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You are here: Home / Open Threads / The Worst People in the World

The Worst People in the World

by John Cole|  October 11, 20229:30 pm| 90 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Sociopaths

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I apologize if this has been discussed before, but I have been super busy (also, dad is doing in house therapy at the hospital for the next two weeks), but this needed to be shared:

On Monday evening, at the nine o’clock hour, Fox News’ Sean Hannity aired an explosive story about the president of the United States. It was so deeply shocking and perverse that many people have said they can’t believe it was allowed by network censors, or that they didn’t insist Hannity at least read a disclaimer beforehand like, “We want to warn our viewers about the content we‘re about to air, which we strongly suggest not be watched in the company of children.” Honestly, it was so disturbing that we’re having difficulty recounting it now. But here goes. On Monday, Fox News revealed that President Joe Biden, as in, the man who has access to the nuclear codes…

…loves his son.

Yes. Not only that, but he appears to be compassionate? Devoted? Understanding of the difficulties people face in life and unwilling to turn his back on his child? Can you see why Fox knew they had a blockbuster story on their hands?

These people are absolute fucking monsters and I don’t know how anyone who votes Republican lives with themselves. Jesus tapdancing Christ if there were more fathers like this out there, we’d have a much lower addiction rate in this company.

The actual audio of this—as someone who has struggled with drugs and mental health issues and received calls like this from my family—just sort of almost made me cry pic.twitter.com/YWkvguViGh

— Ben Dreyfuss (@bendreyfuss) October 11, 2022

It’s a non stop race to the bottom for these motherfuckers, and it appears there is no bottom.

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Reader Interactions

90Comments

  1. 1.

    Elizabelle

    October 11, 2022 at 9:47 pm

    Biden just did very well in his CNN interview with Jake Tapper (who is a dick, hands down).

    He reiterated how much he loves his son, and is proud of him.

  2. 2.

    Steeplejack

    October 11, 2022 at 9:48 pm

    The Onion: “Sean Hannity plays voicemail from his dad calling him a piece of shit to demonstrate healthy father-son relationship.”

  3. 3.

    Tony G

    October 11, 2022 at 9:50 pm

    Fox News viewers will love this “expose” by Hannity.  They will consider this to be deeply damaging to Joe Biden because they despise compassion and they admire cruelty.  There are tens of millions of people like that in this country.  If there weren’t, then Fox News would have gone out of business 25 years ago, and Donald Trump would be just another failed businessman.

  4. 4.

    Chief Oshkosh

    October 11, 2022 at 9:52 pm

    It would be a very good thing if Sean Hannity stepped on a rake. Tines up, with a rusty nail in the handle.

    Beyond dat, I got nuttin’.

  5. 5.

    SiubhanDuinne

    October 11, 2022 at 9:52 pm

    First of all, John, thanks for the update on your dad. I hope he continues to improve.

    And second, even if we did talk about the Biden voice mail message, it’s such a beautiful and compassionate message that it can stand being talked about again. The love and anguish in his voice is incredibly moving, and makes me choke up just hearing it. At the same time, yes, it’s beyond infuriating that pond scum* like Hannity exploit and politicise a family’s pain to score a cheap point.

    *My apologies to pond scum

  6. 6.

    Raoul Paste

    October 11, 2022 at 9:56 pm

    Who does this?  Who broadcasts an  intensely personal moment of a dire situation?   I guess the jaded folks who watch human tragedy and interventions on reality TV are the target audience.
    It’s horrible.  Karma, where are you?

  7. 7.

    geg6

    October 11, 2022 at 10:00 pm

    I can’t listen to it because it’s too intimate a call and that makes me uncomfortable.  Regardless, Joe Biden is such a good man.  And as for Beau and his troubles?  He lost a sister, a mother and a brother.  One is traumatic, let alone three.  And with likely genetic addiction issues on top of that.  He made a mess of his life and is trying to pick up the pieces.  Half of the MAGAts out there should be so lucky with their spawn.  And if they think this is damning to Biden, they won’t be because their kids will hate them.

  8. 8.

    dc

    October 11, 2022 at 10:00 pm

    Hunter’s laptop was stolen. This is trafficking in stolen goods. Why are these assholes not being charged?

  9. 9.

    James E Powell

    October 11, 2022 at 10:00 pm

     I don’t know how anyone who votes Republican lives with themselves.

