooms.

  80. 80.

    Steeplejack

    @Another Scott:

    There’s been a meme that many are pushing that the parties are in the process of switching places again [. . .].

    Many?! Who besides Marcio Rubio and a few other GQP hacks?

  81. 81.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @rp:

    The notion of the total deplatforming of a Greenwald that is the most pure advocate of never criticizing any racist’s viewpoint ever is delicious to me.

    I still wish that Obama had drone-bombed him back in the day. I had this mental image of a missile cam video of him shrieking and dropping a caipirinha on his balcony as he made a futile attempt to flee.

  84. 84.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Starfish: Agreed there are plenty of those types on our side too especially among the ones who call themselves socialists/progressives.

    Even their non-white spokespeople always center whiteness and then wonder why they don’t attract more minorities. They want us to supposedly be like the Scandinavian countries, where all immigrants are treated like potential criminals. The ? ? would be a centrist on immigration in say Denmark.

  85. 85.

    Another Scott

    @Steeplejack: There was an oh-so-serious political reporter/hack on an NPR show talking about it around December or so.  They’re out there.

    Relatedly, what driftglass said.

    [eta:] When I’m emperor of FYWP, all users will have a choice of Text or Visual in the editor and the choice will be remembered between sessions!!1

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  87. 87.

    Kent

    @Baud: The Dems aren’t doing anything with cancel culture. It’s a progressive social movement.  He’s partly correct that many progressive thought leaders are part of the elite.

    Nonsense.  It’s not a progressive social movement.  Try advocating for gun control, pro-life policies, or hell, just admit to being an atheist as a public figure like a politician HS principal, or other public leader ANYWHERE in the south and watch how fast your ass gets canceled.

    Try introducing your students to the 1619 project as a teacher in Arkansas.  Or just the notion of systemic racism in general, and state legislators will be calling for you to be fired.

    Try advocating for the removal of a bust of the founder of the KKK in the Tennessee capitol building.

    Try criticizing Trump as a member of the GOP.

    Cancel culture is indeed a thing.  But it’s not progressive social movement.  Far from it.

  88. 88.

    debbie

    @germy:

    Putin looked like a small, angry man sitting behind his desk in the reporting (NBC, I think) last night. Hahaha.

  90. 90.

    PST

    @Starfish:

    A venture capitalist who is going to get his Senate campaign funded by Peter Thiel is not on solid ground pointing out “the real elite” if he does not include himself in that group.

    If I we’re running against Vance, I would never stop talking about how his sponsor Thiel is such a fine American patriot that he bought New Zealand citizenship so he’d have someplace remote to retreat to if things turn ugly in the USA.

  93. 93.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Pro-tip: don’t set your kitchen on fire. That is not how microwaves are supposed to work.

  95. 95.

    Peale

    @John S.: Weird how in a discussion about the rise of censorship and the drift of the Democratic Party away from being the poor person’s working party of his white male dreams, he name checks Hillary Clinton and Melinda Gates in the first paragraph, but when it comes to discussing behavior of his own colleagues its all just kind of vague as to who he is talking about.

    Great for him to point out that “Debunking” is the best recourse, but at some point, the press itself needs to own up to its own responsibility for the failure of “debunking” to work. This reminds me of those Grand Pooh Bah and very tenured luminaries who signed that petition last year decrying the effects that “Cancel Culture” was going to have on the university and the need for engagement. But for the life of me, I couldn’t point to one idea their “engagement” had successfully “debunked” over their long and distinguished careers. But since they advanced in a time where walking around in circles forever meant financial security, why not keep it going? I mean, if you look at the state of our discourse, it has to be Hillary and Melinda that’s caused it, right?

  96. 96.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @NotMax:

    Weird part is that while Donahue’s format included interacting with normal people, Tweety’s model was the dueling “talking heads” show that has really dumbed down the country.

    ”We both have opinions and let’s elevate the existence of opinion over the exposition of objective fact” is a lousy way to set policy.

  98. 98.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: I was heating  up something for breakfast that had wax paper on top. Started the microwave, started doing other things in the kitchen, smelled an odd smoky smell and turned around to see the bowl completely engulfed in foot-high flames.

    After the excitement was over I found the charred remnants of a twist tie at the bottom of the oven. Don’t know why that was attached to the bowl but apparently the sparks from that were enough to start the festivities within 30-40 seconds.

