Let's be clear: A lot of Republicans think that because Mitt Romney was "respectable," that Democrats owed him the Presidency and they were furious that the black guy had the nerve to actually campaign against him and win an election.
This is who you always were. https://t.co/KjlDgaJXqL
— What Biden Has Done (@What46HasDone) August 18, 2022
Y’all may remember, I am a charter member of the ‘Not A Willard ‘Mitt’ Romney Fan’ organization, but many people are saying this. Many people!
Mitt Romney made workers build him a stage he used to fire them all. He was a vulture capitalist masquerading as a GOP moderate. He politicized Benghazi while the embassy fires were still burning and then smiled as he walked away. How in the fuck were we supposed to treat him? https://t.co/zritHtsG3W
— Ragnarok Lobster (@eclecticbrotha) August 18, 2022
imagine being emotionally invested in Mitt Romney the world's most boring asshole? like "oh no the media was mildly mean to a GOP Nominee, Fascism is the only reasonable reaction" by that standard every Democrat should be the fucking Joker by now
— Henry the Dog (@DogHerny) August 18, 2022
Romney is a classic opportunist. When he was in MA, he was pro-gay marriage and all for what would be the blueprint for Obamacare. When he ran for the GOP nomination, he was against all of these and catered to the racism of the right.
— Forsetti X (@ForsettisCreed) August 18, 2022
For all the good it did him…
To best of my recollection, this devil is who treated Mitt Romney extremely badly, called him embarrassing names, made him eat a crow-flavored shit sandwich&grovel like a dog4job he never offered him. But yeah, it was the way Dems treated Mitt that radicalized Republicans. GTFOH. pic.twitter.com/KcvqTkIqot
— Kenny BooYah! 🖖🏾 (@KwikWarren) August 18, 2022
My gosh, I wrote a bunch of the Obama campaign ads against Romney. Some of the hardest-hitting spots we produced never even aired. We treated Mitt way better than Republicans treated us. Trump, on the other hand, trolled Mitt mercilessly and humiliated the hell out of him. https://t.co/8coGasTqaf
— Greg Pinelo (@gregpinelo) August 18, 2022
an influential contingent of republicans think that the deal with 2012 was they nominated mitt romney, a moderate who they didn't like, and in return the democrats would lose on purpose. they've never recovered from obama running the world's gentlest class war race against him https://t.co/UcDoagY0fj
— your himbo boyfriend (@swolecialism) August 18, 2022
lol imagine watching the 2012 presidential election where it's romney and obama, just two huge nerds being nerds, saying nerd shit, and your nerd lost, and then saying "and that's why i'm a fascist now"
you absolute weirdo
— World Famous Art Thief (@CalmSporting) August 18, 2022
mitt romney wasn’t savagely attacked. mitt romney presented a very standard version of conservatism and the american people said “i don’t want that” and *that* is what republicans are upset about. and so they turned to demolishing democracy.
look in a fucking mirror one time
— World Famous Art Thief (@CalmSporting) August 18, 2022
Baud
These people are always looking to blame anyone but Republicans for the way Republicans are.
Cacti
Blaming the black guy is the oldest American tradition of them all.
SpaceUnit
Who the hell is Peter Cook? Just some rando douche?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Nobody ever asked to see MY birth certificate! Ha ha ha!
Scout211
Thanks, Obama.
Really, sincerely, THANK YOU! ❤️
moops
So, question . Romney wins that election, we still end up with Trump ?
SpaceUnit
I know it sounds crazy but I’m starting to think that treating Mitt Romney badly might be code for electing a black guy.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: Only Democrats have agency. You know this.
MattF
RWNJs were also radicalized by the way the evil libs treated Robert Bork. And the way Obama made a joke about Donald Trump.
Danielx
@Cacti:
In the western variant, it’s blame the Indian.
Villago Delenda Est
Mittens Romney has always been a douche. The treatment of Seamus alone is reason to consider him a douche. Not to mention all the other shit that Ragnarok Lobster pointed out.
Gin & Tonic
@SpaceUnit: Yup.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@MattF: All versions of “you made me hit you.”
Redshift
What a shock – these guys got “radicalized” all the way from “elections are illegitimate unless we win” to “elections are illegitimate unless we win, so let’s overthrow the government.”
topclimber
The Dem attack line on Mitt’s vulture capitalism has been around since Ted Kennedy used it successfully when Romney ran against him for senator. That was damn near 30 years ago.
Cook is executive vp and communications officer for the American Banking Association. If his circle is getting radicalized, watch out world. They might refuse the next handout the government offers them.