    They’ve convinced themselves that no matter how disgusting & evil their people are, the rest of us are somehow worse. I know some will say that FOX, right-wing radio, etc., has persuaded them, but I see them eagerly embracing whatever hateful bigotry those propaganda factories put out.

  10. 10.

    robmassing

    October 11, 2022 at 10:04 pm

    There are probably some MAGAs who heard this and were moved by Biden’s compassion, especially if they have addiction issues in their families. But after a few seconds, they determined that they would never admit they were moved, and would join the rest of the MAGAs mocking Brandon.

  11. 11.

    bbleh

    October 11, 2022 at 10:09 pm

    Classic bullying behavior.  Find a vulnerability and tear at it.

    FWIW I think the demographic attracted to this sort of thing is not as large as some people fear, but it IS the demographic that Fox cultivates and that makes them money.

    Biden’s empathy has long been one of his strongest suits.  It’s not at all clear to me this will hurt him much if at all.

  12. 12.

    Kevin

    October 11, 2022 at 10:09 pm

    Trump and Herschel Walker are their ideal men/father figures apparently so yeah any compassion and actual fathering are seen as weak. Truly the worst.

    I saw the clip on Twitter this morning and was so confused when it had the Fox logo under the Biden quote.

    Being shitty fathers to own the libs!

  13. 13.

    Al Rennick

    October 11, 2022 at 10:12 pm

    @Elizabelle:

     Jake Tapper (who is a dick, hands down).

    What’s your problem with Jake Tapper?  In what way was he unfair to Biden?  He wasn’t snarky and did not ask any questions that were out of bounds.

  14. 14.

    bbleh

    October 11, 2022 at 10:14 pm

    @robmassing: And there might also be some — MAGAts themselves or their family members — who are so disgusted with Hannity that they tear a strip off anyone who agrees with him.

    Not yet clear to me that this will be a net negative for Biden.

  15. 15.

    Leto

    October 11, 2022 at 10:14 pm

    Rachel Maddow released a new podcast about the ultra-right, and how they 1) tried to take over the country in the early 40s and 2) how it parallels what we’re experiencing now. Two episodes are out so far (new ones release on Monday). For those who don’t like her meandering style, she sticks to tightly to the script on this. They’re just a tad over 30 mins each (including two commercials), so easy to digest.

    Rachel Maddow presents Ultra

    It started with a plane crash. The tragic, mysterious crash of a commercial airliner in the summer of 1940 left a scene of devastation in rural Virginia — and a series of unanswered questions. The cause of the crash was unclear. Among the dozens of people killed was a sitting U.S. senator. His presence on the flight and the strange circumstances surrounding the crash would end up revealing threats to American democracy itself.

    Edit: I’ll say this is right up there, if not surpassing, the Business Plot. Also like the BP, not as well known.

  16. 16.

    Betsy

    October 11, 2022 at 10:17 pm

    The power of love is as strong as we make it.  The values that humanity embraces are the values that count.  Whether it is a cruel thirst for absolute power or a choice to give love, we make the values that matter in the world we live in.

  17. 17.

    Suzanne

    October 11, 2022 at 10:20 pm

    What just eats me up about this phone message is that it comes right at the same time that the right wants to force women to bear children they don’t want or cannot bear, and they’re freaking out that (white) people aren’t having enough kids. Here is a good man who deeply lives his son, and they just mock the fuck out of it, all while trying to force others into parenthood. GOD THEY’RE TERRIBLE.

  18. 18.

    Betsy

    October 11, 2022 at 10:23 pm

    @Suzanne: You said it, sister.

  19. 19.

    hilts

    October 11, 2022 at 10:23 pm

    @Leto:

    Kudos to Rachel. She performed a valuable public service with this podcast.

  20. 20.

    Another Scott

    October 11, 2022 at 10:24 pm

    @James E Powell: I think it’s different.

    It’s tribalism.  It’s a cult.

    Going after Biden for this is exactly what I would expect.  It’s a perfect way for them to test people’s loyalty to MAGA.  “This shows Biden loves his son?  No, it doesn’t.  It shows that Biden’s weak.  You agree, right??”

