Problem is, they don't know any Regular People, and so they have to rely on their Friends Across the Aisle to tell them what Regular People think. And being Friends, even if they are on the other side of the Aisle, they'd never steer us wrong.
I confess: Reading the intro, I doubted that there was anything funny to mine among those Clintonite scumbags.
I confess I erred there.
Speaking of Slick Willy. I'm sooo farmisht*. I've concluded for reasons that there cannot be a heaven and hell, yet I hope for a hell so Slick Willy can suffer for eternity for what he did to the party and as a result to the nation for absolutely no justifiable reasons. (*https://jel.jewish-languages.org/words/1389)
Inflating a big man's ego even is all the justification he'll ever need. Money and power, like heroin or any other highly addictive thing, is a high some people can never stop chasing.
Funny side note. Adam Smith, he of the invisible hand, based his Capitalist theories, at least in part, on the belief that when people reached a certain level of material comfort they would retire and enjoy the fruits of their labors. Someone should have given him a fix, eh. Things might have been different.
I read Homer though, and saw the movies. The old one was a favorite when I was a child. The new one might possibly get a best picture nomination. Seen it yet? Watcha think?
While Clinton deserves some blame, it was the Party that was moving to the Right with or without him. The Democrats had just come off 12 years of being out of the White House--including the historic drubbing Reagan handed to Mondale. The Party elite became terrified of being identified with anything and everything the Democratic Party had stood for over the preceding half century.
Clinton could have been the second coming of Truman and the Party still would have forced him to the Right.
The DLC headed by Clinton was huge in applying the pressure.
And once he was successfully in office albeit probably due to Perot running, maybe turning the national party into an echo of the GOP, not a choice*, wasn’t necessary. (H/t as always to Team Goldwater.)
Not saying the DLC and Slick Willy were the only ones but they were huge, ultimately key in the decision and never looking back. Even now.
And then there were the policies favorable to Republican interests even the Republicans at time time wouldn’t push…
Fuck the fucking fuck. Cant fully defend the fully indefensible.
* * *
And consider a contra-factual: If Perot wasn’t in the race, GHW Bush would likely have won. That in turn maybe would prove that while the Powers That Be in the national party may have thought going alt-Republican was in any way smart, the electoral loss would have shown that such a move in fact wasn’t.
And to state the obvious: The last 35-odd years has shown that it sure as shit wasn’t good for the nation.
The DLC headed by Clinton was huge in applying the pressure.
And once he was successfully in office albeit probably due to Perot running, maybe turning the national party into an echo of the GOP, not a choice*, wasn’t necessary. (H/t as always to Team Goldwater.)
Not saying the DLC and Slick Willy were the only ones but they were huge, ultimately key in the decision and never looking back. Even now.
And then there were the policies favorable to Republican interests even the Republicans at time time wouldn’t push…
Fuck the fucking fuck. Cant fully defend the fully indefensible.
I remember that time, liberalism was seen as tired and out of ideas, a thing of the past. When I say "was seen as", I mean "promoted by the media", but I also remember as a liberal myself, feeling that this was true and real. Goes to show how powerful the media can be, but also they don't work from nothing, the idea is in the air, pre-existing, and then they push it HARD.
Of course, the dynamic new thing with all the hot ideas was conservatism, all the young people are ga-ga for it (OK, all the kids who write for the Dartmouth Review) it's the FUTURE (they said, and many of us believed)
FDR got it right: The capitalist pigs (as in avaricious) had to be policed or else bad things would happen. I suppose the fear was a revolution at home like the commies in Russia, but I’m not sure letting the capitalists off the leash in the 80s actually worked out for the nation, huh?
It was never any kind of rational comparison of policies, asking what actually works better, it was All Vibes, it's just in the Zeitgeist, no resisting it, Liberalism's trad, Dad!
Liberalism — covering the range from being nice to policing business excesses — never really died. It was ignored by the media and then by the national Democrats. As the old cliche goes it was failed, despite having proven it could work fine if the Powers That Be wanted it to.
But then the libs in the national Democrats were taught by Clinton that much personal enrichment was possible by selling out Democrat voters and ultimately the nation and here we are.
Shoulda noted in reply to Derelict that the party pooh-bahs may have *wanted* to move the party hard right but Slick Willy and the DLC made it actually happen. Maybe ill remember next time!
Yes, it never did go away, it stayed in thousands of beneficial government programs, even through multiple Republican administrations. And that's the thing that drives guys like Russell Vought crazy.
What gives these programs staying power is that ordinary humans really do like getting help and protection from the government, and Vought looks at that and thinks, "Right, this is why democracy must be destroyed."