Gvg
I think this guy is an idiot and whomever is pointing him out to Democrats is just trying to outrage post to us much like certain media do to republican fools. My recollection is Romney wasn’t that exciting to Republican voters and i doubt there are more than a few who hold these claimed veiws. Possibly his personal friends, some of whom might be called influential but not significant numbers.
In othet words, bullshit. Not even political party bullshit, but some pundit or attention seekers own special bullshit.
I’ll bet Romney knows better.
Baud
We treated Trump far worse than we treated Romney. Can’t wait to see what horrors that will justify.
Baud
@Gvg: Right. We should ask who this Peter Cook guy is. If he’s some kind of big shot, then we should be aware that he lacks credibility. If he’s a nobody, then he’s not worth our time.
ETA: Ok, like vaccine deniers, I did my own research. Here’s his twitter bio. Looks to be a nobody. Perhaps even a Russian plant.
Time to start sharing recipes in this thread.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: Witness Kinzinger’s rant about the Meijer thing.
zhena gogolia
@moops: Probably.
Has everyone forgotten the 47%?
Elizabelle
Do we have to take the bait on this one? I don’t think so.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: I guess it’s the day for discussing “reasonable” Republicans.
UncleEbeneezer
Wasn’t the MA healthcare bill passed with a veto-proof majority? Also, I believe Scott Lemieux has posted several times about the world of difference between that law and the ACA (spoiler: No, the MA plan was not all that similar to the structure of Obamacare).
topclimber
@Baud: Are we talking about the same guy?
Sadly, he seems to have some journalistic chops, in a Bloomberg kind of way.
Villago Delenda Est
@Baud: No blue check mark. That’s a tell.
CarolPW
@Baud: Peter Cook was brilliant in Bedazzled, but he’s dead Baud.
Ken
@Baud: Cthulhu 2024!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Really, I though Vulture Capitalism is the hard left of the Republican Parties these days along with War Mongers like Bolton and Cheney (silly libertard Romney thinks killing workers is only a accidental result of quest for profits, not an end on to itself like a TRUE Conservative does)
Old Man Shadow
Republicans never have agency. It’s always someone else’s fault for why they lash out and act out in the worst ways.
It’s the same shit abusers say to their victims.
Old School
@Baud: It already justifies January 6th in their minds.
Steeplejack
This looks like a good place to drop a bleg for the night shift coming on.
Last week I bought a Fitbit Charge 5. I’m getting used to wearing it all the time and reading up on all the features. Job 1: I changed the clock face to something less obnoxious (I went with Retroflip).
I’m asking for people’s tips or “one neat trick” type things to ease the learning curve. I’m mostly interested in using it to track steps/distance for walking. Probably will check out the other features, but that’s the main thing. Also interested in any “I never thought I would like x” items. Thanks in advance.
UncleEbeneezer
Having a tough day here. Our long-time pet-sitter texted us to let her know that she is using the harness/support that we gave her to assist her elderly/dying dog. I’m glad it’s helping her but it just reminded me of our loss of Juniper almost two years ago and how hard that was and is bringing back all the memories of her last days :(
Baud
@topclimber:
Doubt that’s him.
VOR
I call bullshit. Romney was not beloved of the far right, he was viewed as too likely to compromise. And after the 2012 election the RNC did an after action report, aka “autopsy” report, where they called for moderation and inclusion.
And then their voters chose Trump’s message instead.
Finally, are they saying Republican voters aren’t responsible for their own actions? Do only Democrats have agency?
Baud
@UncleEbeneezer:
I’ve had days like that.
Mike E
Oh I think I read that book, The Unbearable Whiteness Of Being. 500 pages of imagined victimhood, fun.
trollhattan
“Mitt Romney is the Robert Bork of George W Bushes.”
Now fuck off with your weak-ass “reap the whirlwind” shit. Hey, I know, go find us one 2022-edition Republican Romney fan. You can find me at the bar.
Urza
@zhena gogolia: 47% and Binders full of women are what did Romney in. Didn’t really need to do more than show clips of him talking.
evodevo
They were radicalized because of ….RMoney? Give me a break…the Teabagger phenom started as soon as Obama was elected…at least by 2009, and they were already fired up for anti-ACA demonstrations by 2010…it’s been ongoing ever since. Trumpy just gave them permission to go all out…
mrmoshpotato
Really? Romney? Do they know what decade it is?
Time for dinner and a bike ride.
zhena gogolia
@UncleEbeneezer: That’s tough. I’m sorry. Try to remember all the good times you had with her.