    It goes along with them trying to break science, break logic, break evidence, break tradition, break compassion, break patriotism, break doubt, and all the rest.  “You are with us, you are MAGA.  We know what’s really true – those other guys are lying to you.  You’re smarter than that, you can see their lies.  We’re the real patriots.  You’re just like us, aren’t you??”

    Orwell was right.

    We need to be clear-eyed about their tactics, and how we respond.  Taking the best of people who have figured out how to help others get out of cults may be instructive.

    My $0.02.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  21. 21.

    dmsilev

    October 11, 2022 at 10:24 pm

    I’m trying, apparently because I hate myself, to imagine Donald Trump showing even one millionth as much compassion for one of his kids as Joe Biden does in this short message. And I just can’t see it.

    Closest he comes is …passion for his daughter and no that doesn’t help.

  22. 22.

    cain

    October 11, 2022 at 10:27 pm

    @robmassing: when you are in a cult, you’re forced to be part of the group and the group think even if you privately feel different.

  23. 23.

    zhena gogolia

    October 11, 2022 at 10:32 pm

    @dmsilev: He punched his son for not wearing a suit to a baseball game.

  24. 24.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    October 11, 2022 at 10:39 pm

    @zhena gogolia:  He didn’t punch him, he only slapped him to the ground.

     

    The way Melker tells it in a lengthy Facebook story posted last night, he lived in the same freshman dorm at UPenn as Donald Trump Jr., who attended the Wharton School. One day, the elder Trump showed up to pick up his son for a baseball game and flat-out slapped the crap out of his kid when he wasn’t dressed for the occasion.

    “Don Jr. opened the door, wearing a Yankee jersey. Without saying a word, his father slapped him across the face, knocking him to the floor in front of all of his classmates,” Melker writes on Facebook. “He simply said ‘put on a suit and meet me outside,’ and closed the door.”

  25. 25.

    Sasha

    October 11, 2022 at 10:39 pm

    I swear, it’s like MAGA sucks up to Trump because he’s the archetypal abusive, emotionally distant father whose attention and approval they desperately crave. And Biden is the father they wish they had had and resent they didn’t.

  26. 26.

    Another Scott

    October 11, 2022 at 10:40 pm

    @zhena gogolia: +1

    Fortune (from April 2016)

    TFG doesn’t change diapers…

    “No, I don’t do that,” TFG said on the Opie and Anthony show in 2005. “There’s a lot of women out there that demand that the husband act like the wife and you know there’s a lot of husbands that listen to that… I’m really like a great father but certain things you do and certain things you don’t. It’s just not for me.”

    …or really do anything hands-on to care for his kids.

    “I mean, I won’t do anything to take care of them. I’ll supply funds and she’ll take care of the kids. It’s not like I’m gonna be walking the kids down Central Park,” TFG said in a 2005 interview with Howard Stern. “Marla used to say, ‘I can’t believe you’re not walking Tiffany down the street,’ you know in a carriage. Right, I’m gonna be walking down Fifth Avenue with a baby in a carriage. It just didn’t work.”

    Yeah, that builds loving relationships.

    (groucho-roll-eyes.gif)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  27. 27.

    UncleEbeneezer

    October 11, 2022 at 10:40 pm

    @Tony G: They would reject any candidate that even just appears remotely decent at this point.  They only want monsters.  It’s really disgusting and terrifying.

  28. 28.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    October 11, 2022 at 10:41 pm

    What Biden does when no one is watching:

    March 15, 2018

    It was the photo that went viral within hours of being posted on Facebook March 8
    ***

    Who is the other man in the photo, the one sitting on the stone steps of the theater that chilly evening whose face is almost completely shielded by the hood pulled over his head?

    His name is Rashid and he is sometimes a guest at Georgetown Ministry Center, frequenting GMC for services like showers and laundry. Like Biden, he has also served his country. Rashid, an Air Force veteran, traveled the globe during the Vietnam War, drawing maps and bomb plots to support U.S. troops in the heat of battle. “I was honored and proud to serve,” he says of his time in service.

    Rashid has experienced homelessness for some time now and when he saw Biden exiting the movie theater last Thursday evening, he asked him for some money so he could buy a sandwich.

    Biden obliged — and then he stayed to talk.

    “He didn’t think I recognized him,” Rashid said of the former dignitary. As they spoke, Rashid shared of the struggles he has been experiencing in receiving assistance from the Department of Veterans Affairs, specifically with procuring a housing voucher that would enable him to receive decent, safe and sanitary housing — leaving behind a life on the streets.