  99. 99.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @John S.: The whole “The only TRUE progressive/liberal is dead broke, powerless and a Liberal victory only means The Left sold out” mentality is what apparently drove Stalin to mass murder.

  102. 102.

    Another Scott

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: Yeah, metal and microwaves don’t mix.  My MIL used to heat up fancy china plates in the microwave before putting dinner on them.  She never seemed to notice the sparks at the edge from the stripe of gold paint.  Fortunately, never a fire.

    Be careful now, ya hear??

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  103. 103.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @John S.: Sure, there’s a grain of truth to what is happening on the progressive left, but it’s way more overblown than it really is (e.g. the Dr. Seuss bullshit).

    I though the real bases Cancel Culture s is families getting feed  up their Crazy Uncle Watches–Fox News-too-much ranting about the horrors of transgender avocado toast all the time and disowning them.  That whole “You’re dead to me” thing.

  104. 104.

    Fair Economist

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:How exciting! I got a cool lightning storm when I left a fork in the lunch I was reheating at work but I didn’t manage to set anything on fire.

    @Another Scott:

    My MIL used to heat up fancy china plates in the microwave before putting dinner on them. She never seemed to notice the sparks at the edge from the stripe of gold paint.

    When I tried using my grandmother’s old plates in the microwave even a brief use destroyed the silver (in her case) lining on the edge. It’s a pity that most old fine china isn’t microwave safe because of that.

  105. 105.

    Geminid

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: The NYT‘s and other journalists kept looking for trump voters in diners. They could have found plenty at a Starbucks. Maybe they did not want to expose their own peers.

  108. 108.

    Starfish

    @schrodingers_cat: A day after a bunch of Asian people got shot in Atlanta, a local Democrat in our state house is trying to make immigrants seem nefarious for saving their money to buy a house.

    There’s a bill in Colorado legislature to mandate that businesses allow cash.
    Rep. Snyder (a Dem!) asked isn’t that dangerous, pointed out many illegal activities are conducted in cash, then said he knew of a Taiwanese family who bought a $625K house in cash.

    I’m so bothered.

    — elisabeth epps is tired. (@elisabeth) March 19, 2021

  110. 110.

    Baud

    @Starfish:

    Hmm.  Not that every Dem is wonderful, but I’d like to see a transcript before condemning the guy based on that tweet.  Feels like something was left out in the paraphrasing.

  111. 111.

    geg6

    @John S.: ​
     
    Frank has sounded like a lunatic every time I’ve seen something written by him going back to the Obama years. He’s become part of the looney left, as far as I’m concerned.

  113. 113.

    Ken

    @Starfish: I’m wondering if “bought the house with cash” means “didn’t finance”.  I bought my last car for cash, but I wrote a check, which is much less nefarious than if I’d shown up with a suitcase of currency.

  115. 115.

    Kent

    @Baud: @Kent: I don’t disagree with you, but that stuff isn’t labeled cancel culture.

    So it’s only “cancel culture” if powerless college students are doing it? But if it is Republican state legislatures with the actual power to cancel then it’s not?

    The rules are so confusing.

  116. 116.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @WaterGirl: I made a snap decision that the flames were contained and would burn out in a second, which they did. I did attempt to beat out the last bit with a towel which had no effect.

    Afterward my wife:

    • reminded me we have a fire extinguisher which we’ve never used, and that never even crossed my mind. In my defense it is at least 20 years old and probably not functional.
    • said she was glad I didn’t set the towel on fire.

    It’s a little chilling to think about how bad it might have been, since our house is an 1890 tinderbox. But the kitchen is in the “new” (1920s?) part.

  117. 117.

    Kent

    @Ken:@Starfish: I’m wondering if “bought the house with cash” means “didn’t finance”.  I bought my last car for cash, but I wrote a check, which is much less nefarious than if I’d shown up with a suitcase of currency.

    No, they mean actual cash. The bill was about requiring cash currency to be accepted. It wasn’t about buying houses without taking out a mortgage.

  118. 118.

    MomSense

    @Baud:

    He was for it before he was against it. He became popular because he opposed the black president “from the left” which gave cover to a lot of white brogressives.

  119. 119.

    Ken

    @Kent: So it’s only “cancel culture” if powerless college students are doing it?

