I wrote this about a spectacularly dumb candidate tweet that simply would not let me rest. https://t.co/x3GSq9dH8b
— David Roth (@david_j_roth) May 28, 2021
David Roth, emerging national treasure, at Defector:
… It is both an uneasy and an incredibly easy time to be an ambitious Republican politician. A generation of hothouse freaks bred for and molded by the conservative political ecosystem are running up against the realization that their base cares nothing about the ludicrously shitty and unpopular policies they’ve been pushing for generations, and also hates their tricksy and smug debate-club rhetoric, and also hates them, really, mostly for the usual reasons that people dislike Yalies but also because they are boring. But what has replaced all that professional stuff is just trolling and recrimination and bile; there is no real reasoning to it, or with it.
What this base wants to see is itself, reflected in shades of gunmetal and gold, because it does not trust and cannot care about anything but that reflection. This is the language that Jenner is trying to learn to speak, the uncanny patois of sunburned small-business tyrants and seething but secretly bored bosses and aggrieved middle-management. The task before Jenner is to learn the things that the deranged hornball grifters and serial antagonizers of customer service professionals and sloppy hair-trigger affluenza cases hear all day from their televisions, and then learn to say it back to them. Trump was able to do this because, for all his wealth, he was exactly as small of spirit and vacant of principle and jealously selfish as the people that idolized him, and just as voracious a consumer of the same terrible television. For all the other things that might hold Jenner back as a candidate, she does at least seem to have all that going for her.
But she is not there yet. It is something like the point that Canceling The Cancel Culture and Waking Up The Woke don’t really mean anything. They’re statements made up of recognizable words, but they’re more about the sound than the shape. It is a way of saying “I, Caitlyn Jenner, am as upset about whatever these things might mean or be, as you are, in something like the same way,” and loading that I Would Also Like To Express My Fondness For That Particular Beer falseness up with a barely implicit promise to hurt their shared enemies. That it comes out so clotted and clanging and strange—that it somehow looks so ugly on the page, what with the random capitalization and that grating extraneous comma between the two consecutive “cancels”—is part of the point, both in how it consciously apes Trump’s own grandparental syntax and copy and because of the specific way it is trying to pander. It is a message from a candidate, but that candidate is both vapid enough and advised by sufficiently cynical professionals to know that the message will land better if it looks like a Facebook comment left under a Fox News video by a senescent shut-in, or like a text message from one bored rich grump to another.
This would all be a lot easier to laugh at if Trump hadn’t won, and if his presidency hadn’t ended the way it did, and if his legacy wasn’t being carried forward in the ways that it is. But Jenner is bad enough at this, both in terms of her wholly absent talent for the game and toweringly checked-out rich person’s laziness, that there’s still a certain bleak comedy in watching her flail away at trying to appear as aggrieved and fatuous as she is. “I will wake up the woke with an alarm clock called reality,” Jenner will read, robotic and blinking, from some teleprompter somewhere, at some point. “And there is no snooze bar.” …
And there will be some more applause, and then it will peter out, and in the moment before she starts speaking again, the absently vengeful and proudly vacuous people listening to her, all these little tyrants wrecked by leisure and softened unto death by their own laziness, will perk up—less because of anything the candidate might say and more in the hope that they might catch some glimpse of themselves in the blank, reflective surface of it as it goes by.
Parfigliano
Jenner is a joke. A sad pathetic unfunny useless trashy joke of a human being.
craigie
To be fair, jokes are what the GQP wants now as representatives, so she has that going for her.
rikyrah
Joy-Ann (Pro-Democracy) Reid ? (@JoyAnnReid) tweeted at 11:58 PM on Sun, May 30, 2021:
Tulsa Burning is another Stanley Nelson masterpiece and a chilling reminder of how terrifyingly common it was for Black people to be lynched by January 6-style mobs in America. Just breathtakingly common and accepted in polite white society. And we still have no anti-lynching law
(https://twitter.com/JoyAnnReid/status/1399228854405898240?s=03)
Soprano2
Was just reading on Twitter that Flynn said we need a Myanmar-like coup to put TFG back in power. He used to be a general. Holy cow….
Origuy
Texas Democratic legislators blocked the anti-voter bill by walking out and denying the Republicans a quorum.
Mallard Filmore
@Soprano2:
Is this enough to kick the FBI into arresting Flynn for sedition? The evidence will end up air tight.
