Making some sort of hero of Pence (after his tete-a-tete with Dan Quayle) for not submitting to the Insurrection plan is sickmaking. And as you say, clearly subjected a historical revision and outright falsification.
But this weak reed of GOP Probity is about all they got...
Pence isn't stupid. He saw QueensMan fold like a spent Hindenburg when the entire Justice Dept. said NOPE! to the Jeff Clark Gambit® on Jan the 3rd. QueensMan showed the world he was too weak to push the Big Bleep up that last hill, and Pence realized anyone still willing to play along would be among the first up against the wall when Truth, Justice and the Merkin Way came after 'em. And it was abundantly clear then that QueensMan would not (and could not*) lift a finger to save them for going along with his flamboyantly fascistic fantasy.
*because by then everyone with a lick of sense knew he'd be gone on Jan 20.
Meh. Pence could quite easily have gone along with what Trump was demanding. After all, as a Republican, Pence would have seen his chance to impose the theocracy he has long advocated. And for the vast majority of Republicans, the Constitution is just some sort of pain-in-the-ass piece of paper that really needs to go away.
But Pence didn't pounce. Whatever fantasy he needs to cook up to justify his actions, he actually DID stand up. For perhaps the first time in his life, Pence took a stand that went against everything else he believed in. Though I despise the man with a white-hot fury, I still have to give him props for that.
He's like Admiral Dönitz, who briefly succeeded Hitler and signed the instrument of surrender. Good job, Admiral! Now, we've got some folks in Nuremburg who'd like to talk to you.
BTW I'll have you know I had a Praeger U ad pop up on the results for that search and I was so upset I had to lie down with a cold washcloth on my eyes.
God, I hate that shit. Kid looking at a laptop during dinner, suddenly yells hey, dad, did you know AMERICA IS RACIST? Fucking puh-lease.
"Pence would have seen his chance to impose the theocracy he has long advocated." I disagree -- Trump would have probably brought in Steve Bannon and his gladiators to swap out Jesus for Sol Invictus, and every evangelical Republican would say, "that's who we meant all along, all hail the Sun God!"
Roy's bullshit detector has a CASE! Mine's just some in a crappy faux-leather plastic bag with a seam coming apart. I bet Roy's also has the silent vibrate mode. No wonder he's charging this obscene...uhm, overly, uhm...well, shit, this joint's practically free! How does he do it??!!
There are more than a few Democrats and liberals who really need to break their addiction to the idea there are Good Republicans who are just itching to come to the fore once the MAGA fever breaks. They need to get that monkey off their backs – there are no good Republicans.
I will add that while there are no good Republicans, there is a “good” Republican, in the sense of being an entertaining one. I speak of none other than George Santos. This guy fascinates me in the most horrific way. It’s like all the vice, venality, hypocrisy, and malice of the Republican Party has been distilled down in concentrated form into one buffoonish guy. I honestly hope Netflix options an Anna Delvey-type series about him, I would watch the hell out of it.
Did you see there's a Santos biography coming out? Some guy who's a reporter at Newsday and has known him for a couple of years, getting it out in print just in time for George's defenestration. When I first saw this I thought, "Who the fuck would read this? Haven't we all had enough of this asshole?" But after reading the review I have to admit I was half-interested.
The Talented Mr. Ripley is referenced in the review, and something like that would be the high-art way to go, but I agree if if's a movie it needs to be trashy just like him, Valley of the Dolls meets Long Island Lolita.
I'm actually OK with there being a nationally broadcast show where right-wing assholes go to humiliate themselves publicly. As long as I don't have to watch.
My God, yes. I don't know what you do for a living, but you missed your true calling as a casting director.
In the musical, I want the actor who plays Santos to wear a Carmen Miranda tropical headdress while singing a song dissing all his fellow GOPs Congresscritters -- MTG, Boebert, Gym Jordan, Matt Gaetz, all of them.
I was actually a little shocked at his 3-hour rant, and how indignant he was at THE UNFAIRNESS of his treatment at the hands of his fellow Congressmen. I don't spend enough time around psychopaths to remember that's just how they are.
I wish we could post images here, because this is the place to share the picture of George Santos looking heavenward with the caption, “Are you there, God? It’s me, Cher.”
Only the Cohn brothers could do Santos justice. Or maybe Terry Gilliam.
I think "good Republican" is meant to be one who wants to sieze control of the government by strictly legal means, like vote suppression and gerrymandering, and would only overthrow an elected government according to the Constitution, all nice and legal-like.