    Or if a bunch of people write letters to a company saying they won’t buy their products because of their advertising on a show, or support of some cause. Unless those people are doing it for good Christian reasons.

  120. 120.

    Ken

    @Kent: Yes, I got that. I meant that the representative may have just heard the family paid cash for a house, and interpreted that as bags of currency.  I’m also leaning toward it being a “young bucks buying T-bone steaks” kind of story.

  121. 121.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Kent: I know immigrants who did just that – showed up to a real-estate closing with a suitcase of cash. They didn’t understand the language or the banking system well, but had the money. Hey, it says “legal tender for all debts” right on it.

  122. 122.

    Baud

    @Kent:

    Pretty much. When cancel culture was called political correctness, conservatives could always criticize rude Jesus hating liberals without without being vilified as politically correct.

    FWIW, I actually believe both “cancel culture” and “political correctness” started out as frimge left wing terms that got coopted and popularized by right wing opponents.

  123. 123.

    Kent

    @Gin & Tonic:@Kent: I know immigrants who did just that – showed up to a real-estate closing with a suitcase of cash. They didn’t understand the language or the banking system well, but had the money. Hey, it says “legal tender for all debts” right on it.

    Undocumented immigrants often find it difficult to get bank accounts since they lack social security numbers.

  124. 124.

    FelonyGovt

    The Republicans truly have no governing objectives at all other than to prevent Democrats from governing or from achieving anything.

  125. 125.

    MomSense

    @Kent:

    Also too marijuana/hemp related businesses even in states where it is legal.  Hemp is legal federally but the rules governing banking have been sooooo slow that hemp related business were unable to get bank accounts.

  126. 126.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Starfish:

    I’m not bothered by the legislative statement. That feels like many years’ tax avoidance generated from a cash-heavy small business.

  128. 128.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @MomSense:

    I can’t wait for his inevitable piece that filibuster reform is evil because of Tom Cotton and Josh Hawley’s rights to free speech.

  129. 129.

    Kent

    @FelonyGovt:The Republicans truly have no governing objectives at all other than to prevent Democrats from governing or from achieving anything.

    Not true.  They have all kinds of governing objectives that mostly fall into the categories of

    Deregulate polluters, banks, oil companies, payday lenders, food processors, churches, private schools, etc. etc.

    Regulate women and people of color and labor unions

    Strangle the public sector such as public education, universities, environmental agencies, workplace protection,  public health, etc. etc.

  131. 131.

    rp

    @germy: Oh god…that led me down a rabbit hole of Greenwald demanding DATA that the wave of anti-Asian violence is because of racism and white supremacy. He’s pathetic.

  132. 132.

    germy

    @rp:

    At this point, the parody account is indistinguishable from the original

    Before woke blue checkmarks hysterically go blaming this on "White Supremacy" or "racism", it is imperative that you acknowledge this one basic fact: Asian is an ethnicity, not a race.

    Tune in to Tucker tonight where I discuss this important distinction and how it vindicates me https://t.co/U0xcMYzlzg

    — Glem (I Do *NOT* Support Trump) (@GlemGreenwald) March 17, 2021

  134. 134.

    Kent

    @germy: I just helped my daughter with her taxes using my H&R Block TaxCut download.  She’s 22 and it was her first time filing as an independent.

    She was very happy and surprised to find that the two previous stimulus checks from last spring and last winter got added onto her refund since she never got them the first time around.  So she’s getting about a $2,000 refund instead of about $200 for the little work she’s done since graduating from college last spring.

  137. 137.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Kent: Next, I’m sure you’ll explain to her that a $2,000 tax refund means that she provided the government with an interest-free loan.

  139. 139.

    different-church-lady

    When trying to understand Greenwald, it helps to remember that he’s nothing but an extremely verbose troll.

  141. 141.

    Richard Guhl

    @Starfish: While Boot makes a great argument, he doesn’t quite get to the heart of the matter.

    When we talk about cancel culture or political correctness, what is the impulse or value being reflected that undergirds them?
    Is it not kindness?
    Is it not the understanding that we should strive to act kindly to others, in word and deed?

    Rather than make apologetic responses to those who yammer about cancel culture or political correctness, put them on the defensive by asking what have they got against kindness? Since when did kindness become a bad thing?
    It is, after all, a pretty crappy definition of freedom when it’s made into a license to treat others like dirt.

  142. 142.