Hoodie
@Baud: These are the kind of posts that I’ve grown to hate. There was a similar one on LGM, just another random Twitter asshole with a stinking opinion that is of no significance whatsoever. Like others have said, MAGA types hated Romney when he ran in 2012, thus just voted for him because he wasn’t The Black Guy, “double Guantanamo” and he was endorsed by Trump. Therefore, there’s next to zero chance that treatment of Romney by Dems motivated anyone to vote for Trump. They would have preferred to vote for Trump in 2012.
zhena gogolia
@Urza: Please proceed, governor.
Ken
Now I’m half expecting an announcement from the American Banking Association association tomorrow regarding a change in their executive board.
topclimber
@Baud: It is hard to tell. His first Twitter descriptor is uncool, which is the classic definition of a Bloomberg journalist.
The headshots are decidedly different, that’s for sure.
trollhattan
It’s nighttime in Crimea.
topclimber
@Ken: Much to my chagrin, failed Presidential candidate Baud has pointed out that this is probably not the guy.
Urza
@zhena gogolia: Forgot that burn. That was a good one, though being about foreign policy I think it was more the burn than what he actually replied with that mattered.
Suzanne
Hot damn. Peter Cook is dumb.
It occurs to me that Republicans, hell, white men in general, do not know how to compete. Romney lost because he couldn’t compete. There’s no shame in that — that’s part of life — but there’s plenty of shame in this sniveling bullshit. Blaming your side’s reprehensible, deplorable behavior on losing a fair fight?! STFU.
FAAFO is my favorite financial disclosure document.
Planetjanet
@trollhattan: Excellent news. That has got to hurt.
Danielx
@zhena gogolia:
Look on the bright side, it will be a short discussion.
Geminid
Republican apologists must have pretty slim pickings if they’re going 10 years back to drag up an injustice that never happened.
zhena gogolia
@trollhattan: Hot damn! Sevastopol! That’s going to leave a mark.
— Says woman who’s slogging through Tolstoy’s stories about the siege
Ken
@topclimber: I object to the word “failed”. Baud has not lost any Presidential election where his name was on the ballot, unlike Romney and TFG.
Hoodie
@topclimber: Yeah, that’s not the guy. He has a different Twitter handle.
sdhays
Something we forget is that Obama was unfair to Romney in the first debate by putting in a lousy performance and tricking Romney and his supporters into thinking they actually had a chance. When Obama mopped the floor with him in the second debate and directly called out his lying, the wind left his sails, never to return.
The disappointment!
Danielx
@Geminid:
What? A black guy got elected and had the absolute audacity to get re-elected? That’s not injustice??!!???
Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)
@zhena gogolia: I think you mean “treasonable Republicans>”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I can’t have illegals cutting my lawn! I’m running for office for Pete’s sake!
topclimber
@Ken: A valid if bootlicking comment. How many write-in votes did he get, huh, huh?
SpaceUnit
I’m looking at Peter Cook’s avatar and imagining him hugging a framed photograph of Romney while tears run down his cheeks.
Baud
@Ken:
“You tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try.”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@SpaceUnit: I’m imagining him lovingly crafting a statue of Dagny Taggart out of mashed potatoes
Kropacetic
It would be one thing if he were simply reelected, that would be fine. But to criticize Rmoney and campaign against him was beyond the pale…
Sister Golden Bear
@trollhattan: Lots of careless smoking going on.
Bugboy
There’s your Mrs. Rmoney shot…
Geminid
@Baud: “They also serve who only stand and wait.”
hueyplong
Another way to look at it is that Obama called Mittens a Republican and GOPers call Mittens a RINO.
They are, this very day, treating Mitt worse than the awful libz do.
This line of attack is even more ridiculous than Trump’s shifting document excuses.
Steeplejack
@topclimber:
There is nothing about @_Peter_Cook on Twitter to suggest that he is anything but some random douche. Your Peter Cook is this guy, as a quick search (and photo comparison with his Wikipedia entry) revealed.
Kropacetic
Never forget that Mitt pioneered the “lie about literally everything” strategy that Trump rode into the White House.
Roger Moore
@MattF:
Yeah, the way they treated Bork was terrible. They asked him tough questions during his committee hearing, then gave him a floor vote even though the committee voted not to advance his nomination. Such savagery. They should have just rubber stamped the guy who was corruptly promised a Supreme Court post in exchange for carrying out the Saturday Night Massacre.
eachother
@Steeplejack: If you walk backward you get younger.