Sure the Pence stuff pinged the bullshit detector but the damn thing exploded when presented with Kevin McCarthy’s claim that Trump was so depressed after the election he stopped eating.
But seriously, who is the audience for the tender tale of a friendship so cherished it pained the Vice President of the United States to do his fucking job?
Looks like the piece where I pull out the old tropes...
First, "liberal media" is a term coined by conservatives as a slur and not an accurate characterization. To the extent there's a basis to it, it worked off of Vietnam and Watergate coverage, both of which actually started off conservative enough but, in the case of Nam, the facts became too overwhelming for bullshit and the reporters' kids didn't want to get drafted, at least for the shit show in southeast Asia. Similarly, Watergate coverage was mild and deferential to Tricky Dick. What I can't recollect is the timing of the shift, whether it was before or after McGovern got the nomination and the writing appeared on the wall. Meanwhile, someone who was mad that Nixon didn't choose him to replace J Edgar and therefore found a reporter willing to push the leaks of an anonymous source -- a reporter with an alleged relationship to the IC. (If so, maybe having removed JFK from office, they believed they could do the same with with Nixon once he appeared to be a liability. This is, of course, all speculation.)
Did I say a very brief golden age of responsible political reporting, anomalous yet always trotted out by the media for marketing, and still by wing nuts who want to play the liberal media card.
Back to now: The media are dealing with the fact that their audiences are literally dying out It's not just Fox that has an audience full of dotards, so, you now, more than ever they pander to the audience. And the owners are fascists* so of course political reporting skews to the right or, rather, these days, the far right. (*I'm using a definition of capitalists opposed to democracy and have no issue with the government corrupted by other capitalists. The OG definition -- pretty much just Mussolini, maybe the Bolsheviks -- is much too narrow to have any, uh, value.)
So put it together, of course you have to get the both sides bullshit.
That said, it seems that the Times was *displeased* (h/t P Noonan by way of R Edroso) with Fulton County (GA) Inmate No. P01135809's** use of the word vermin and therefore might be moving towards covering the fucker somewhere in the range of a threat to the nation. (**H/t Bro. CB Pierce.)
BTW, if I'm correct, "Anyone can spot these absurdities; the only reason to pretend you don’t is if your livelihood depends on pretending you don’t see them..." is pushing 100, coined by Sinclair Lewis IIRC (and this I would not bet on). Instant update; can confirm I'm correct: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/11/30/salary/
As for Pence, please. He's a Republican. 'Nuff said.
"I'm using a definition of capitalists opposed to democracy and have no issue with the government corrupted by other capitalists." Frank Capra's, too, as I recall.
What I can't recollect is the timing of the shift, whether it was before or after McGovern got the nomination and the writing appeared on the wall.
The events that comprise Watergate occurred about a month before McGovern became the Dem candidate and the burglars were convicted in January 1973 and were connected to Nixon by April 1973. The shift happened between January 1973 and April 1973
I recall when the break-in occurred, just not quite the sequence of events, when what happened in relation to what and when our even-then exceptional DC press corps whipped out the knives for Tricky Dick.
Of course I could look it up, but first I’d have to be interested in doing so, and…
David Brock (I believe) having admitted in the 90s that there was no actual "liberal media", plus the prolonged tonguebath the ""liberal" media gave Reagan as chronicled in On Bended Knee by Mark Hertsgaard.
But Henry Kissmyassinger is finally, FINALLY deceased, so the world's a bit brighter tonight. Hopefully someone thwacked him on the head to make sure the fucker's really gone.
Given all the Jews fleeing the Holocaust who were turned away, it turned out to be a historic disaster (partly ironic, too) letting little Heinz and his family into the nation.
Wait, was it Dan Quayle who reminded Pence what the Constitution requires or his Marine son? Or did he need multiple reminders because he couldn’t make up his mind? Or maybe Pence’s guardian angel came down to show him what the country would be like if he didn’t exist and it was all boarding houses and floozies and poverty and Mr. Trump owned everything and it was all shit and...oh, never mind, he wouldn’t care.
This. I mean, as Veep you’re kind of supposed to do the right thing because…it’s the right thing. You shouldn’t need to enlist a bunch of people to tell you “don’t overthrow a Presidential election, maybe?” And the “my friend” thing is just jaw-dropping.
"My friend" is a face-saving, "we had a relationship of reciprocal equality" trope by which Pence pretends he wasn't just a subservient pawn bringing in evangelical votes.
I picture the Marine son in his full dress uniform standing at attention with his ceremonial sword at his side during this conversation. At least that's how I'd stage it.