    PST

    @BlueGuitarist:

    i first heard “not politically correct” as mild self-mocking on the left.

    Me too. I don’t think the right ever understood that, maybe because self-mockery is foreign to them.

  143. 143.

    germy

    A Ross Township woman was arrested in connection with the riots at the U.S. Capitol. The Shaler Township police chief said her husband is a detective with the department and on the FBI Violent Crime Task Force in Pittsburgh. https://t.co/uOu1atajQj

    — KDKA (@KDKA) March 19, 2021

  144. 144.

    different-church-lady

    So someone tweeted a vid of a sloth on a boat and suddenly everyone on Twitter is a sloth psychology expert, and I’m like, “Can the asteroid hit just me personally so I can stop volunteering my entire life to being a witness to this shit?”

  145. 145.

    Bluegirlfromwyo

    @FelonyGovt: That’s not entirely fair. Cutting taxes and buying weapons with money we no longer have is an approximation of governing. Not a good one, but still…

  146. 146.

    Ruckus

    @rp:

    He’s not been reduced to that, he always was that. He just had a voice that carried, not one that said anything worth doodly squat.

  147. 147.

    Soprano2

    I am so thrilled, all my employees at the pub will be eligible to sign up for a shot on March 29th, and everyone in MO will be eligible on April 9th. Things are going in the right direction for sure. I cannot imagine the vaccination hell we’d be in if Trump  had been re-elected. *shudder shudder shudder

  148. 148.

    J R in WV

    @debbie:

    They canceled Ellen Degeneres long before 9/11.

    They tried to, are still trying to, but Ellen appears to have overcome their whole effort, so far. And has made enough money that they can’t really harm her, she could just move to Geneva or Paris, or anywhere like that and be happy for the rest of her life. Like Tina Turner did.

  150. 150.

    Ken

    @Richard Guhl: Since when did kindness become a bad thing?

    About five or six years ago they were mocking empathy, as I recall.  But the peak was probably last year when someone attacked Biden by comparing him to Mr. Rogers.

  152. 152.

    persistentillusion

    @Starfish: ​
      It’s Rep Marc Snyder who lives in Manitou Springs where RMJ is legal, so there is no excuse for him to not know that liquor stores and dispensaries are cash-intensive businesses. Liquor stores can establish bank accounts, dispensaries can’t.

  153. 153.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: “Political correctness” was originally an unironic Communist term meaning exactly that–correct behavior according to Marxist-Leninist principles. At some point in the 1970s or so, left/liberal people started using it with gentle irony as a critique of people on their own side whose ideological take on everything was completely robotic. Then in the late 1980s conservatives seized on it as a focus for moral panic and completely skunked the term.

    “Cancel culture” I think initially appeared as a very similar jibe at people who dogpiled reflexively on the politically suspect on Tumblr and Twitter. Then it went through the same kind of appropriation.

  156. 156.

    Matt McIrvin

    @geg6: Thomas Frank isn’t the loony left; at this point he’s part of the fake-left right, along with Greenwald, Stoller, Taibbi, etc. He has more of a centrist image while most of these guys pretend to be radicals, but it’s the same tendency.

  160. 160.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Delk:

    Funny that it is never cancel culture when it is any one of the numerous christian boycotts. 

    Silly Delk!  Those are the right kinds of boycotts!

  161. 161.

    dnfree

    @Soprano2: Bill Maher has certainly said outrageous things, but what his show got canceled for wasn’t one of them. He said it wasn’t accurate to refer to the hijackers as cowards, because even if it was a bad cause, they were personally courageous. I agreed.  You could call them a lot of things, but “cowardly” wasn’t one of them.

  164. 164.

    Ruckus

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    Or business by a bunch of immigrants  who get paid under(or over) the table in cash for many reasons, some not quite so legal, but it can be a way for that business to not pay all those extra tax thingies. A lot of the world still exists in a cash world. Where I live in socal a lot of people pay in cash at the supermarket, a lot. Where I last lived, in an upscale area, almost no one I ever saw did. When I had my bike store I expected to have to deal with a lot of cash, I almost never saw any, it was credit cards all the way. It was an upscale area. Closest housing had SF Bay access, every house had a dock for their boat.

  165. 165.

    Baud

    @Ken:

    I’d expect the Trump vaccine to be full of hot air.  Side effects include embolisms and death.