    It was then that Biden went back into the theater for a pen and paper and jotted down a phone number. It was a personal contact who could assist in helping Rashid. As Biden handed him the slip of paper, a bystander snapped a photo on his phone’s camera — and the rest, as they say in our digital age, is recent history.

    It’s wonderful that a person — whether they be Joe Biden or Joe Schmoe — would take the time to help another in need; we all need to do more of that. And it’s inspiring to see a public figure displaying compassion and generosity; we also need to see more of that.​

  29. 29.

    Elizabelle

    October 11, 2022 at 10:41 pm

    @Al Rennick: WRT Tapper:  It was the constant hyperbolizing; the sensationalizing an already precarious situation.  How many times did he say “Armageddon?”  He really wanted to scare his audience.  He kept trying to put words in Biden’s mouth, re Putin, but Biden handled that well.

    Excitable boy.  Fer sure.

  30. 30.

    Brachiator

    October 11, 2022 at 10:41 pm

    @bbleh:

    Biden’s empathy has long been one of his strongest suits.  It’s not at all clear to me this will hurt him much if at all.

    Excellent point. This is much ado about nothing. Normal people, including Republicans, will note Biden’s compassion and move on.

    The crazies are stuck on the dumbass idea that the laptop contains more damaging information than Clinton’s emails and also proof that the deep state is trying to bring down the real victim, Donald Trump.

    Murdoch and the vile right wing just like to keep shit stirred up. It doesn’t matter whether it makes sense. It just has to keep the crazies agitated.

  31. 31.

    Mai Naem mobile

    October 11, 2022 at 10:42 pm

    I’ve heard this call a while back. I honestly do not understand what is the problem with the call. I don’t understand why Sean Hannity is bringing it up again. I would be willing to bet that pretty much everybody knows somebody in a similar situation. One of my old neighbor’s wife was hooked on opiods and went through several substance abuse programs. I have a friend whose father got hooked on going to the casino. Joe Biden is not the only father in this country  with a family member with addiction issues.

  32. 32.

    Steve in the ATL

    October 11, 2022 at 10:43 pm

    @Leto: a spook told me that just about every aircraft crash is enemy action.  It’s one of the most common methods of assassination.

  33. 33.

    Elizabelle

    October 11, 2022 at 10:45 pm

    They’re going after Hunter Biden because they’re losing.  It’s this election season’s ebola and caravans and all the other crap they throw at the wall, every single election.

    The Hunter Biden legal jeopardy irritates me no end, because of the outright profiteering and corruption of the family preceding the Bidens.  Hunter’s persecution, and it is that, is all out of proportion.

  34. 34.

    Leto

    October 11, 2022 at 10:46 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: I’ll say, from the first two episodes, it doesn’t sound like it was mechanical failure. I don’t want to spoil it for people, but yeah.

  35. 35.

    Elizabelle

    October 11, 2022 at 10:50 pm

    @Leto:   Thank you. And episode 2 is about Father Charles Coughlin. Good times.

    There’s a transcript, for those who prefer reading to listening. Episode 1 on Senator Lundeen (whom I had never heard of.  Never.).

  36. 36.

    Mike in NC

    October 11, 2022 at 10:51 pm

    @Another Scott: To be fair, TFG does change his own diapers.

  37. 37.

    Leto

    October 11, 2022 at 10:57 pm

    I hope this plays to their base, because for everyone else it just looks fucking despicable.

  38. 38.

    SiubhanDuinne

    October 11, 2022 at 10:59 pm

    @Suzanne:

    Every word you say is truth.

  39. 39.

    Quiltingfool

    October 11, 2022 at 11:00 pm

    This is very off topic, but I am getting a cat tomorrow!  I was approved for cat adoption yesterday; today I bought some stuff for Kitty (a catnip stuffed fish toy, scratching post, good quality dry food).

    I hope she will be happy in my home.  I’m looking forward to a new quilt supervisor!

  40. 40.

    Elizabelle

    October 11, 2022 at 11:02 pm

    @Leto:  Reading episode 1 now.

    It … makes me hope I am never on an airplane with Tucker Carlson.

    Although I already hope that.

  41. 41.

