Clearly, I beg to differ re my beloved Tulsi. Nah, just can't bring myself to wallow in objectifying BS at the moment, but you all know how I feel... 😳😵💫
As for the rest of the post, with sooo much crap being rebooted and stuff, sure, Family Ties, why not?
Meanwhile, ack in the real world, there's this disturbing stuff; mind boggling among other things:
Nov 21, 2022·edited Nov 21, 2022Liked by Roy Edroso
I'm guessing it was Mom who named the kids, because "Dakota", "Sequoia", and "Sedona" sound like a parody of Marin County liberal offspring, not Gun-Nut Nazi Dad's.
I'm not sure what the best part is - the "Catholic Saints", the Proud Boys manly edging, the "I know, Dad, I'm a Republican", the "all of us in public broadcasting", the Tulsi Gabbard. It's a buffet of snark, and I'm sitting down with a loaded plate!
I had to go check Wikipedia, and yes, the dad really was manager of a public television station. Which makes the whole series a manifestation of a trope that Roger Ebert used to call "How can they afford that apartment?"
Nov 21, 2022·edited Nov 21, 2022Liked by Roy Edroso
Not gonna weigh in on the hotness question, but I will say "Meredith Baxter Birney" is one of the all-time best names to appear in TV or movie credits. Just say it a few times, it's a pleasure the way it rolls off the tongue. It's like an 80's version of Busby Berkely.
Alex Keaton was always authentic about his right-wing tendencies, at least. I feel* like most Boomers of a certain age were more like Gordon Gekko than Steven Keaton once they hit the 1980s.
*I have no facts or data to support this, but in today's world, feelings are more important than truth
I think the whole "hippies go conservative as they age" trope misrecognizes that the number of actual hippies were not anywhere that large, most of what we think of as "hippie" things were really just fashion to most folks (including all y'all's beloved musical revolution), &, like for the Civil Rights movement in retrospect, it's really easy for some oatmeal motherfucker to say "Oh I was there."
Oh, I agree. Having long hair, wearing jeans, taking advantage of more sexual freedom, and going to open air concerts did NOT a revolutionary make. I think for most of them it WAS just trends and fashion. All you have to do is look at the bearded and tatted fascists in some of todays rightwing militia groups to know that looking edgy does not necessarily equate to lefty politics.
LOL. I love me some Big Boy Fetterman, but based on appearance alone he could just as easily be flying the Gadsden Flag as the Gay Pride/Legal Weed flags he actually did hang from his office window in Harrisburg. Half the balding guys between 35 and 60 years old in Pennsylvania look just like him.
If you showed people two photos, one of Fetterman and one of Bernie Sanders, and asked, "Which one is more radical?" I wonder what responses you'd get.
What was that old adage? If you're a conservative before you're 30 you have no heart. If you're a liberal after 30 you have no brain. Where is "The Middle Way" today?
I think the Middle Way is when the President notices there's a looming national shortage of baby formula, and he actually goes and gets us some fucking formula, instead of saying, "Who do you think I am, some sort of supply clerk?"
"No more fancy talk about budgets and infrastructure, that’s for losers. Know what our policy is? Kicking ass!"
I could see guys like Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley saying that as members of the Senate, even though I don't think either one could beat a ten year old in a street brawl.
Nov 21, 2022·edited Nov 21, 2022Liked by Roy Edroso
They're all about policy until one of those Goddamned Democrats actually goes ahead and makes the policy a reality. They wouldn't shut up about the urgent need for balancing the budget until Bill Clinton actually did it, and then suddenly they lost all interest in the subject. Likewise with infrastructure, "done by Democrats" means it's now taboo. Also market-based Romneycare health insurance "reform." If the Democrats didn't insist on actually doing stuff, Republicans might still have a few policies left to talk about.
"Balancing the Budget" is code for cutting benefits. Every time they get enough power, they cut taxes. Then they have to cut benefits to "balance the budget."
I could be wrong, and I guess we'll find out soon enough, but I'm not seeing much enthusiasm for Reagan-style "ketchup is a vegetable" budget-cutting from anyone. Seems like they gave it up sometime in the second Bush administration, and when Trump was president the whole federal budget went through each year with minor modifications. I could never figure out if it was sheer laziness or something else.