    Since “balloon juice” is an euphemism for “hot air”, I nominate your second sentence for the rotating tag.

  166. 166.

    Another Scott

    @Matt McIrvin: Yup.

    Similarly with “fake news”.  It was and is a real thing, but TFG and his enablers took it and ran with it to try to discredit real news that they don’t like.

    They can’t make up good memes of their own, so they poison ours.

    Cheers,

    Scott.

  167. 167.

    Just One More Canuck

    @Matt McIrvin: People who complain about ‘political correctness’ and ‘cancel culture’ simply want to be able to go through life being an asshole without being called an asshole

  170. 170.

    Jay

    @Ruckus:

    when my Grandfather passed, there was a trunk of cash in the basement.

    As a plumber, for some jobs, he got paid in cash. So he socked it away.

    As a Depression survivor, he didn’t trust Banks with all his money, and for good reason.

  172. 172.

    PST

    @different-church-lady:

    under Trump we’d all have been vaccinated by now, but the needles would be filled with Clorox.

    I’m sorry but I just can’t agree. Under Trump, we would all be entitled to a Clorox shot, but 90 percent of us would still be waiting for ours.

  173. 173.

    Citizen Alan

    @Kent: ​ 

    Yes, but again, those are all meant to attack things Democrats are for. I mean, if it could be proven statistically that getting a college education caused young people to become more conservative (rather than more liberal as is usually the case), don’t you think the GQP would be spendthrift in supporting higher ed? And I’m convinced that 90% or more of GQP opposition to abortion rights is just for the rhetorical edge of being able to call Dems “babykillers” at will.

  175. 175.

    Kent

    @Gin & Tonic:@Kent: Next, I’m sure you’ll explain to her that a $2,000 tax refund means that she provided the government with an interest-free loan.

    Well, it was mostly stimulus money that she never got the first time around because the IRS didn’t know she existed (this was the first time she has ever filed).  Only about $200 was actual refund from overpayment of taxes.  I told her not to get used to it because it won’t happen again.  Actually come to think of it, she still has another $1400 check coming.  I’m not sure if that will come separately or if she’ll have to get that as part of her 2021 tax return in spring 2022.

  176. 176.

    Kent

    @Citizen Alan:

    @Kent: ​

    Yes, but again, those are all meant to attack things Democrats are for. I mean, if it could be proven statistically that getting a college education caused young people to become more conservative (rather than more liberal as is usually the case), don’t you think the GQP would be spendthrift in supporting higher ed? And I’m convinced that 90% or more of GQP opposition to abortion rights is just for the rhetorical edge of being able to call Dems “babykillers” at will.

    No, it’s to lock in the Catholic and Evangelical vote for the GOP.  First convince them in the pews that abortion is the single biggest moral issue on the planet.  Then convince them that they have a moral obligation to vote GOP because of abortion.  Works like a charm.  I have a shitload of fundie white working class relatives who have fallen for it.

  177. 177.

    Ruckus

    @rp:

    Platform reduced – yes it has, there is only so much crap most people can listen to, enough reached their limit of crap coming from him. And it’s quite possible that he stepped in it enough times that he can’t get the stench to go away.

    Reputation – that depends upon the person holding that reputation up or down. More people who got to the point of understanding that glenn had reached the point of saying crap every time he opened his mouth that they no longer hold his reputation as being good, decent, honorable, factual, useful. IOW he sunk his own reputation by opening his mouth and letting words come out, because the menu of words he utters sucks.

    Is that enough words that don’t need to be uttered to say that glenn sucks donkey balls?

  178. 178.

    germy

    Glem's primary purpose on twitter lately is to workshop whatever's going to be Tucker's opening segment later that evening.

    — Zeddy (@Zeddary) March 17, 2021

  181. 181.

    Ruckus

    @Jay:

    That may play another part, the don’t trust banks bit.