Video reveals Michael Flynn calling for coup like ‘what happened in Myanmar’ to replace Biden with Donald Trump
https://www.rawstory.com/mike-flynn-qanon/
david
@Origuy: The old Oregon Republican ploy.
Soprano2
@Mallard Filmore: I don’t know if that’s covered by the 1st Amendment or not. Is it illegal to just say it?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Soprano2: And the Near Sheriff fired his ass.
Origuy
For a change of pace, The Skye Boat Song, performed by the Choral Scholars of University College, Dublin.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Soprano2: If he was active duty, I think it would be illegal, but he’s not.
Parfigliano
@Soprano2: Even though Flynn is retired cant he be called back to active and then Court Martial his ass? He’s openly threating the chain of command.
craigie
@Origuy:
At this point, I am surprised they honored the idea of a quorum or of any rules at all.
Mallard Filmore
@Soprano2: For you and me to say this, I think the 1st Amendment covers it. A high ranking retired general in front of thousands should push this outside the bounds.
No government that allows speech like this to be taken seriously will last long.
Kent
Trump actually spent at least 2 decades building his political brand by relentless self-promotion. Through his TV shows. His relentless brand marketing. His relentless tweeting once twitter was invented. And through his relentless media savvy.
All these wannabes are trying to short-circuit the whole process and leap to the front of the line. Not going to happen.
Just Chuck
How is Flynn still a Retired General and not in Leavenworth? This is as flagrant as it gets.
Origuy
Is there any language in the world more suited to singing than Irish? I wish I knew it.
Mo Ghille Mear
West of the Rockies
Trumpian Republican politicians seem to want to be comedians. They wander the stage like Seinfeld and spew their oh so not-funny bits. I think it may have started with Palin who actually told jokes (hockey mom/pit bull comparisons). Rubio and Cruz and Gaetz, et al, all do it.
Also, not to looks-shame, but Jenner certainly has that 65-year-old trying to look 30 thing going on. It’s like Reagan at 75 not having any gray hair. It’s just off-putting. YMMV.
mrmoshpotato
Ah, some late night jackassery.
prostratedragon
@Mallard Filmore: Elsewhere the charge of conduct unbecoming was also mentioned. That might defeat a 1st Amendment defense, as lord knows an officer should not say such things under any circumstance.
NotMax
@Origuy
Any set of syllables coming from this larynx.
;)
The Dangerman
I’m nearly 6’ 7” and, as you might expect, I’ve played a fair amount of basketball (and beach volleyball). I’ve played with a number of pros taller than me but have only felt tiny twice.
RIP Mark Eaton.
For the curious, the other was a guy named Eric Ball. Bigger than Eaton. 7-6 or 7-7, I forget which. I think he got drafted but don’t think he ever made the league.
Eaton is part of my favorite bar bet question. In what city did Kareem Abdul Jabbar break Chamberlains record? No one gets it and then I double down and say it was over Eaton. Still don’t get it because it happened in Vegas.
Cameron
Know any purity lefties? Here’s the perfect gift for your armchair revolutionaries! https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/196993/trot-wars
Cameron
@Origuy: More, please! Reading/hearing about these kinds of actions is a real dose of adrenaline after reading/hearing all the stories about how Dems are getting hosed. Definitely a good example for the rest of the country.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@The Dangerman: Very sad, I remember when he came for a recruiting trip to UCLA and I saw him on Bruin Walk with Larry Brown.
JoyceH
@Cameron:
The Texas Dems bought us some time. Now corporate Texas needs to step up and threaten to turn off the money spigot, and we need to start talking boycott if they don’t.
Anya
@Soprano2: It’s really scary when you consider our worship of military and the way officers advance through the ranks, if Flynn’s career is an indication of how any lunatic can became a high ranking military person.
Cameron
@JoyceH: I’m not in TX, but I have 2 brothers and 2 sisters who are. Will be sounding them out later today.
r€nato
LOL oh boy was that nailed. Will have to read this guy regularly.
My folks ONLY befriend people who share their partisan politics (very reactionary right-wing straight-from-FNC) and this one couple, the husband was a very boorish opinionated loudmouth who was NOTORIOUS for getting all sorts of shit for free because they would find one tiny thing wrong (even if it wasn’t actually “wrong”) and then pester the company or vendor until they just gave them their money back and told them to keep the thing(s) and just go the fuck away.