If you break the crystal you can’t get back to the future. Playing a chord using all 88 piano keys may restore you to real time but you may return Baroque.
Tony Jay
@Geminid:
Yeah, but if Obama hadn’t pantsed the candidate of the traditional Republican establishment so badly that he had to go hide in a big pile of money, then the Republican electorate wouldn’t have had the gosh-darned gumption to think they could pick their own candidate next time, would they?
Once again, the radical left fails to understand how Real America works.
narya
@Steeplejack: I switched my Fitbit out for a Misfit, largely because the old Fitbit had to be charged often AND the charging cord/connection was stupidly fiddly. That said, the newer FB’s seem to have improved. Why do I keep using any device for this? Because it’s the tiniest poke to get off my butt to meet my daily goal. Most of the time it’s not an issue–I run or walk nearly every morning, for 4-6 miles–but sometimes on weekends I don’t haul my ass out of bed early enough. I’ve found that maintaining a streak, or hitting the goal, or whatever, is a self-reminder–a post-it note on my wrist–that will be enough to make me go do something on those days. Eventually I’ll get an Apple Watch, at which point I’ll check out their fitness apps for other activities, but the usage will be the same: get off my butt. I admit to a small tick of satisfaction for meeting the goal, but I’m also a bit embarrassed to post this here.
Steeplejack
@UncleEbeneezer:
Condolences. I still get a twinge about the housecat, who died in April 2020. Try to concentrate on the good memories. And see if you can support your petsitter, who seems to be facing some tough decisions ahead.
SpaceUnit
@Tony Jay:
For the record, Obama didn’t literally pull down Mitt’s pants on the debate stage.
prostratedragon
@topclimber: Oh, so maybe he is the devil after all.
Kropacetic
No, Mitt did that himself and Obama called him on it, “Please proceed…”
NotoriousJRT
@Villago Delenda Est: That story and his blurting out in a 2008 primary debate that he wanted to “double Guantanamo” were among the many red flags early on.
Barbara
Every battered spouse in the world has heard the same logic applied to their own victimization, which basicallycomes down to, “It’s your fault I’m a monster.” Peter Cook evidently belongs to the class that thinks that sacrifice is for others and his own journey through life should be unimpeded by other people’s needs. We. Don’t. Owe. You. Anything. I’m sorry voting for the black guy was so hard for you to bear.
Baud
@SpaceUnit:
IMHO Mitts would have better off not wearing pants.
prostratedragon
@prostratedragon: Actually, once you know who it is, this little clip might be more to the point.
David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
The party of personal responsibility wants to blame everyone else for their own racism and antisemitism
SpaceUnit
@Baud:
You would say that.
oatler
@CarolPW:
You can see Cook in “The Rise And Rise of Michael Rimmer” from 1969, a demonically accurate prophecy (can be found on YouTube).
You enjoying that sandwich?
Roger Moore
@Steeplejack:
You can customize the displays so it doesn’t show you things you don’t care about. For example, I never use the feature to track how much water I drink, so I don’t show it.
Citizen Alan
@Urza: While those were factors, you seriously underestimate IMO the extent to which Romney’s Mormonism suppressed turnout among evangelicals.
True story: In 2008, when he was running against McCain, I attended church with my parents for Mothers’ Day services. And the pastor felt the need to interrupt the Mother’s Day sermon to say “And by the way, Mormonism is a Satanic ult.” It was that much of a non sequitur. I thought for a moment that I’d nodded off and had woken up in a completely different sermon! Then, he went back to his usual “wives, submit to your husbands” BS.
Based on that, I genuinely thought it was possible for Obama to carry Mississippi in 2012 because in 2008, he took 11% of the white vote, and it would have only taken 15% to put him over the top. That he did not do so was because thousands of Mississippians who genuinely thought Mitt Romney was in a Satanic cult nevertheless picked him over a black man. It foreshadowed Trump in a way–at this point, I think most evangelicals would willingly take the Mark of the Beast before voting for a Democrat.
Turgidson
@Kropacetic:
This doesn’t get nearly enough attention in my mind. The Mittens Campaign lied fucking nonstop, and kept telling the same ones over and over even after getting called on them numerous times. It was fucking reprehensible. The media and voters have memory holed it because Mittens lost anyway and because we all know what happened in the next GOP primary. But pre-Trump, Mittens was truly in a class by himself in the mendacity Olympics.
Tony Jay
@SpaceUnit:
I doubt if it would have been possible. For my money Mandroid Mitt was born wearing a pair of perfectly creased dress pants and has never gone without. Even his attempts at ‘blue jeans and boots’ were just slipped over the top of them.