    Brachiator

    October 11, 2022 at 11:04 pm

    @Another Scott:

    Going after Biden for this is exactly what I would expect.  It’s a perfect way for them to test people’s loyalty to MAGA.  “This shows Biden loves his son?  No, it doesn’t.  It shows that Biden’s weak.  You agree, right??”

    I don’t think the anti Biden forces are smart enough to be focused or calculated.

    It goes along with them trying to break science, break logic, break evidence, break tradition, break compassion, break patriotism, break doubt, and all the rest.

    They DO love ignorance. This seems to be true of a certain type of conservative in the US, the UK and elsewhere. They want religion or ideology or brute nativism to be the rule.

  42. 42.

    Elizabelle

    October 11, 2022 at 11:06 pm

    @Quiltingfool:  That quilt supervising cat hit the lottery.

    What happy news.  I’m sure we’ll see an image of the kitteh before too long.  Photo or fabric.

  43. 43.

    SiubhanDuinne

    October 11, 2022 at 11:07 pm

    @David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch:

    I’ve read or heard that story probably a couple of dozen times since the 2016 campaign, and it still makes me scratch my head in perplexity.

    Wrong on so, so many levels. What kind of parent slaps their adult kid? So hard they knock him to the ground? In public? For wearing a fucking BASEBALL JERSEY to a fucking BASEBALL GAME??

  44. 44.

    Ohio Mom

    October 11, 2022 at 11:10 pm

    Isn’t it always some combination of projection and a diversionary tactic with the RWNJs?

    Trump Jr is always taping videos in a weird, extremely agitated, most likely drug-induced state, Jared and Ivanka one big crooked international business deal after another. So of course Fox et al are fixated on Hunter’s addiction struggles and his stints on boards in China and Ukraine.

  45. 45.

    SiubhanDuinne

    October 11, 2022 at 11:10 pm

    @Quiltingfool:

    Oh, how wonderful!! That’s news I’ve been hoping for.

    Glad to see you in the thread, as I received my quilt squares a few days ago and wanted to let you know I adore them! Beautiful, charming designs and incredible workmanship. I can’t tell you how pleased I am!

  46. 46.

    stinger

    October 11, 2022 at 11:10 pm

    @geg6: With respect, I’m not sure Hunter’s addiction issues are genetic. He suffered “a fractured skull and severe traumatic brain injuries” [Wikipedia] when he was two years old, and probably was given painkiller meds for quite some time afterward. It seems possible that his addiction tendencies date back to that horrific period of his life.

  47. 47.

    Gravenstone

    October 11, 2022 at 11:12 pm

    @Chief Oshkosh: I’d actually suggest sharpening the tines so they simply penetrate his foot. Over, and over…

  48. 48.

    Leto

    October 11, 2022 at 11:12 pm

    @Elizabelle: It’s wild to think that this aircraft crash was the single worst crash in aviation history to that point. 25 people.

  49. 49.

    Gravenstone

    October 11, 2022 at 11:16 pm

    @dmsilev: I’ve seen people suggest that his sons may secretly crave that sort of attention and compassion from him. I think they probably would view it as a weakness just because his multiple pathologies have in turn broken them to the point that they now cannot recognize inherent goodness and decency without trying to envision some means of profiting from it (eg. Eric the Dull and his childhood cancer fundraising scam).

  50. 50.

    Al Rennick

    October 11, 2022 at 11:21 pm

    @Elizabelle:

    I’ve seen far worse broadcast interviews than what Tapper aired tonight.

    At any rate, I appreciate your Warren Zevon reference.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZokPAuhD6k

  51. 51.

    Another Scott

    October 11, 2022 at 11:22 pm

    @Brachiator:

    I don’t think the anti Biden forces are smart enough to be focused or calculated.

    They’re working on it. They know how to rile up the rubes, and that’s dangerous enough.

    I just did some looking around to see who replaced Lee Atwater. No infamous names immediately jumped out at me, but you know there are people like him out there – people who know how to tell a story that disaffected people are eager to hear. Maybe it’s more diffuse now than when Atwater was working his evil schemes. Maybe they’re more interested in scams than trying to direct a party in a particular direction.

    There must be dozens of outfits like the America First Policy Institute with semi-famous people on the mast-head, all interconnected to other “Institutes” and “Universities” and “Churches” and similar organizations.

    They’re out there and should not be dismissed as lacking smarts.