That stuff is what the majority of people but far too few of our exceptional elected leaders want. (The implied slur there re Democrats references the national party. Below governors, it’s pretty much the opposite.)
Ah yes, the irresistible (apparently, never had the option to find out for myself!) lure of personal enrichment. As The Brains observed, Money Changes Everything.
More objectively, they were shit, just somewhat less so. I concede some credit to Obama for the ACA, of course, but it was born compromised and then has gotten enshittified by the Republicans.
That was my point. You guys would settle for that shit? What kind of electorate do you have? What kind of eduction system? ET FUCKING CETERA. I'm in a pissy mood this evening, and not in the mood for American apologia.
Well, back in 2024 we had the kind of electorate that allowed Trump back in power...
Or do you mean the majority of the electorate that wants a better nation than the shit we've had for the last couple of decades? A living wage, affordable healthcare and housing, maybe an end to a war being continued for no better reason than the C*nt-in-Chief is personally profiting and is incapable acknowledging an error?
Other countries’ people are other countries’ problems.
That said, we spent a few weeks in BC and Alberta in 2023 and had a great time. So you can imagine the disappointment when I saw them go hard Conservative in the last parliamentary election…
Tangentially, last week I saw a lot of people on Bluesky claiming to be "disappointed" because The Bulwark, which let's face it, should really be named Republican Consultants In Exile, went after the DSA. It's like people forget most of those guys spent the 30 years pre-Trump trying to get GOP candidates elected. So it's no surprise those guys think Dems should move right to be more like John McCain, Mitt Romney, and GHW Bush -- who all notably lost by the way, but they seem to have forgotten that detail.
Write it on the chalkboard 100 times: Don't Take Advice From Your Ideological Enemies.
I really think some people don't know the true meaning of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." It doesn't mean you are besties who have lunch and go shopping together. It is a strategic alliance with a specific, usually narrow, goal in mind -- in this case defeating out and out fascism. Once Trump is gone and MAGA is on the wane, we'll go right back to fighting with The Bulwark guys, as we should.
Sounds good in theory but doesn't work out in practice unless you are the one with more power. See the conquest of the North American Indian for reference. Every stop along the way tribes allied with the English, French, Spanish, or U.S. against their historical enemies until they were effectively wiped out.
Note the"centrists" have always employed the enemy of my enemy strategy and then put the left on a reservation when they won. Time to say "enough of that shit," imho. The enemy is the enemy.
I don't think we're in disagreement as the only point of an alliance of this type is the narrow strategic goal, of course you shouldn't actually *trust* these strategic allies or ever think they are on your side, or ever put your welfare in their hands. And if you don't also try to use the alliance to optimize your own power, you're doing it wrong.
I see them as infiltrators. They see a blue wave anti-MAGA backlash coming (fingers crossed) so they want to be inside the tent, taking control, before that happens. Abundance Bros, same thing.
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. A conservative joke making the rounds decades before Trump came along. See, you and I, with our demands for more and better social services, are the wolves, and the billionaire class is the poor sheep. Just imagine how fucked-up you need to be to hear that "joke" and think, "Boy, ain't it the truth!"
Except, the centrist/neoliberal Dems have consistently fought leftists with far more energy and punch than they've ever shown towards Trump. Look how many of them voted to approve his various nominees! Look how many of them vote to keep sending weapons and OUR MONEY to Netanyahu et. al. The enemy is the enemy, period, full-stop. Oh, and bravo, all supporters of Medicare For All! Do not give in to the weaklings and well-funded insurance lackeys!
love when you hit me like O Henry, and on a Monday, when i sit here and calculate how horrible this week will be. That last paragraph with quick surprise, but oddly obvious. Mebbe an omen, so i'll take it that this week, around some corners we might see god or suddenly hear angels sing. Well, i'll check it out.
those cats in the photo look like a cast for a local production of jesus christ superstar. (my image of hell is sitting thru that, real loud, for eternity). I think one is from Oregon, i mention with tears in my eyes. They make me wanna be always late for supper and never comb my hair.
My take on that group photo of those bright young things is "May The Meanest Dog Win,"
One by one, someone gets tossed overboard. I would predict that by the time the series wraps, only Mr. High And Tight Combat Cut will be left standing. On the other hand, Lady In Red might just cut his throat because he underestimated the depths of her Reservoir Of Ruthless Resentment.
I wasn't born in Greensboro. (whistles tunelessly). Nope, native Arkansans. (whistling continues) No part of that, certainly... (ix-nay on the bezzled-day, Henry)
This is cherce, as the elders would say in my Brooklyn yewt. As usual, it seems all too true. Why are the "combative centrists" of Third Way even Democrats? They oppose unions, Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, abolishing ICE, and the billionaire wealth tax, just to name a few. What they have done is employ a bunch of marketeers to bury any actual position in stultifying argot. Climate for example: "An affordable, clean, and reliable energy sector requires unorthodox thinking and creative problem-solving."