Tig, Tag and Bombadil (whatever his kids were called) weren’t so much procreated as exuded from Mitt’s bulging nanite vent.
Steeplejack
@eachother:
Thanks, good to know. Probably safe for the time being, as I have enough trouble walking frontwards.
Citizen Alan
@Geminid: Dude, they’re still ranting about fucking Bork even though he was allowed a full Senate vote despite the committee voting him down, and he was decisively voted down by the full Senate by 58-42 with six Republicans voting against him.
ETA: What Roger Moore said.
Kropacetic
@Turgidson: Missed one point. Mittens was “polite.”
David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
@Roger Moore:
Bork was voted down by 6 republicans. It was a bipartisan rejection. Even the reactionary Boll weevils voted against him en masse.
SpaceUnit
@Tony Jay:
Your conjectures are entirely plausible.
UncleEbeneezer
@Steeplejack: She’s had a real rough go recently, losing one dog a few months ago and now her other one. Also lost her Mom to Covid in 2020.
Roger Moore
@Baud:
You think that about everyone, not least of all yourself.
dm
Someone went nut-picking on twitter and we’re supposed to care?
So, if you actually go to Peter Cook’s twitter whatever-its-called, you can find the original tweet. I was curious, since my first thought was he might be associated with the “Cook Report”, which I see quoted favorably by people writing about politics; if so, he might actually be commenting on something worth knowing about. He’s probably not Cook Report, and he is responding, but only to some twitter rando.
In it, he was responding to some guy responding to George Conway. The thread goes like this:
Which could be sarcasm, it could even be nut-picking itself, except a lot of Peter Cook’s feed is retweets of retweets of National Review articles, so I doubt it’s either of those.
Increasingly lately, when I get a glimpse into the workings of the run-of-them-mill conservative mind, I feel like I’m in a funhouse mirror-maze. I catch glimpses of things that exist in my reality, but they’re distorted and weird. I suppose it’s mostly nth-generation friend-of-friend repeats of Fox News. But I don’t even know how to begin to talk someone down from that high.
Tony Jay
@SpaceUnit:
I’d forgotten how much fun it was ripping the shit out of Mitt Romney. The man was so uncomfortable in his skin it was clear he was wearing it inside out for much of the campaign.
Steeplejack
@narya:
Don’t be embarrassed—this is useful. (Although at first I thought you were yanking me with “Misfit.”) I have been trying to get out and walk more—the pandemic put me in serious bunker sloth mode—and I got the Fitbit somewhat as a motivational toy. Fiddling with it is enjoyable to my geek side, and so far it is reminding me that I need to move more. And I am getting off to an okay start.
Steeplejack
@Baud:
TBH, you say that about everybody.
David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
Quotations from Chairman Mittens
Geminid
@Citizen Alan: I noticed how political evangelical leaders who were so tepid in their support of the upright Romney enthusiastically embraced the reprobate Trump. I bet LDS people noticed too.
kalakal
@Urza: I remember watching in fascination the debate where he claimed that Syria was Iran’s route to the sea.
once I stopped laughing 2 things terrified me.
1) A presidential candidate was making a major foreign policy statement, he an his team had prepared this as an attack on Obama and none of them had even as much as looked at a map, let alone done any real research.
2) No one at the debate, wether Obama or the commentariat called him out “Iran has 1,500 miles of coastline but no border with Syria, that’s some plan you’ve got there Mitt” and nor did anyone I was watching it with , Dem party, Pinellas.
Roger Moore
@David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch:
The thing that gets me is the extent to which Bork’s role in the Saturday Night Massacre has been completely memory holed. A man who would do that doesn’t deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as the Supreme Court. Reagan’s decision to nominate him should be seen as a deliberate provocation, but somehow it’s the Democrats who get the blame.
Another Scott
Rmoney is a monster who thinks he’s owed his destiny as the guy on the white horse.
David Corn’s famous piece at MotherJones from 2012:
Rmoney speaking:
Corn:
Rmoney:
He didn’t have it easy like those Mexicans, who win the Presidency every time, you see. No, he created and paid for the Mitt that he wanted to show the voters all by himself, with no help at all from anyone, especially not his wealthy and talented industrial/political father, and also the Mitt he wanted to show his donors. He had the money (his own money that had nothing to do with anyone else) and the good looks and felt he was entitled to the big chair. Seamus liked being on top of the car on the highway for 12 hours, you see, and of course the trees are the right height in Michigan, and anyone saying otherwise is being unfair to poor Mittster. Only mean Democrats kept him from his destiny. Shame on you – yes you – for being a mean Democrat.