    We need to know our enemies and their tactics to know how to counter them.

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  52. 52.

    Tony G

    October 11, 2022 at 11:23 pm

    @David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: Generations of abuse in that family.  The “kids” must all be waiting for the day when Donald Senior kicks the bucket.

  53. 53.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    October 11, 2022 at 11:24 pm

    @Leto:

    IMHO, Rachel Maddow is not nearly as meandering as she used to be.

  54. 54.

    Steeplejack

    October 11, 2022 at 11:29 pm

    @Wyatt Salamanca:

    Rachel used to “meander” on slow news days when she was covering “evergreen” stories (not ripped from the headlines). When there is heavy shit going down (almost a daily occurrence since the Trump regime) she is concise and on point.

  55. 55.

    Citizen Alan

    October 11, 2022 at 11:35 pm

    @James E Powell: Thank you! Yes! It cannot be said enough! Donald Trump is not a master hypnotist. Fox News does not send mind control out through the TVs. The MAGA trash believe their lives because they want to. Because they seek out liars who will tell lies that comport with their twisted view of how the world is. Already we see a move away from Fox towards even more disgusting outlets like OAN and Newsmax, even as the MAGA trash look for people like Desantis and Abbott who are even more vile than Shitgibbon himself.

  56. 56.

    Mai Naem mobile

    October 11, 2022 at 11:38 pm

    @Quiltingfool: mare sure you get the feature toy. I’ve never seen a cat not like the feather toys. Also, cardboard boxes to play in/with.

  57. 57.

    ian

    October 11, 2022 at 11:47 pm

    @David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: It almost makes me feel bad for Jr.  Then I remember that Uday Trump is a piece of shit in his own right.  It certainly explains why the guy looks like he is constantly out of his mind.  Every video I see of Jr (and the dumbshit posts these of his own volition) looks like he just was doing rails with Guilfoyle.

  58. 58.

    Winston

    October 12, 2022 at 12:17 am

    Why is it always the radical right trying to overthrow our democracy?

  59. 59.

    Quiltingfool

    October 12, 2022 at 12:25 am

    @SiubhanDuinne: I’m so glad you like them!  I’ve been working on the remaining #25 (Sunflower Kitty Love) blocks.  Lots of cutting!  Lots of fusing!  It’s rather soothing, really.

  60. 60.

    Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)

    October 12, 2022 at 12:29 am

    I cannot fathom how that clip was meant to somehow make President Biden look bad.

  61. 61.

    Quiltingfool

    October 12, 2022 at 12:33 am

    @Mai Naem mobile: I have other cat toys – soft sparkle balls, tiny mice and fish.  The one toy both my cats loved was a small stuffed moose.  They would wrap their front legs around it and kick it with their back legs!  I would put the moose on a shelf above the sofa (it was my stuffed toy!) and they would get on the back of the sofa, stretch out and grab the moose and then wrestle with it!   I gave up and just let them keep it!

  62. 62.

    Another Scott

    October 12, 2022 at 12:37 am

    @Another Scott: For instance…

    Conservatives are launching a preemptive PR campaign to prepare for the first death-by-abortion-ban. https://t.co/iVHCQSc1Hj

    — Jessica Valenti (@JessicaValenti) October 11, 2022

    (via jonrog1)

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  63. 63.

    ian

    October 12, 2022 at 12:38 am

    @Winston: Because the radical right don’t believe in democracy.

    The radical left doesn’t always do a great job of believing it either, but they are so few, disorganized, and frankly scatterbrained that they are in no shape to overthrow a twitter thread, much less government.

  64. 64.

    Another Scott

    October 12, 2022 at 12:40 am

    @Quiltingfool: Our first dog loved little stuffed animals, especially groundhogs.

    One winter she saw us decorating the tree and one of the ornaments was a little stuffed penguin.  She wanted that thing so bad!  She would sit down in front of the tree, all proud and attentive, being very good, just waiting for someone to take what she knew to be her toy off the tree and give it to her!

    :-)

    Best of luck with your new quilting helper!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  65. 65.

    Feathers

    October 12, 2022 at 12:49 am

    @Elizabelle: Thanks for the transcript link, I do so much better with reading.