Looking over their web site, no one will be surprised to find that "unorthodox" is the last word that comes to mind. "Grift" maybe.
Eh, that word "class" is dangerously Marxist-adjacent, that guy was all about the class-labeling. The one I've heard most around these parts is "I'll fight for working families." It's become kind of a punchline in our household.
"WORKING FAMILIES" is also problematic. Immigrants, legal and otherwise, have families. Thanks to DEI-WOKE, so do the non-traditionaly gendered. Let's not forget the Muslims, pouring out of their mosques with all those adorable tykes wearing Minions And Monsters T-shirts. They all work at jobs that rightfully belong to White Christian Heterosexuals.
And stop asking me why I don't put my money where my mouth is and apply at Dollar General.
Apparently, wanking in the aisles at Dollar stores is now a thing. That's the only reason I don't apply, imagining when the intercom announces "Cleanup in aisle three"
I was listening to a debate between the many Democratic candidates for Wisconsin Governor and one candidate was talking about how rich people pay taxes at a lower rate that us workin'-class folks (without using the words "workin'-class" of course) and the word he used to describe this situation was "dichotomy."
I recently discovered podcasts while driving for many hours. Who knew there was such a thing? Though my parents had a different word for it. Radio, I think they called it.
Anyway, I listened to NYT interviews with Mandami and Platner and strongly recommend them both. The NYT reporter is a real piece of work. In both interviews she was obsessed with defining just who is in the working class. She has an interesting history from what I can find. Daughter of immigrants, went to Georgetown and a swanky London college. Apparently, the DSA's stock answer to the question of who is working class is pretty much anyone who gets a W2 or 1099. Seems to me that's a good way to go in general. Highlight the tax rates between income derived from working and income derived from investments or inheritance. The reporter was obviously appalled at the answer though. I could be wrong, but my impression was that she was insulted to be identified as working class. I think a lot of wealthier people associate working class with working poor, which is really not the case.
Everyone should listen to that Platner interview, btw. One reason is to hear about his experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan. If you haven't heard these kinds of stories from real combat veterans, it is eye opening in a way that knowing about it intellectually can never be. The other reason is that he is great at verbalizing all that is wrong with centrist Democrats. It's especially choice when he hands the interviewer her ass when she asks how the DSA is going to pay for health care and all their other pie in the sky policies when the budget deficit is so high. Other politicians should take note. It's a real pity he was lying about his personal life and timeline throughout the interview, and that he really is a violent criminal, not just for the victim, but for the Democrats as well. We really need people like him, minus the violent criminal part.
Oh my, a politician is using a word without having precisely defined it beforehand? Meanwhile, over the weekend the President of the United States told us that in 2024 there was a nationwide TV blackout because the wind stopped blowing. But LOL, whatever, now let's get back to the dictionary.
I was looking into what an affordable, clean, and reliable energy sector might look like and came upon the novel "The Ministry of the Future" by Kim Stanely Robinson, which tackles that topic against the backdrop of catastrophic climate change with a solid foundation in real climate science. I'm only about a fourth of the way through, but the debate seems to be between jailing or killing the rich to achieve that goal as there is no way they are going to reign themselves in. I'm curious how it plays out, though it's not looking good for humanity.
"Affordable, clean and reliable" is being built every day all over the world, and even here in these backward United States. But, you know, the original ideas came from hippies and therefore must be wildly impractical.
The button is split into three triangular sections. On the left, printed over a faint red question mark, is an image of spaghetti and meatballs. On the right, also over a faint red question mark, is an image of tire rims and anthrax. On the bottom, printed over a faint green exclamation point, is a picture of meatballs covered in anthrax.
How shall I put this? Fuck you, fuck your fee-fees, and fuck your cloud coocoo worldview. Just march right into those gas cha, er, um *showers*, that's the ticket! Useful idiots for the Useless Idiot. Liberalism destroying itself. Nope. We CAN'T all get along.
According to the NYT, the Democratic Party has no money while the Republicans are rolling around in cash. Every fat cat is gifting the fascists with gelt in hopes that Trump’s disastrous administration won’t bring about a Blue Wave in November. (Of course, the Times would never point that out.) Dems are gonna hafta win this with on the ground canvassing while the fascists dominate the ad-ways. (Also not a Times’ point.) Ed Martin is apparently clueless and losing his mind, per the Times. Meanwhile, in Wisconsin last year Musk dumped $50 million into the State Supreme Court race and lost by 10 points in the purplist state in America. Then the fascists lost again by 10 points this year in the SC race. Between all the billionaires’ money and every candidate a Platner and also Democrat-Socialist = commie, how can the fascists lose? I know, Dems could ignore the centrists!
That definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over; expecting different results.
This is the centrists exactly. Hopelessly chasing right-wing voters while they crush the hopes of the Dem rank and file. Every fucking election cycle.
But the press will never call them insane (deluded, counterproductive and clueless also come to mind, and that’s only if you generously assume they’re sincere). Like, no matter what history has made obvious, Democrats must ALWAYS AND FOREVER heed their high-priced savvy bullshit as if it’s etched in stone.
Right, it only encourages them. That's why I report it as spam (thought there's some question of if it really gets reported, much less acted on). A couple years ago I figured most of mine was from my name being sold by Act Blue. I called them up and yelled at them to stop it, and it actually did seem to help out a lot.
Oh, I'm all for Act Blue. Got an account and everything. Act Blue is how Bernie outraised Hillary Clinton even though he got zero corporate money. In many campaigns now, the Democrat has more money than the Republican, a thing I never would have thought possible. As the Democrats became more and more the party of the college-educated, this opened up a vast pool of money from people who can throw fifty bucks to a candidate without a second thought. Act Blue makes it easy, and even addictive.
Sometimes you have to take the good with the evil. But when I read about why Dems can’t raise money I suspect that a big part of it might be because of you give them any you are signing up for a lifetime of spam. That, plus the Dem establishment sucks, of course.
Good to see the NYT on the Feeding Liberal Anxieties beat. It's how you write an article that's goddamn-guaranteed to get lots of clicks from liberals.
I knew it!
JD can help the Dems woo that elusive couch fucker demographic.
Once you go Naugahide, it's the only ride!
I made a meme of that 😆 check out my notes
My girlfriend's named Heather
She's made out of pleather.
Let me introduce you to my boyfriend, Cordu-Roy
Stain resistant!
He likes it ROUGH
She has a wonderful cushion
That makes for excellent pushing
Or so I have read
*nudge* *nudge* *wink* *wink* Say no more, Guv'nor.
Isn't it amazing how "The Centrists" always manage to align themselves with Republican talking points?
Wow, almost like "The Center" has moved - or BEEN moved - to the Right over the last couple decades! Has anyone looked into this? 😱
Problem is, they don't know any Regular People, and so they have to rely on their Friends Across the Aisle to tell them what Regular People think. And being Friends, even if they are on the other side of the Aisle, they'd never steer us wrong.
I confess: Reading the intro, I doubted that there was anything funny to mine among those Clintonite scumbags.
I confess I erred there.
Speaking of Slick Willy. I'm sooo farmisht*. I've concluded for reasons that there cannot be a heaven and hell, yet I hope for a hell so Slick Willy can suffer for eternity for what he did to the party and as a result to the nation for absolutely no justifiable reasons. (*https://jel.jewish-languages.org/words/1389)
Inflating a big man's ego even is all the justification he'll ever need. Money and power, like heroin or any other highly addictive thing, is a high some people can never stop chasing.
Funny side note. Adam Smith, he of the invisible hand, based his Capitalist theories, at least in part, on the belief that when people reached a certain level of material comfort they would retire and enjoy the fruits of their labors. Someone should have given him a fix, eh. Things might have been different.
Like John Locke, dust-binned to permanent philosophical obscurity. A waste of ink.
Didn't read a lot of Greek drama, I guess
I read Homer though, and saw the movies. The old one was a favorite when I was a child. The new one might possibly get a best picture nomination. Seen it yet? Watcha think?
While Clinton deserves some blame, it was the Party that was moving to the Right with or without him. The Democrats had just come off 12 years of being out of the White House--including the historic drubbing Reagan handed to Mondale. The Party elite became terrified of being identified with anything and everything the Democratic Party had stood for over the preceding half century.
Clinton could have been the second coming of Truman and the Party still would have forced him to the Right.
The DLC headed by Clinton was huge in applying the pressure.
And once he was successfully in office albeit probably due to Perot running, maybe turning the national party into an echo of the GOP, not a choice*, wasn’t necessary. (H/t as always to Team Goldwater.)
Not saying the DLC and Slick Willy were the only ones but they were huge, ultimately key in the decision and never looking back. Even now.
And then there were the policies favorable to Republican interests even the Republicans at time time wouldn’t push…
Fuck the fucking fuck. Cant fully defend the fully indefensible.