(grocho-roll-eyes.gif)
And now monsters on Twitter are looking for every possible squirrel to distract voters from the good things that Democrats are doing for the country even with all the challenges.
Eyes on the prizes.
Cheers,
Scott.
David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
Let’s not forget how Mittens had a Swiss bank account and wouldn’t release his taxes
God bless Harry Reid
Steeplejack
@Roger Moore:
Thanks. I’m still mostly in “just out of the box” mode, so it shows me (in succession) heart rate, calories, steps, distance and some “fitness zone” rating that I haven’t figured out yet.
Baud
@Roger Moore:
Along with only Dems have agency, the media believes that only the GOP can break norms. Dems can never do something unprecedented, no matter how justified by the circumstances.
PaulB
If you’re going to waste your time on a Peter Cook, I recommend this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuE_a1pTsO4, seen here in a classic sketch with Dudley Moore.
Steeplejack
@UncleEbeneezer:
That is a bad run.
Geminid
@David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch:
Republican: “But that attack on Romney was below the belt!”
Harry Reid: “Belt? What belt?”
dm
@David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: Reid on Romney’s taxes was one of the things that the Cook’s-timeline Republican bitch-fest brought up as being unfair and dishonest
“He started it!” Twitter sometimes reminds me of kids in the back seat of a 12-hour drive in the pre-airconditioning era.
David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
@Baud: It wasn’t even unprecedented. The republicans filibustered two of LBJ’s nominees in 1968. He had nominated (elevated) Abe Fortas (of Gideon vs Wainwright fame) to replace the retiring Earl Warren and Homer Thornberry to replace Fortas who was an Associate Justice at the time.
They didn’t get a vote.
But it’s okay if you are republican
Another Scott
@Steeplejack: I just let my FitBit Charge 5 do its thing. The step count agrees pretty well with what Google Fit on my phone thinks. (E.g. Thus far today: GF 3289 steps, FitBit 3954 steps, but I haven’t had my phone with me all day). I haven’t bothered trying to tell it (or my phone) that cutting the grass is not “Exercise Bike” – I just let it do its thing and don’t worry about it.
I don’t know any tricks to speak of. ;-)
Looking forward to other responses.
My $0.02. HTH a little.
Cheers,
Scott.
matt
So if we treat Trump badly they’ll do what? Tattoo swastikas on their bald heads?
Another Scott
@UncleEbeneezer: I’m sorry. :-(
Hang in there. Remember the good times.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Gin & Tonic
Seeing reports on russian social media of explosions in Kerch. It is almost 0300 there.
Baud
@Gin & Tonic:
24/7 service.
kalakal
@CarolPW: Yes he was. I think Peter Cook was one of the funniest people who ever lived. Here he is with Dudley Moore from a long time ago
https://youtu.be/JhS35f015SQ
David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
@Geminid:
Harry Reid biography is fascinating:
Steeplejack
@dm:
I’m starting to regret the energy expended on this topic a little bit. Not blaming Anne Laurie, but a bunch of Twitter pundits seem to have fallen into a rage-farming trap that led to deep-dive discussions of . . . Mitt Romney? Yeesh.
kalakal
@PaulB: One of my favourites.
RaflW
I still remember how shocked Mitt was that “Binders full of women” didn’t work well as an applause line. Always was a tin ear and a pretentious elite capitalist.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Another Scott:
to an automotive CEO and cabinet officer and governor of one of the largest states in the country (at the time) who was a serious contender for the presidency, and not for nothing gave you a “nest egg” that was worth iirc about $500K in 2012 dollars
Geminid
@Baud: Plus free delivery!
Villago Delenda Est
@matt: Ala Inglorious Basterds?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@kalakal: I’ve always been partial to The Leaping Nuns of Norwich, not least cause it’s just fun to say.
Geminid
@David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: When Reid married Landra, they decided they wanted to join a church. They looked around some and then joined the Latter Day Saints.
UncleEbeneezer
So I finally watched a clip of Ron DeSatan today, for the first time and I must say…I don’t see it. Sure, he hates the right people etc., but he really doesn’t have the same charisma that Trump has. And I don’t think he’s gonna have the same drawing power to the MAGA chuds nor enough of the “Reasonable Conservative” persona to attract enough Independent/Swing voters. I think he would draw closer to Romney or McCain levels of GOP turnout than Trump. Maybe I’m just being willfully optimistic, but he also barely won in Florida!