“Or maybe Pence’s guardian angel came down to show him what the country would be like if he didn’t exist and it was all boarding houses and floozies and poverty and Mr. Trump owned everything and it was all shit and...oh, never mind, he wouldn’t care.”
Excellent newsletter Roy. As Napoleon once said, “history is a series of lies; agreed upon!”
Unfortunately, it’s not the victors revising history, it’s the MSN that continually legitimizes the indefensible and absurd.
As far as Pence is concerned; he’s always been a halfwit at best, and a nitwit, always! We didn’t need to hear about the recent revisionist history regarding J6th. Pence, tied himself into a pretzel playing political jujitsu trying to appease the tangerine terrorist.
He flirted with suspending the electoral count; knew about, and partook in many of the insurgent meetings, and only changed his mind, after America’s 21st century political Einstein; Dan Quayle set him straight. Only to later learn that his marine son, also played a role in dismantling the insurgency.
Not to mention, it took Pence two years, a presidential run, and a book tour to finally come clean about the Trump administration. And guess what? When asked if he’d vote for Trump again, the poor man’s Bobby Knight was the first to raise his hand.
If there is any lesson to be learned; it’s that the Mango Mafia is bigger than any one man, including Trump himself. It’s a network of facetious fascists and authoritarian kleptocrats who will stop at nothing to inflict their parochial viewpoints on the rest of us.
Like Jared Yates Sexton pointed out in his pod this week, even if King Toad is kept out of the White House, Project 2025 will be quietly filed away for the next opportunity.
You weren't the only one whose bullshit detector went wild. Evan Hurst at Wonkette said Pence's testimony was the worst Hallmark Christmas movie, and I just wanted to pay tribute to that. https://www.wonkette.com/p/mike-pence-testimony-to-jack-smith
I was shocked, SHOCKED I TELL YOU to learn that people from Indiana actually go to Colorado for their vacations. What, the Indiana ski scene isn't hot enough for you?
I'm gonna stick up for lying as means of moral instruction (and a proud American tradition too!). See, this is like a fable, we learn that violently overthrowing the United States Government is wrong, through the words of fictional character Marine Son. Of course it's bullshit. but it's like those stories about Washington chopping down the cherry tree, or Lincoln walking five miles through the snow to return a borrowed book, why quibble about details like what's true or not when there are kids (and their parents too!) who have got an important moral lesson to learn?
For some reason I cannot explain my life has put in the company of an unfair number of folks who still support Trump. Not just at work. My bother-in-law told me the day after Thanksgiving as I was making breakfast for the family, he voted for Trump and will probably do so again, even though he does not believe, as some of my coworkers, the man is "anointed by God."
This is how far the swing from reality, largely because of the framing in the media, has taken us in our consideration of political norms. Now, I'm not saying I could not imagine these extremes. Certainly as parody and humor, these are no stretch. It's the fact I know persons who are dead serious about it.
And why have we arrived at this comedy sketch situation in our state of disunion? Because lots of people are alienated from our world, from their own lives, plain and simple. They don't know what's going on inside or outside themselves. Their identities are fabrications as faulty as the beliefs and truths they hold to be fragile but still hang onto firmly.
They have nothing else. They are truly lost souls. What they valued has betrayed them and proves every day more worthless, but they find no alternatives. They are like base runners caught in a pickle but they have chosen to run off into the outfield. There are no rules where survival is concerned!
I think about people like this way too much, it is my burden, and I must carry it without complaint, but sometimes I wonder if I'm overthinking, and all can be explained by simple inertia. You voted for Trump in the 2016 Republican primary, then in the 2016 Presidential election, then in the 2020 Presidential election. Gosh, what are you going to do now? How about exactly what you've been doing for the past seven years? Doing anything else would require thinking, and caring about stuff, do you really want to do that?
Naomi Klein theorized that a number of people in the Alternate Reality camp are prone to believe in conspiracy theories because they have witnessed decades of important people flagrantly breaking the law and violating norms, and suffering no consequences. At that point, when no justice ever asserts itself, some people just snap and think the Bilderberg Group (or whatever) must be running the show. Sure, these people are probably damaged in other ways too, but it was an intriguing hypothesis.
Depends on which group you're trying to explain. So if we're thinking about the true-believers, the cultists, the QAnon freaks, they may have some deep psychological needs that are being met by the cult, which is why cults attract people in the first place, of course.
But for every one of those people I'd bet there are 10 Republican car dealers who are just gonna vote Republican, no matter who it is, because why wouldn't they? Rethinking the habits of a lifetime isn't easy, and it requires a strong motivation, and these people simply don't care enough to even try.