* * *
And consider a contra-factual: If Perot wasn’t in the race, GHW Bush would likely have won. That in turn maybe would prove that while the Powers That Be in the national party may have thought going alt-Republican was in any way smart, the electoral loss would have shown that such a move in fact wasn’t.
And to state the obvious: The last 35-odd years has shown that it sure as shit wasn’t good for the nation.
The DLC headed by Clinton was huge in applying the pressure.
And once he was successfully in office albeit probably due to Perot running, maybe turning the national party into an echo of the GOP, not a choice*, wasn’t necessary. (H/t as always to Team Goldwater.)
Not saying the DLC and Slick Willy were the only ones but they were huge, ultimately key in the decision and never looking back. Even now.
And then there were the policies favorable to Republican interests even the Republicans at time time wouldn’t push…
Fuck the fucking fuck. Cant fully defend the fully indefensible.
I remember that time, liberalism was seen as tired and out of ideas, a thing of the past. When I say "was seen as", I mean "promoted by the media", but I also remember as a liberal myself, feeling that this was true and real. Goes to show how powerful the media can be, but also they don't work from nothing, the idea is in the air, pre-existing, and then they push it HARD.
Of course, the dynamic new thing with all the hot ideas was conservatism, all the young people are ga-ga for it (OK, all the kids who write for the Dartmouth Review) it's the FUTURE (they said, and many of us believed)
FDR got it right: The capitalist pigs (as in avaricious) had to be policed or else bad things would happen. I suppose the fear was a revolution at home like the commies in Russia, but I’m not sure letting the capitalists off the leash in the 80s actually worked out for the nation, huh?
It was never any kind of rational comparison of policies, asking what actually works better, it was All Vibes, it's just in the Zeitgeist, no resisting it, Liberalism's trad, Dad!
But that's a societal failure. I sincerely hope you guys recover from it.
Well, it's not like Big Media has discussed *any* important issue honestly since the late 1970s...
"letting the capitalists off the leash in the 80s" Yes! (But I think the 90s especially). Make money or die. Thanks America!
80s was St Ronnie, the 90s was the opposition party joining in with the commitment to unrestrained capitalism.
So yes, *both* decades.
Liberalism — covering the range from being nice to policing business excesses — never really died. It was ignored by the media and then by the national Democrats. As the old cliche goes it was failed, despite having proven it could work fine if the Powers That Be wanted it to.
But then the libs in the national Democrats were taught by Clinton that much personal enrichment was possible by selling out Democrat voters and ultimately the nation and here we are.
Shoulda noted in reply to Derelict that the party pooh-bahs may have *wanted* to move the party hard right but Slick Willy and the DLC made it actually happen. Maybe ill remember next time!
Yes, it never did go away, it stayed in thousands of beneficial government programs, even through multiple Republican administrations. And that's the thing that drives guys like Russell Vought crazy.
What gives these programs staying power is that ordinary humans really do like getting help and protection from the government, and Vought looks at that and thinks, "Right, this is why democracy must be destroyed."
That stuff is what the majority of people but far too few of our exceptional elected leaders want. (The implied slur there re Democrats references the national party. Below governors, it’s pretty much the opposite.)
Now, let's be fair, most elected Democrats would be happy to keep this stuff around as long as there's no fight involved.
Ah yes, the irresistible (apparently, never had the option to find out for myself!) lure of personal enrichment. As The Brains observed, Money Changes Everything.
https://youtu.be/xW2lzk5_JWM
As an outsider, I kinda look back on Clinton/Obama as halcyon days.
Only compared to GW Bush and Trump.
More objectively, they were shit, just somewhat less so. I concede some credit to Obama for the ACA, of course, but it was born compromised and then has gotten enshittified by the Republicans.
That was my point. You guys would settle for that shit? What kind of electorate do you have? What kind of eduction system? ET FUCKING CETERA. I'm in a pissy mood this evening, and not in the mood for American apologia.
Well, back in 2024 we had the kind of electorate that allowed Trump back in power...
Or do you mean the majority of the electorate that wants a better nation than the shit we've had for the last couple of decades? A living wage, affordable healthcare and housing, maybe an end to a war being continued for no better reason than the C*nt-in-Chief is personally profiting and is incapable acknowledging an error?
And you know I can beat you at being pissy...
I bet I can think of more reasons to hate Americans than you can think of to hate Canadians. I rest my case! ;-)
Other countries’ people are other countries’ problems.