    I was asking Betty Cracker about the “meandering” on Twitter today. It’s more the construction she uses of painting a picture with details before telling you what she’s talking about. As part of my ADHD diagnosis, I had a neuropsych evaluation. I have a crap working memory and my auditory working memory is the worst of it. Having to hold all those facts in your head without something to hang them on is a cognitively difficult task. It’s an effective way to build suspense, but let it run too long and it can be literally headache inducing for some.

  66. 66.

    Mel

    October 12, 2022 at 12:49 am

    @Quiltingfool: Congratulations on your new quilting assistant!! My Janie kitty was an excellent quilting snoopervisor, and the best buddy ever.

    Would love to see pictures of your kitty after she gets settled!

  67. 67.

    Elizabelle

    October 12, 2022 at 1:40 am

    @Feathers:   Good to hear!  I was glad they put up a transcript, too.

    Greatly prefer reading and being able to skim.  Having to listen to someone who might be meandering/wandering  … suddenly realize I’ve tuned right out.

  68. 68.

    Salty Sam

    October 12, 2022 at 5:24 am

    @Another Scott: I just did some looking around to see who replaced Lee Atwater. No infamous names immediately jumped out at me…

    IIRC, Karl Rove was an Atwater disciple.

  69. 69.

    lowtechcyclist

    October 12, 2022 at 6:02 am

    @Mike in NC:

    To be fair, TFG does change his own diapers.

    That was the first thing that came to mind when I saw that bolded “TFG doesn’t change diapers.” I thought this was about his own diapers, until I started actually reading the paragraph underneath it.

    Yucch.

  70. 70.

    lowtechcyclist

    October 12, 2022 at 6:22 am

    @Citizen Alan: ​

    Fox News does not send mind control out through the TVs. The MAGA trash believe their lives because they want to. Because they seek out liars who will tell lies that comport with their twisted view of how the world is.

    Fred “Slacktivist” Clark has been writing about this for years. (And he acknowledges that he’s just running with something C.S. Lewis wrote long ago.)

    His basic question is: you hear some horrible story about someone you dislike or regard as an adversary. How do you feel when it’s debunked, and it turns out this person isn’t raping children or whatever?

    That’s a litmus test of sorts. Are you mostly relieved that this person isn’t that horrible, even if perhaps a bit disappointed? You’ve passed the test. Does your disappointment rather turn to anger at and refusal to listen to the debunker? You’ve flunked.

    The latter group seems rather heavily represented among MAGAts.

  71. 71.

    davecb

    October 12, 2022 at 6:59 am

    If you’re a less-than-loved group, and you’re competing against someone, it’s important that you attack every good thing they do.  What you’re trying to do is portray your opponent as consistently evil, with no redeeming characteristics. Therefore, it’s important that they be seen as only ever doing evil things, never good ones.

  72. 72.

    Matt McIrvin

    October 12, 2022 at 7:03 am

    @ian: The most damage our radical left ever does is when it allies itself with the radical right. We have a problem with crypto-fascists who get youth cred by pretending to be Communists. Fortunately they are a fringe of a fringe.

  73. 73.

    Matt McIrvin

    October 12, 2022 at 7:12 am

    @lowtechcyclist: I worry a lot about the same thing operating on our side–that I want them to be as bad as possible, because by exposing myself to all these stories about the monstrousness of Republicans, I am propagandizing myself into wanting to do something monstrous to them.

    There is, I think, a very dark part of my mind that does want an excuse to advocate crimes against humanity and be morally justified. You sometimes see the tendency bubbling up in comments by some of the more excitable commenters on liberal political blogs–the mods here will tell people to cool it and use the banhammer if necessary, but that’s not the case everywhere.

    On the other side it just runs free. But I don’t actually want to be the perpetrator of this stuff any more than I want to be the target.

  74. 74.

    Matt McIrvin

    October 12, 2022 at 7:16 am

    @Mike in NC: You don’t know that. He might have people for that.

  75. 75.

    Matt McIrvin

    October 12, 2022 at 7:17 am

    @Another Scott:

    I just did some looking around to see who replaced Lee Atwater.

    A troll farm in Chelyabinsk.

  76. 76.

    jimmiraybob

    October 12, 2022 at 7:57 am

    @Leto: Yes, I just listened to Maddow’s Ultra – the first two episodes. It’s fascinating and does indeed parallel where we are today to a large degree.

    I would also highly recommend Ken Burns’ most recent documentary, “The US and the Holocaust” to get a wider glimpse of what was going on back then.