You may have missed the next big assumed thing: deliberately defaulting on the nation's payments. Why, it's easy enough for me to balance my family budget every month right here at the kitchen table! If I can do it, Shirley, all those whipsmart congresscritters an' their overpaid staffs (or is it staves) can do it once a damn year!!!
Did you miss Rick Scott's "policy" proposals -- every bill has to be reauthorized every 5 years. Massive cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid
Sure, sure... mine is now 3.5 decades at least. Therefore, the stuff I do not know or understand about what is floating around in the heads of anyone adjacent to me at any moment is/are legion, or something...
Watching Brooks and Douthat flop around trying to convince themselves that Republicans believe in actual policies is endlessly amusing. Except for the part where they're justifying fascism.
Nov 21, 2022·edited Nov 21, 2022Liked by Roy Edroso
"Politically stateless" indeed. Of course neither of these guys could go for radical leftist Joe Biden and his wanton infrastructure spending and socialistic insulin-price-lowering.
It's like this David Brooks column I read a couple of weeks ago (forgive me, O Lord). Along with the expected both-sidesing, there's a plea, a wish that politics could go back to "practical solutions to our problems" as if Washington hasn't been in the hands of a political party doing exactly that for the past two years. Oh, if only Washington would heed the cries of our beleaguered American chip-manufacturing industry and propose some sort of legislation to help them out, but instead it's the Drag Queen Story Hour Act of 2021 and a $100 tax credit every time you remember to say "Latinx."
Nov 21, 2022·edited Nov 21, 2022Liked by Roy Edroso
Jesus Christ, is he annoying. He was riffin' on the Green New Deal, as if somehow the name made the whole thing ridiculous. OK, David, help me out here:
1. We should do something about climate change
2. The "something" we do will have the benefit of creating millions of clean-energy jobs
Now tell me, David, where are we going wrong here? Do you disagree with 1. or 2. or both?
Must be nice to make the big bucks as an opinion columnist and never be under any obligation to do anything more than "That Green New Deal, what's up with that, amirite?"
Dunno 'bout that, but I can say with frightening certainty that I saw it when it first came out, and that line devastated me. The sudden stark clarity that the hippie days were not just gone, but long, a generation gone, crushed my will to carry on...somehow I snapped out of it eventually, but the scars I can't hide...
Lol. Of course in my head canon Alex has been thru all the evolutions (vast right wing annti-Clinton conspirator, war-blogger, owned a complete old-timey “patriot” get up in the early Obama years) and works at Claremont now.
Clearly, I beg to differ re my beloved Tulsi. Nah, just can't bring myself to wallow in objectifying BS at the moment, but you all know how I feel... 😳😵💫
As for the rest of the post, with sooo much crap being rebooted and stuff, sure, Family Ties, why not?
Meanwhile, ack in the real world, there's this disturbing stuff; mind boggling among other things:
https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2022/05/12/exclusive-oath-keepers-leader-stewart-rhodes-children-speak
Read and no shit weep.
Family Zip Ties
Absolutely first-rate. "On this week's episode, the Keaton family take an early January trip to our nation's great capitol, Washington D.C."
I found that story to be oddly reassuring, dad can be a right-wing loon but the kids turn out OK. Gives me hope for the future, thanks!
It kind of is.
Of course, they can’t vote…
I'm guessing it was Mom who named the kids, because "Dakota", "Sequoia", and "Sedona" sound like a parody of Marin County liberal offspring, not Gun-Nut Nazi Dad's.
Either that or Japanese SUVs.
I'm not sure what the best part is - the "Catholic Saints", the Proud Boys manly edging, the "I know, Dad, I'm a Republican", the "all of us in public broadcasting", the Tulsi Gabbard. It's a buffet of snark, and I'm sitting down with a loaded plate!
I had to go check Wikipedia, and yes, the dad really was manager of a public television station. Which makes the whole series a manifestation of a trope that Roger Ebert used to call "How can they afford that apartment?"