That said, we spent a few weeks in BC and Alberta in 2023 and had a great time. So you can imagine the disappointment when I saw them go hard Conservative in the last parliamentary election…
Tangentially, last week I saw a lot of people on Bluesky claiming to be "disappointed" because The Bulwark, which let's face it, should really be named Republican Consultants In Exile, went after the DSA. It's like people forget most of those guys spent the 30 years pre-Trump trying to get GOP candidates elected. So it's no surprise those guys think Dems should move right to be more like John McCain, Mitt Romney, and GHW Bush -- who all notably lost by the way, but they seem to have forgotten that detail.
Write it on the chalkboard 100 times: Don't Take Advice From Your Ideological Enemies.
Yeah. I was all, “It’s Mona Charen, you whippersnappers!! Do your research. She’s not your friend.”
I really think some people don't know the true meaning of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." It doesn't mean you are besties who have lunch and go shopping together. It is a strategic alliance with a specific, usually narrow, goal in mind -- in this case defeating out and out fascism. Once Trump is gone and MAGA is on the wane, we'll go right back to fighting with The Bulwark guys, as we should.
Sounds good in theory but doesn't work out in practice unless you are the one with more power. See the conquest of the North American Indian for reference. Every stop along the way tribes allied with the English, French, Spanish, or U.S. against their historical enemies until they were effectively wiped out.
Note the"centrists" have always employed the enemy of my enemy strategy and then put the left on a reservation when they won. Time to say "enough of that shit," imho. The enemy is the enemy.
I don't think we're in disagreement as the only point of an alliance of this type is the narrow strategic goal, of course you shouldn't actually *trust* these strategic allies or ever think they are on your side, or ever put your welfare in their hands. And if you don't also try to use the alliance to optimize your own power, you're doing it wrong.
Or, as someone said last year on Bluesky, "The enemy of my enemy is me, duh."
Makes ya think, don't it? A Stephen Wright-level observation.
I see them as infiltrators. They see a blue wave anti-MAGA backlash coming (fingers crossed) so they want to be inside the tent, taking control, before that happens. Abundance Bros, same thing.
Ugh, Abundance Bros.
Wins the Mama Celeste vote. Abbondanza!
Anti-Trump =/= pro-democracy. The Night Of The Long Knives was Hitler purging anti-Nazi *conservatives*.
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. A conservative joke making the rounds decades before Trump came along. See, you and I, with our demands for more and better social services, are the wolves, and the billionaire class is the poor sheep. Just imagine how fucked-up you need to be to hear that "joke" and think, "Boy, ain't it the truth!"
Except, the centrist/neoliberal Dems have consistently fought leftists with far more energy and punch than they've ever shown towards Trump. Look how many of them voted to approve his various nominees! Look how many of them vote to keep sending weapons and OUR MONEY to Netanyahu et. al. The enemy is the enemy, period, full-stop. Oh, and bravo, all supporters of Medicare For All! Do not give in to the weaklings and well-funded insurance lackeys!
Oooohhh.
We are screwed.
Roger roger, we've been rogered.
love when you hit me like O Henry, and on a Monday, when i sit here and calculate how horrible this week will be. That last paragraph with quick surprise, but oddly obvious. Mebbe an omen, so i'll take it that this week, around some corners we might see god or suddenly hear angels sing. Well, i'll check it out.
those cats in the photo look like a cast for a local production of jesus christ superstar. (my image of hell is sitting thru that, real loud, for eternity). I think one is from Oregon, i mention with tears in my eyes. They make me wanna be always late for supper and never comb my hair.
On the nickel over there
world just keeps gettin' bigger -- i like that.
My take on that group photo of those bright young things is "May The Meanest Dog Win,"
One by one, someone gets tossed overboard. I would predict that by the time the series wraps, only Mr. High And Tight Combat Cut will be left standing. On the other hand, Lady In Red might just cut his throat because he underestimated the depths of her Reservoir Of Ruthless Resentment.
I can totally see Mr. High and Tight attaching a silencer to the Glock hidden under his jacket.
"You hit me like O Henry on a Monday",
Now variations of "Come Monday" dance in my head, but getting Mr. Porter's scansion is tasking me.
you had to be born in greensboro nc or embezzled a bank one time.
I wasn't born in Greensboro. (whistles tunelessly). Nope, native Arkansans. (whistling continues) No part of that, certainly... (ix-nay on the bezzled-day, Henry)
It’s an album cover for the most boring indy band ever.
...but I LIKE Jesus Christ Superstar.
OK, your Hell features Cats.
A jellicle hell
"world just keep gettin' bigger"
This seems to want to stir up hate against a certain kind of young person and I must say, I'm there for it!
Intergenerational hatred is the chercest hatred.