Carpeting, furniture, things large and small they got for free by just being shitty about it for long enough. I didn’t wish death on them of course but I was not terribly sad when they passed (they were terrible people for many other reasons besides this terrible trait of theirs and their shitty politics).
r€nato
@Soprano2: Curtis LeMay was regarded after WW2 as a war hero (though some would say the firebombing of Tokyo was a war crime and it certainly points to his monstrousness). LeMay had a huge hard-on for a nuclear first strike on the USSR; as for American casualties from a retaliatory strike, he brushed it off as, “get[ting] our hair a little mussed.” Later on he was FURIOUS with JFK during the Cuban Missile Crisis for not endorsing action to take out the Soviet missiles there. We now know that Cuba had clearance to launch those missiles if the US attempted such a thing.
MacArthur – who lost the Phillippines through his incompetence thereby condemned US troops to capture and torture by the Japanese – wanted to nuke China during the Korean war and did not respect at all the command authority of the POTUS, including publicly dissing him. Thankfully Truman fired his ass.
Insanity and sociopathy among the highest ranks is not an unknown quality in the US military.
Ruckus
@Anya:
I just wrote up a piece to answer some of your comment but it’s late and I’m not sure I should answer this somewhat complicated situation, it’s been a long time since I was in the military. I wanted you to know and I’ll review it tomorrow to see if I want to post it.
Ruckus
@Anya:
rEnato at #30 answered your question in a roundabout way. There are crazy people in the officer core at high levels. Very crazy. But it’s how they actually do their job that counts, not how crazy they are on their own time, unless that interferes with what they are supposed to accomplish. They have a right to vote for who they want and as long as they do their job fairly and responsibly they can be as big of an ass as they want. I’d bet Flynn was at least not dangerous when on active duty. Now however he’s a full blown lunatic. The military has some control over that, he is a retired officer, not one kicked out. He was not all that and a bag of chips though, there was a lot of doubt about his loyalty and style of leadership towards the end of his active duty. I think it’s pretty obvious that he’s not the great US military officer that he likely thinks he is.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ruckus:
I don’t know, Obama fired him.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
Looking at the mishegoss at the top link, it appears we may have a new poster-child for the less-competent end of the Dunning-Kruger effect. In what field other than the decathlon has this person ever proved any competence?
satby
@Origuy: By one of Ireland’s greatest poets, but it’s not the love song it seems:
satby
@satby: The link was in the quote already, I neglected to remove it before the edit window closed, but it’s just a description of Ireland’s regions. Not the Battle of the Boyne.
wvng
Roth truly rivals Pierce in his ability to skewer with prose. Great stuff.
Anya
@Ruckus: It honestly scares the crap out of me that someone like Flynn went as high as Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. Granted, he got fired but how did he advance so high, I mean, unless he became crazy in latter years? What you said, assures me but at the same time increases my anxiety. Not sure if that makes sense. If we ever elect someone with Trump’s cult like appeal and demagoguery, who was less crass and possessed a bit more intelligence, work ethics and not as appalling, we’d be fucked. We will easily turn into a military dictatorship.
cmorenc
@Origuy:
So if Gov Abbott responds by calling a Special Session of the Leg, will the Democrats’ maneuver of walking out to deny a quorum still work to stop the voting suppression bill?
Gvg
@Anya: he may have drifted crazy because he was fired, denied further promotion and passed over for other officers who appeared better to his superior. I get the impression he crave attention too.
Gvg
@cmorenc: more than a decade ago, democrats in Texas did this and had to go into hiding, because the governor was looking for them to arrest and drag back to the capital. I think that actually happened. So apparently Texas law is really strict on quorums, but it’s not a long term solution. Also I had the impression the Texas legislature had changed the laws after that.
trnc
“Way-past-their-prime reality star” is an emerging resume item for republicans.
trnc
How long before this is featured on Carlson as a real training tool for libs?
ETA: Did you find this because you’re a gamer? I was in a semi serious gamer group before the pan times, and some of us kept it going with Board Game Arena.
Geminid
@Anya: Michael Flynn made his reputation as General Stanley McChrystal’s intelligence deputy, both when McCystal headed the Joint Special Operations command in the mid-2000s and when McCrystal served as Afghanistan commander. He was evidently good at those jobs, but Flynn had a soldier he respected as a boss who could correct his worse tendencies. But Flynn was a bad choice to head the DIA, and pissed just about everyone off by the time President Obama had him canned. Flynn’s hostile approach in that job presaged his current destructiveness.