Elyse was hot.
Way hotter than Tulsi Gabard.
Not gonna weigh in on the hotness question, but I will say "Meredith Baxter Birney" is one of the all-time best names to appear in TV or movie credits. Just say it a few times, it's a pleasure the way it rolls off the tongue. It's like an 80's version of Busby Berkely.
Nah, much older. A rock-ribbed Vermont 3rd-gen alderman.
Jeez, is EVERYONE in Vermont named Bernie?
Conservatism (capitalism/racism/sexism, etc) plus Idiocracy = the New Right. Checks out.
Also, ex-hippies = New Normies. Also checks out. Never thought I’d see a sketch where Alex Keaton was the most sympathetic character, lol.
Alex Keaton was always authentic about his right-wing tendencies, at least. I feel* like most Boomers of a certain age were more like Gordon Gekko than Steven Keaton once they hit the 1980s.
*I have no facts or data to support this, but in today's world, feelings are more important than truth
Nah, fuck your feelings. MY feelings, on the other hand...
are made for what, exactly...?
I think the whole "hippies go conservative as they age" trope misrecognizes that the number of actual hippies were not anywhere that large, most of what we think of as "hippie" things were really just fashion to most folks (including all y'all's beloved musical revolution), &, like for the Civil Rights movement in retrospect, it's really easy for some oatmeal motherfucker to say "Oh I was there."
Oh, I agree. Having long hair, wearing jeans, taking advantage of more sexual freedom, and going to open air concerts did NOT a revolutionary make. I think for most of them it WAS just trends and fashion. All you have to do is look at the bearded and tatted fascists in some of todays rightwing militia groups to know that looking edgy does not necessarily equate to lefty politics.
No, that can't be true, John Fetterman with his hoodie and cargo shorts and tats must be the Leftiest Senator EVAR.
LOL. I love me some Big Boy Fetterman, but based on appearance alone he could just as easily be flying the Gadsden Flag as the Gay Pride/Legal Weed flags he actually did hang from his office window in Harrisburg. Half the balding guys between 35 and 60 years old in Pennsylvania look just like him.
If you showed people two photos, one of Fetterman and one of Bernie Sanders, and asked, "Which one is more radical?" I wonder what responses you'd get.
From what I've been told, 747,000 people attended Woodstock and personally smoked a joint with Jimi Hendrix.
747,001. now the story can be told!
What was that old adage? If you're a conservative before you're 30 you have no heart. If you're a liberal after 30 you have no brain. Where is "The Middle Way" today?
The middle way is Smash the State!
or the watermelon, whatever's easier (tho the chief smasher done quit the mortal coil, I've heard)...
Actually, come to think of it, and anatomically speaking, the middle way would grab you somewhere right around the throat...
I think the Middle Way is when the President notices there's a looming national shortage of baby formula, and he actually goes and gets us some fucking formula, instead of saying, "Who do you think I am, some sort of supply clerk?"
No heart and no brain: the Tinstrawman of politics.
"No more fancy talk about budgets and infrastructure, that’s for losers. Know what our policy is? Kicking ass!"
I could see guys like Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley saying that as members of the Senate, even though I don't think either one could beat a ten year old in a street brawl.
I’d watch that!
These guys want the Horst Wessel Lied without Horst Wessel.
They're all about policy until one of those Goddamned Democrats actually goes ahead and makes the policy a reality. They wouldn't shut up about the urgent need for balancing the budget until Bill Clinton actually did it, and then suddenly they lost all interest in the subject. Likewise with infrastructure, "done by Democrats" means it's now taboo. Also market-based Romneycare health insurance "reform." If the Democrats didn't insist on actually doing stuff, Republicans might still have a few policies left to talk about.
"Balancing the Budget" is code for cutting benefits. Every time they get enough power, they cut taxes. Then they have to cut benefits to "balance the budget."
I could be wrong, and I guess we'll find out soon enough, but I'm not seeing much enthusiasm for Reagan-style "ketchup is a vegetable" budget-cutting from anyone. Seems like they gave it up sometime in the second Bush administration, and when Trump was president the whole federal budget went through each year with minor modifications. I could never figure out if it was sheer laziness or something else.