    I know someone who helped set up what would actually end up being banks in Central American, which didn’t have many or any for normal people. The concept of any extra money didn’t/doesn’t exist for many people in many parts of the world, they have no real need for a bank. Except that banks can do more than just store money, loans are an integral part of banking, but if the bank doesn’t make any loans that have some risk, there will never be a reasonable economic system for all, as the only people who would get loans don’t actually need them. Most of us do need loans, as we don’t work in a system that allows a lot of us to have extra, far more often we work in a system that allows most only to exist. A decent system allows everyone to grow and do more than survive. Banks are a part of that, but one in which people of lessor means often can’t partake, creating a circle of organized failure. And often it’s the “system” that fails, not the people. Banks can be part of the success or part of the failure, but usually being part of the failure isn’t good business practice. It is somewhat a balancing act, with a good premise being in the middle, and a bad is being at either end. In many times/places, banks have been on the high end of the failure curve, a place that can be financially secure but, is not the premise of their existence. But like all structure, being too weak is rather easy to cause failure to one side or the other. A bank that takes no risk fails the greater good, one that takes too much risk fails itself.

  182. 182.

    different-church-lady

    @Kent:

    I told her not to get used to it because it won’t happen again.

    True of so many things…

  183. 183.

    Citizen Alan

    @Kent: ​
     

    Catholics yes (for reasons which theologically elude me) but Evangelicals didn’t give a shit about abortion until the IRS started going after the tax exempt status of all-white bible colleges, at which point a cabal of big-time evangelical preachers (all of whom had a history of being white supremacists) formed the Moral Majority. They call us babykillers because they can’t get away with calling us n-lovers anymore.

  184. 184.

    Geminid

    @Citizen Alan: I read of a poll of Southern Baptist clergy taken not long after Roe that showed that a majority had no problem with the legal regime set out in that decision. That changed very quickly. By the end of that decade, a conservative faction had taken control of the denomination and then it’s seminaries. Resistance to women’s rights and rights of gay people were used by the political preachers to gain the upper hand in their denomination and the poltical sphere. In a sense, they were racing Independent  redistricting Baptists like Jerry Falwell to the bottom. There is still pushback by less conservative Southern Baptists like Russell Moore. And defections. Well known baptist figure [woman] recently announced that she no longer considered herself a member of the denomination.

  185. 185.

    Geminid

    @Geminid: the Baptist woman I refer to above is named Beth Moore. No relation Russell Moore that I know of. She is well known among evangelical women. She and Russell Moore differ from Southern Baptist leadership not so much on doctrinal grounds as on the matter of politicization of the church. The embrace of trump by church leaders is a particular sore point with them. Baptists used to have a strong tradition of separation of church and state, dating back to when they and other dissenters got pushed around by the Church of England.

  186. 186.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @germy: My over-the-range nuke stopped working about a month ago. Just stopped. No power, no lights, nada. So I did some googling and figured one of the fuses had probably blown, & was preparing to open up the case & replace them…when my bro (much handier a man than I) said, You better make sure to drain the capacitor first, or you might get killed.

    So I decided I’d borrow a smaller nuke til I could call a repairman.

    About a day after I muttered this intention aloud, the damn thing came back on. Lights, power & everthang.

    Don’t tell me they aren’t watching. Or at least listening.

    The bachelor bought a parrot for companionship. But try as he might he could not cure the bird (which had once belonged to a salty old sailor) of blurting out the vilest streams of cursewords at the slightest provocation.

    One day when this happened he snatched the bird from its perch and stuffed it into the freezer. After he (& the bird!) had cooled down, he extricated it and set it back upon the perch.

    For several hours the parrot was completely silent. Then it cleared its throat and said, May I ask a question? When his owner nodded, he continued, May I ask what the chicken in there did to displease you?

  187. 187.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Jay: As a Depression survivor, he didn’t trust Banks with all his money, and for good reason.

    My (future) father worked in a small store in the early 1930s while he finished high school. He was saving up to buy a class ring and a new suit to graduate in. After the bank failed he had to borrow a jacket for graduation – and he never did get a class ring.

    Years later I tried unsuccessfully to talk him into getting a credit card instead of carrying around wads of cash. The one time he went into debt – to buy the house I grew up in – he scrimped and saved to pay off the mortage years early in fear that the bank would fail and the note would be foreclosed on.

    Hard to overstate the level of financial trauma Depression-era survivors went through, or its long-term effects.

  189. 189.

    Kristine

    @Uncle Cosmo:

    So I did some googling and figured one of the fuses had probably blown, & was preparing to open up the case & replace them…when my bro (much handier a man than I) said, You better make sure to drain the capacitor first, or you might get killed.

    Is replacing the light bulb in the same DANGER category? I bought a new bulb for my cheap GE countertop model, but haven’t tried to replace it yet.

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