Kayla Rudbek
@Steeplejack: I have a Garmin and its phone app has challenges every month and quarter (running,cycling, walking etc). I would imagine that the Fitbit would have a similar feature.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Another Scott:
Cause, you know, those people get all the breaks, but you practically have to apologize for being white these days.
(credit where due, when I saw Our Willard marching for Black Lives Matter, I almost fell out of my chair. I’m willing to recognize growth, but get out of here with this “You were mean to Mitt” garbage)
David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
Gawd, and then the 2012 convention with his shrew wife screaming “I love you women!” and a dotard Clint Eastwood talking to an empty chair.
dm
@Steeplejack: I was regretting it halfway through typing up what I’d found. Then it was just good keystrokes after bad/sunk-cost fallacy.
One benefit this thread did bring was the reminder of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore.
Another Scott
@Steeplejack: The “zone” stuff is to indicate where (supposedly) you’re most efficiently using calories and losing weight. And other stuff – it’s based on estimates of your peak heart rate.
FitBit Heart Rate Zones. (You may need to expand the section).
Mine buzzes briefly when I enter the Fat Burn Zone and shows some info on the screen.
Cheers,
Scott.
RSA
I’m remembering photoshopped images of Obama as Satan and the anti-Christ. Granted, “Electing my opponent will mean the end of democracy” has been a thing since the 1800s, but Republicans have said this every election in my lifetime. (Democrats only had a bit of fear-mongering toward the end of Bush II’s second term.) It’s crazy that when we’re actually in this situation, hardly any GOP voters will admit that they’re the real danger.
dm
One other thing I noticed in my foray into the funhouse: “They’ve been investigating Trump for six years and haven’t come up with anything.”
Wow.
Baud
@RSA:
I’m sure if we became radicalized, the media would hold the GOP responsible.
Fake Irishman
@UncleEbeneezer:
Masscare was the blueprint for Obamacare. Leimieux talks about the Heritage plan from the early 1990s with an individual mandate being completely different when lazy folks say Obama was a sellout because he proposed a plan similar to the Heritage plan (and the parties are the same etc etc)
Ghost of Joe Liebling’s Dog
@VOR:
Who could forget the “Gropertunity” project? No one can say it wasn’t superlatively on-brand.
David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
This was a full year and a half before the 2012 fall campaign.
They were flocking to Dump and his birtherism. They never wanted staid Mittens. It was never about Mittens or the 2012 campaign. They wanted the unvarnished racism they had been fed since Nixon’s-Jesse Helms’s-Strom Thurmand’s 1968 “southern strategy”
Steeplejack
@Another Scott:
Thanks.
RSA
@Baud: Would the media be able to resist the “both sides!” framing?
Matt McIrvin
No, he wasn’t. I was there.
catclub
@zhena gogolia:
We mistreated him by reporting what he said to his donors.
catclub
@UncleEbeneezer:
The only charisma Trump has ( and for his rubes, it is enough) is that he can claim he is a billionaire and they will believe him. See how much coverage Jon Huntsman or Michael Bloomberg get compared with any competent non-billionaire politician.
Origuy
@Steeplejack: Do you have a smartphone? You might be interested in the Strava app. I have an Apple Watch, but I’m sure the Fitbit works with it. You can upload your activities and share them, if you want, so that your friends can see them. Strava may also do some analysis that the native Fitbit app doesn’t.
Steeplejack
@Another Scott:
Thanks. I’ve got a cheap pedometer that I used to use, and I have a vague memory of a walking/jogging phone app even further back than that. I’d like to get a feel for how “accurate” the Fitbit is, and I guess I could use one of those for comparison. But I’m tending toward “set it and forget it” like you.
I did see a discussion of Fitbit solo GPS accuracy vs. Fitbit linked to your phone GPS. Some of the comments seemed valid, some seemed like sawing sawdust. Wouldn’t matter much to me unless the disparity was pretty big.
Steeplejack
@CarolPW:
The remake of Bedazzled (2000) with Brendan Fraser and Elizabeth Hurley is surprisingly good. . . . Huh, directed by Harold Ramis, IMDB reminds me.
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
I remember Mittens once staged a photo of of him doing laundry and he was completely befuddled on how to start the washer. Had no idea. None what so ever. To make it worse it was a basic washer not one of the new machines that have 50 settings.
twbrandt (formerly tom)
Whenever I see the name Peter Cook I think of https://youtu.be/3odMTPuzLwY
Steeplejack
@Kayla Rudbek:
I’ve barely scratched the surface, but the Fitbit seems to have the ability to link to “friends” and join communities and do challenges, etc. Not very interesting to me at this point—maybe later.