You may have missed the next big assumed thing: deliberately defaulting on the nation's payments. Why, it's easy enough for me to balance my family budget every month right here at the kitchen table! If I can do it, Shirley, all those whipsmart congresscritters an' their overpaid staffs (or is it staves) can do it once a damn year!!!
Hearted for "staves" as the plural form of staff. You can't make a pork barrel with just one staff.
Last pork barrel I had was stove in long ago...
Did you miss Rick Scott's "policy" proposals -- every bill has to be reauthorized every 5 years. Massive cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid
"Simpsons Did It!!" as policy plank
"Massive subsidies to the US microchip indus- DAMN IT"
I was never a big fan of Family Ties. I’d watch it occasionally but never found it all that funny.
Roy’s version, on the other hand, would compel me to watch every episode.
Periodic reminder that The Cosby Show was initially pitched as "a Black 'Family Ties' ".
This would probably make more sense to me if I didn’t have a two decade gap in my TV watching history.
Sure, sure... mine is now 3.5 decades at least. Therefore, the stuff I do not know or understand about what is floating around in the heads of anyone adjacent to me at any moment is/are legion, or something...
Apparently, there's some show where people live in a world with dragons. There's another one with zombies. Now you're up to date.
Thanks, pal.
I think I heard somewhere that you can meet nice people on that thing with the 8 channels – what's it called? Used to be 4 channels, apparently...
8 track?
Watching Brooks and Douthat flop around trying to convince themselves that Republicans believe in actual policies is endlessly amusing. Except for the part where they're justifying fascism.
Deeply, delightfully cynical. Through a boob tube, darkly. Well done.
I noticed we didn't hear much from the female members of the Keaton family, that's where I'd be putting my hope these days, the men are a lost cause.
Don't jinx them. One of them could go Kari Lake on us.
Then it really WOULD be Boob Tube.
They got a whole episode out of Mom finding Mallory was hiding a ring light under her bed.
"Politically stateless" indeed. Of course neither of these guys could go for radical leftist Joe Biden and his wanton infrastructure spending and socialistic insulin-price-lowering.
It's like this David Brooks column I read a couple of weeks ago (forgive me, O Lord). Along with the expected both-sidesing, there's a plea, a wish that politics could go back to "practical solutions to our problems" as if Washington hasn't been in the hands of a political party doing exactly that for the past two years. Oh, if only Washington would heed the cries of our beleaguered American chip-manufacturing industry and propose some sort of legislation to help them out, but instead it's the Drag Queen Story Hour Act of 2021 and a $100 tax credit every time you remember to say "Latinx."
The Republican Party of Brooks’ dreams is the Democratic Party, which he’ll never admit.
Jesus Christ, is he annoying. He was riffin' on the Green New Deal, as if somehow the name made the whole thing ridiculous. OK, David, help me out here:
1. We should do something about climate change
2. The "something" we do will have the benefit of creating millions of clean-energy jobs
Now tell me, David, where are we going wrong here? Do you disagree with 1. or 2. or both?
Must be nice to make the big bucks as an opinion columnist and never be under any obligation to do anything more than "That Green New Deal, what's up with that, amirite?"
You do a lotta acid, Miller, back in the hippie days?
John Wayne was a fag!
And I just watched that again, about a month ago. Does that mean I'm regressing?
Dunno 'bout that, but I can say with frightening certainty that I saw it when it first came out, and that line devastated me. The sudden stark clarity that the hippie days were not just gone, but long, a generation gone, crushed my will to carry on...somehow I snapped out of it eventually, but the scars I can't hide...
Yeah, that hit me when I first heard that line to.
Good lord, now I have the theme song for that show going through my head. *shakes fist* Edrosoooooooooooq!
Hello Pulitzer? Do you do sitcom parodies?
Ha ha bless you
Lol. Of course in my head canon Alex has been thru all the evolutions (vast right wing annti-Clinton conspirator, war-blogger, owned a complete old-timey “patriot” get up in the early Obama years) and works at Claremont now.