This is cherce, as the elders would say in my Brooklyn yewt. As usual, it seems all too true. Why are the "combative centrists" of Third Way even Democrats? They oppose unions, Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, abolishing ICE, and the billionaire wealth tax, just to name a few. What they have done is employ a bunch of marketeers to bury any actual position in stultifying argot. Climate for example: "An affordable, clean, and reliable energy sector requires unorthodox thinking and creative problem-solving."
Looking over their web site, no one will be surprised to find that "unorthodox" is the last word that comes to mind. "Grift" maybe.
Just drop the words "THE MIDDLE CLASS" into every third sentence and all of your dreams will come true.
Eh, that word "class" is dangerously Marxist-adjacent, that guy was all about the class-labeling. The one I've heard most around these parts is "I'll fight for working families." It's become kind of a punchline in our household.
"WORKING FAMILIES" is also problematic. Immigrants, legal and otherwise, have families. Thanks to DEI-WOKE, so do the non-traditionaly gendered. Let's not forget the Muslims, pouring out of their mosques with all those adorable tykes wearing Minions And Monsters T-shirts. They all work at jobs that rightfully belong to White Christian Heterosexuals.
And stop asking me why I don't put my money where my mouth is and apply at Dollar General.
I think you enlist, not apply at Dollar General.
Apparently, wanking in the aisles at Dollar stores is now a thing. That's the only reason I don't apply, imagining when the intercom announces "Cleanup in aisle three"
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/jul/20/dollar-tree-sexual-assault-gooner
That's whatcha call a dishonorable discharge.
Sounds slightly less fraught than working for fighting families…
Teddy Kennedy tripped up with "It's getting harder and harder to put food on your family", also at one point campaigning in Iowa: "Fam farmlies."
This is dangerous territory for any Democrat, is what I'm saying.
Every fighting family is fighting in its own way
Bazookas at dawn! (ah crap - that was the boobs thread)
Wow, just lookit those ba-ZOO-kahs! (yep, it works)
"An affordable, clean, and reliable energy sector requires unorthodox thinking and creative problem-solving."
Now THAT'S talkin' like regular people talk.
I was listening to a debate between the many Democratic candidates for Wisconsin Governor and one candidate was talking about how rich people pay taxes at a lower rate that us workin'-class folks (without using the words "workin'-class" of course) and the word he used to describe this situation was "dichotomy."
I recently discovered podcasts while driving for many hours. Who knew there was such a thing? Though my parents had a different word for it. Radio, I think they called it.
Anyway, I listened to NYT interviews with Mandami and Platner and strongly recommend them both. The NYT reporter is a real piece of work. In both interviews she was obsessed with defining just who is in the working class. She has an interesting history from what I can find. Daughter of immigrants, went to Georgetown and a swanky London college. Apparently, the DSA's stock answer to the question of who is working class is pretty much anyone who gets a W2 or 1099. Seems to me that's a good way to go in general. Highlight the tax rates between income derived from working and income derived from investments or inheritance. The reporter was obviously appalled at the answer though. I could be wrong, but my impression was that she was insulted to be identified as working class. I think a lot of wealthier people associate working class with working poor, which is really not the case.
Everyone should listen to that Platner interview, btw. One reason is to hear about his experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan. If you haven't heard these kinds of stories from real combat veterans, it is eye opening in a way that knowing about it intellectually can never be. The other reason is that he is great at verbalizing all that is wrong with centrist Democrats. It's especially choice when he hands the interviewer her ass when she asks how the DSA is going to pay for health care and all their other pie in the sky policies when the budget deficit is so high. Other politicians should take note. It's a real pity he was lying about his personal life and timeline throughout the interview, and that he really is a violent criminal, not just for the victim, but for the Democrats as well. We really need people like him, minus the violent criminal part.
Oh my, a politician is using a word without having precisely defined it beforehand? Meanwhile, over the weekend the President of the United States told us that in 2024 there was a nationwide TV blackout because the wind stopped blowing. But LOL, whatever, now let's get back to the dictionary.
Listen to the "This Is Hell" podcast if you want really, really good interviews. It used to be a radio show and is still going on the Intertubes.
"Really not the case" well, increasingly it is!
I was looking into what an affordable, clean, and reliable energy sector might look like and came upon the novel "The Ministry of the Future" by Kim Stanely Robinson, which tackles that topic against the backdrop of catastrophic climate change with a solid foundation in real climate science. I'm only about a fourth of the way through, but the debate seems to be between jailing or killing the rich to achieve that goal as there is no way they are going to reign themselves in. I'm curious how it plays out, though it's not looking good for humanity.
"Affordable, clean and reliable" is being built every day all over the world, and even here in these backward United States. But, you know, the original ideas came from hippies and therefore must be wildly impractical.