Steeplejack
@dm:
“Sunk-cost fallacy.” True! 😹
Steeplejack
@dm:
[Spit-take!] 💦
Steeplejack
@Origuy:
Thanks, I’ll look at Strava. I have an Android phone—Samsung Galaxy S10e.
Wyatt Salamanca
Buddha Alert:
Pete Buttigieg is Alex Wagner’s guest on her show tonight
lowtechcyclist
@CarolPW:
Boy howdy, was he ever! He and Dudley Moore were also quite good in The Wrong Box, which also had a young Michael Caine in a major role. And of course he was the priest in The Princess Bride.
dm
@Steeplejack: Oh, god, now the context-free will think I said that. Glad it is in a mostly-dead thread, and wasn’t a tweet.
But like I said: things are weird over in the right wing.
NotMax
FYI (emphasis added).
lowtechcyclist
Of course it is only the Republicans’ fault that they’ve become what they’ve become. But in the annals of “look what you made me do,” this has to be the most weak-ass excuse there ever was, just transparently bullshit. Did they get mad about that “treatment” at the time? I sure don’t remember it. And knowing full well it doesn’t and shouldn’t matter, it’s hard for me to imagine what possible “treatment of Mitt Romney” this Cook guy could be referring to. I’d love to see his examples, so I could laugh at them.
J R in WV
I have a new Maytag, which turned itself off the other day when our pump system suffered an intermittent failure. The owner’s manual says to press and hold the power switch, which I have done multiple times.
Also says you may need to unplug it to reset things, which I have done for lots longer than the recommendation. Still says Loc and won’t rinse and spin the load that was in there when the water went off days ago.
So I don’t feel too bad about Willard (which fuck him!) having trouble with a washing machine… Could have gotten the maid to help, tho…
Steeplejack
@dm:
The quotation marks (should) indicate that it was something you quoted, not you yourself. And anyone wanting to revile you can click back to see the context. 😹
Another Scott
@J R in WV: Cryptic error messages are annoying.
I’m sure you’ve seen this, but on the off-chance you haven’t. I hope you find the magic combination of keypresses and time to get it unlocked.
My 2004 VW sat for a couple of weeks because I couldn’t get the ignition to unlock – the key wouldn’t turn. Such a simple thing, but when it doesn’t work, it causes big problems. :-(
(In my case, it seems to have been 18 years of wear and lint buildup and a possibly stuck tumbler. A brass wire acting as a digger, some canned air, some silicone spray, and about 30 minutes working in 100F heat to clean-out the keyway got it freed-up and working.)
I hope you get it figured out! Good luck!
Cheers,
Scott.
Narya
@Steeplejack: I like Strava. More accurate than Fitbit or misfit. I used the free version for a year and actually ponied up for the paid version a year later.
Steeplejack
@Narya:
Thanks for the recommendation.
dnfree
@Steeplejack: if you use it, you’ll be surprised at how accurate the sleep monitoring can seem. For instance, if I recall that I was dreaming right before I woke up, that’s what the Fitbit will indicate. And if I feel somewhat sluggish, most likely it will show I didn’t get enough deep sleep.
On your phone or computer, set up the hourly goals. I think I told you before, my goal is 250 steps per hour between 9 am and 9 pm, but you can set the hours that work for your schedule. So if it’s 10:50 am and I have just been sitting in my chair or at my desk, the Fitbit gives me a gentle nudge and tells me how many steps shy of 250 I am. Sometimes I ignore the reminder, but most times I get up and walk around for a few minutes.
Steeplejack
@dnfree:
Thanks for the tips. I wasn’t too interested in the sleep feature, except I thought I might try it a few times to see if I go into an apnea-adjacent coma when I sleep. And I’ll see how it matches up with my subjective sleep experience.
The hourly goals are probably a good idea. I often sit too long at the computer, and taking regular breaks and, say, going down the block for a 10-minute walk would definitely be good.
dnfree
@Steeplejack: I have informed the neighbors that if they see me come out the front door, walk the approximately 100 steps to the corner and then back, they should check the time. It most likely will be within the last ten minutes of the hour. Sometimes I am efficient and leave the house at for instance 9:57 and walk until 10:03, thereby checking off two hours at once.
I sometimes count steps manually and the Fitbit is pretty accurate.
Steeplejack
@dnfree:
I should be so disciplined! ⏱ Something to aspire to.
Paul in KY
@Baud: Probably Thanos will appear…