Interestingly, Flynn’s former boss McCrystal has taken a different political path. After the Sandy Hook massacre, McCrystal called for a ban on military-grade weapons, or “assault weapons.” According to Wikipedia, McCrystal was trump’s first choice for Defense Secretary, but turned the job down. And last October, McCrystal endorsed Joe Biden for President.
LiminalOwl
@satby: Thank you! I did not know any of this (about the specific song, I mean; I knew more generally about political messages masquerading as love songs).
jimmiraybob
“…a barely implicit promise to hurt their shared enemies.”
Trump’s real victory-cinching ability was in being very explicit and sincere in assuring his flock that he wanted to really really hurt the enemies of the people. No weak ass “awaken the wokesters” mumbo jumbo. So far, it seems to me, the real Repub contender in 2024, the one that has demonstrated real loyalty to the Don and that can be as ruthless as the MAGA need and want, is DeSantis. I believe that he even has a body count to brag about. Anybody else get the vibe that he’s the killer-type that they really really want?
Subsole
@craigie: I expect they did so solely because not honoring the quorum would have opened the law up to an ironclad legal challenge.
It was not out of principle, bet that.
Subsole
@Kent: I dunno man.
I think the line got a LOT shorter, lo these past five years…
They’ve had a taste of the puro, now. You don’t have to be Trump, you just have to promise you’ll remind them of him.
Urban Suburbanite
@jimmiraybob:
He did help to boost the Covid death count, and I’ve seen people gushing over his support of their vehicular homicide fantasies.
Subsole
@West of the Rockies:
Earlier. Limbaugh. That’s pretty much where it took off. That’s the template they all ape.
Subsole
@r€nato: Patton has entered the chat.
Also, I believe McArthur got his start riding down WWI veterans protesting for their back-pay. Supposedly kept one guy’s ear, as a memento.
Subsole
@Gvg: Yep. They went and hid out in New Mexico. Early 2000s, I think.
Subsole
@trnc: What did you play?
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@Subsole: kkklay travis has a large diaper to fill.
DCA
Roth has it dead to rights. I strongly recommend Rachel Maddow’s podcast about Spiro Agnew, not just as a good story but also a portrait of someone else who used the same meanspirited approach and was, as a result, hailed as “a great American” (I heard this at the time).
Origuy
@satby: So many great songs written about a rather weak man. Bonnie Prince Charlie made a lot of mistakes during the Jacobite Rebellion; one of the worst was the time and place of the Battle of Culloden. The aftermath was the death of the Highland way of life.
Ella in New Mexico
@Origuy: @Gvg:
Y’all welcome to come hang out in NM, Texas Dems, stay until the legislature adjourns. And come on back everytime the Governor tries to convene a special session. Shut the motherfuckers down.
It’s a safer and saner world than your state is and we have some beautiful sights to visit, now that COVID is receding.
Sister Golden Bear
There’s
a reasonmultiple reasons the vast majority of us trans people despise Jenner as an idiotic, absolutely blinded by her own privilege, traitorous quisling who doing immense harm to us. The latest:Caitlyn Jenner wants a “commission” to determine which trans girls are “truly trans”
Some of the most prominent trans activists tried educating her after she came out, but can’t educate someone who doesn’t want to listen.
The Pale Scot
@Origuy:
I prefer the studio version simply because of the wild eyes a couple of the choir members have, like they’re looking around for a bowl of blue mud to slap on
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxjvNUNXhkU
The Pale Scot
@r€nato:
The US had no ability to repulse the Japanese in the Philippines, there simply weren’t the supplies for extended operations, and nothing was going to be coming from the US for at least a year. Particularly because of limited supplies of petrol. Even if the the collection of obsolete and on the verge of obsolete fighter planes could have survived for more than a day, they would have been grounded for lack of fuel shortly.
He can be criticized for moving what supplies he had to the shorelines where invasion was expected, where they were quickly over run and captured. If he had done what the keyboard commandos suggest and move all the supplies to the interior and prepare for a guerrilla war, he could have soaked up a large portion of the Nippon war effort. At the cost of turning the islands into a simulacrum of the Partisan War on the Eastern front. Except I believe it would have been worse, hundreds of thousands slaughtered by the Kempeita searching for the partisans
ChrisGrrr
@wvng: Yup. He’s an excellent writer.