BTW, Kim Stanley Robinson has a lot to atone for, his creation Billionaire Jeff Fort is what every Techbro billionaire models himself after.
"Thinking and problem solving sold separately."
“bearing the image of a difference being split”
Do you remember “Horrifying Clichés”, that semi-regular cartoon feature in Mad Magazine by Paul Coker, Jr.?
Now I’m wondering what Splitting The Difference would look like?
https://madcoversite.com/features-horrifying_cliches.html
I do remember!
We’ll take yer 2 marks for that phrase either way.
The button is split into three triangular sections. On the left, printed over a faint red question mark, is an image of spaghetti and meatballs. On the right, also over a faint red question mark, is an image of tire rims and anthrax. On the bottom, printed over a faint green exclamation point, is a picture of meatballs covered in anthrax.
Centrism is a peanut butter and jelly and broken-glass sandwich
I first thought of Solomon and a baby,
How shall I put this? Fuck you, fuck your fee-fees, and fuck your cloud coocoo worldview. Just march right into those gas cha, er, um *showers*, that's the ticket! Useful idiots for the Useless Idiot. Liberalism destroying itself. Nope. We CAN'T all get along.
Or are you just grifters?
Hey, I resemble that last part ... or so the internet womb sniffers tell me 😆
According to the NYT, the Democratic Party has no money while the Republicans are rolling around in cash. Every fat cat is gifting the fascists with gelt in hopes that Trump’s disastrous administration won’t bring about a Blue Wave in November. (Of course, the Times would never point that out.) Dems are gonna hafta win this with on the ground canvassing while the fascists dominate the ad-ways. (Also not a Times’ point.) Ed Martin is apparently clueless and losing his mind, per the Times. Meanwhile, in Wisconsin last year Musk dumped $50 million into the State Supreme Court race and lost by 10 points in the purplist state in America. Then the fascists lost again by 10 points this year in the SC race. Between all the billionaires’ money and every candidate a Platner and also Democrat-Socialist = commie, how can the fascists lose? I know, Dems could ignore the centrists!
That definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over; expecting different results.
This is the centrists exactly. Hopelessly chasing right-wing voters while they crush the hopes of the Dem rank and file. Every fucking election cycle.
But the press will never call them insane (deluded, counterproductive and clueless also come to mind, and that’s only if you generously assume they’re sincere). Like, no matter what history has made obvious, Democrats must ALWAYS AND FOREVER heed their high-priced savvy bullshit as if it’s etched in stone.
The Why We Can’t Have Nice Things Institute.
"But the press will never call them insane"
Not calling clearly insane things insane seems to be a permanent feature of our media.
I hit delete and report spam for every Democratic fund raising invasion of privacy that soils my messages feed. I sense I am not alone in that.
I text back STOP but they never STOP
Right, it only encourages them. That's why I report it as spam (thought there's some question of if it really gets reported, much less acted on). A couple years ago I figured most of mine was from my name being sold by Act Blue. I called them up and yelled at them to stop it, and it actually did seem to help out a lot.
Oh, I'm all for Act Blue. Got an account and everything. Act Blue is how Bernie outraised Hillary Clinton even though he got zero corporate money. In many campaigns now, the Democrat has more money than the Republican, a thing I never would have thought possible. As the Democrats became more and more the party of the college-educated, this opened up a vast pool of money from people who can throw fifty bucks to a candidate without a second thought. Act Blue makes it easy, and even addictive.
Sometimes you have to take the good with the evil. But when I read about why Dems can’t raise money I suspect that a big part of it might be because of you give them any you are signing up for a lifetime of spam. That, plus the Dem establishment sucks, of course.
"Dems can’t raise money"
I don't think this is actually true. Is it based on that NY Times article? 'nuff said.
That's what email server blacklists are for
That works for messages? I don’t care about emails
Good to see the NYT on the Feeding Liberal Anxieties beat. It's how you write an article that's goddamn-guaranteed to get lots of clicks from liberals.
Tee tee. Didn't even think of "fair to middlin'" because that's native patois. Your cultural outreach is going well, Boss.
"I still don’t get it. I thought Third Way had it exactly right: “Abolish ICE Abuses — Not ICE.”
PARIS: Classic centrism!
POPPY: But the center keeps moving, Mart, you said so yourself."
Like the dude said
"The center cannot hold… Mere anarchy "(or maybe socialism)"loosed against the world..."
The Overton Window now offers a lovely view of Hitler’s mountain retreat.
Ah, but the Democratic Centrists ordered the double-glazing, to save energy.
I knew it! Another Fetterman alum who has his finger on the pulse of ... Takoma Park?
Hey, Takoma Park doesn't deserve that!