  77. 77.

    LiminalOwl

    October 12, 2022 at 8:33 am

     

    @lowtechcyclist:  YES. This is very good, thank you.

    @John Cole, I think you mean “country” rather than “company” in your last sentence?

    Separately, I want to recommend Amsterdam (in context here, but I’m trying to avoid spoilers).  Not perfect, but weird and interesting;  The Thin Black Duke and I just saw the film and enjoyed it more than expected. I was hoping he’d write about it here first.

  78. 78.

    Percysowner

    October 12, 2022 at 8:44 am

    @ian: I do feel sorry for the young Donald who was abused by his father. I know it shaped who he is today. However, having been a victim of abuse doesn’t mean you can’t turn into an abuser. Sadly, that happens more than we like and did happen here. Donald just took his abusive nature across the country. So, I can hate the man that young Donald turned into, while knowing that the kid deserved a loving home.​

  79. 79.

    MisterDancer

    October 12, 2022 at 9:12 am

    @LiminalOwl: I love the idea/casting of Amsterdam! Yet the Director has a list of allegations — including copping to copping a feel off his Trans teen niece! — so long that Vulture basically did a rap sheet article about them.

    I really hesitate to put any money in his pockets, frankly.

  80. 80.

    Paul in KY

    October 12, 2022 at 9:44 am

    @Another Scott: Sound analysis, Scott. Grrrr on what they are doing & what awful scumbags they are.

  81. 81.

    Paul in KY

    October 12, 2022 at 9:46 am

    @David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: I bet those who knew TFG Jr and saw that felt happy.

  82. 82.

    Paul in KY

    October 12, 2022 at 9:49 am

    @Quiltingfool: Yay on you getting a kitty!

  83. 83.

    Paul in KY

    October 12, 2022 at 9:56 am

    @Tony G: God knows I am!!!

  84. 84.

    Matt McIrvin

    October 12, 2022 at 10:36 am

    @Percysowner: Donald Trump’s own father was a terrible, terrible person who was undoubtedly abusive to him, and it helped shape Donald’s personality, and make him an abuser in turn. This doesn’t take Donald Trump off the hook.

  85. 85.

    LiminalOwl

    October 12, 2022 at 11:30 am

    @MisterDancer: Yes, the Duke told me the director is hugely problematic (but didn’t provide specifics; thanks for the update).  I understand your reluctance, and support it… but gee, the movie is good. And very timely, if watched by the people who need to; sadly, I don’t expect that to happen.

  86. 86.

    eddie blake

    October 12, 2022 at 1:20 pm

    @MisterDancer: david o. russell is a very talented director. three kings, i heart huckabees and silver linings playbook are pretty good flicks.  amsterdam is a fantastic movie, kind of precisely the kind of film that is needed in this country today; unashamedly, unabashedly anti-fascist.

    dude has SERIOUS issues though.

  87. 87.

    JCNZ

    October 12, 2022 at 1:54 pm

    @Raoul Paste: Going round and coming round…

  88. 88.

    TheronWare

    October 12, 2022 at 3:48 pm

    Joe Biden is very much a human being while Sean Hannity is not.

  89. 89.

    Ruckus

    October 12, 2022 at 4:05 pm

    John, rethuglicans can only see backwards. So they only know one way to do anything, backwards. Or as I like to call it backasswards. They do not want to move forward. It’s why their politics are so fucked up, they think they can set time, law, religion, life back a few dozen decades so that the world will be simpler, easier, the government will be smaller and less likely to catch on to their bullshit and theft of the money, government and production or help in any way for the people that need it the most. And yet if one looks at conservative finance, they can never seem to even get what they want, other than to fuck up most of the people. They weren’t as obvious long ago and in very conservative areas they still aren’t.

  90. 90.

    J R in WV

    October 12, 2022 at 5:58 pm

    @dmsilev: ​

    I’m trying, … to imagine Donald Trump showing even one millionth as much compassion for one of his kids as Joe Biden does in this short message.

    The closest time Trump came to showing emotion with one of his kids was when he visited one of his sons at school to go to a baseball game, and when the son opened his dorm room door, dressed as a college student would dress to go to a ball game with dad, Trump sucker punched the son, told him to put on a suit and meet him at the game.

    What a guy!!! What a contrast!!!

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