Oh for sure. Most people who vote Repub continue to do so because it’s their identity, nothing more. Even the ones who are Good Now, Actually still say they’re going to vote for corrupt fascists anyway, despite their glorious epiphany that got them a gig on MSNBC.
Klein's seems a partial explanation and may even be a self-reported response from some of these folks. My impression is that the conspiracy histrionics are a subset of what we all do to find meaning and rationalize our behavior. They seek answers that provide order and comfort from chaos and events that otherwise would leave them clueless and powerless. They know the truth! It gives them back control.
Reminds me of Sarah Kendzior's similar take. I'm reading her They Knew. It's okay, I guess, but it's like store-brand ice cream: not 100% first-rate ingredients. It's mainly (well-written, scathing) polemics, with barely enough actual facts and reportage to support. Then again, I've often wondered why there aren't left-wing equivalents of the books of Coulter, Hannity, etc., so maybe this is one of them.
Sometimes it makes me think about Stephen King's novel "11-23-63", in which the main character stumbles upon a kind of wormhole that shoots him back to 1962 so he can prevent Kennedy's assassination. There are all sorts of temporal rules and glitches, resulting in repeated trips back to undo the havoc his historical changes wreak.
I imagine Trump and Trump-adjacent voters catch glimpses of what they figure will happen if the reality they are familiar with comes undone and it's so scary because they're sure they will meet the same fate as they've been content to see afflicting everyone who's not them. What a horror-show, to be knocked off their position at the right hand of their merciless white Judeo-Christian god. Perish the thought and stick with their present reality, however unsatisfying it might be, because it's their last, best and only hope. They can't imagine that maybe we're not as mean and vengeful as they are.
Meanwhile, we have a real, live Afrikaner in our presence who can't stop shooting his damn mouth and could easily explain to these fearful people that White folks in South Africa are doin' just fine, even with black majority rule. Something about owning all the businesses and all the best land, I think.
Ahem...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ij4LPSalo5w
Making some sort of hero of Pence (after his tete-a-tete with Dan Quayle) for not submitting to the Insurrection plan is sickmaking. And as you say, clearly subjected a historical revision and outright falsification.
But this weak reed of GOP Probity is about all they got...
Yeah. The story is nonsense.
Pence isn't stupid. He saw QueensMan fold like a spent Hindenburg when the entire Justice Dept. said NOPE! to the Jeff Clark Gambit® on Jan the 3rd. QueensMan showed the world he was too weak to push the Big Bleep up that last hill, and Pence realized anyone still willing to play along would be among the first up against the wall when Truth, Justice and the Merkin Way came after 'em. And it was abundantly clear then that QueensMan would not (and could not*) lift a finger to save them for going along with his flamboyantly fascistic fantasy.
*because by then everyone with a lick of sense knew he'd be gone on Jan 20.
Meh. Pence could quite easily have gone along with what Trump was demanding. After all, as a Republican, Pence would have seen his chance to impose the theocracy he has long advocated. And for the vast majority of Republicans, the Constitution is just some sort of pain-in-the-ass piece of paper that really needs to go away.
But Pence didn't pounce. Whatever fantasy he needs to cook up to justify his actions, he actually DID stand up. For perhaps the first time in his life, Pence took a stand that went against everything else he believed in. Though I despise the man with a white-hot fury, I still have to give him props for that.
He's like Admiral Dönitz, who briefly succeeded Hitler and signed the instrument of surrender. Good job, Admiral! Now, we've got some folks in Nuremburg who'd like to talk to you.
Mmmmm . . . Donitz!
I see what you did there.
Relevant:
https://youtu.be/gdfIKXqEZ2I?si=-wzj09tWpq6HdoFV
BTW I'll have you know I had a Praeger U ad pop up on the results for that search and I was so upset I had to lie down with a cold washcloth on my eyes.
God, I hate that shit. Kid looking at a laptop during dinner, suddenly yells hey, dad, did you know AMERICA IS RACIST? Fucking puh-lease.
I had a Victor Davis Hamster video play before that video, and I have to plunge steel knitting needles into my eyes.
"Ich ben ein Donitz."
Jawohl, mein herr!
"Pence would have seen his chance to impose the theocracy he has long advocated." I disagree -- Trump would have probably brought in Steve Bannon and his gladiators to swap out Jesus for Sol Invictus, and every evangelical Republican would say, "that's who we meant all along, all hail the Sun God!"
"Look, I just want to be ruled over by a stern and vengeful God who smites my enemies, I don't really care what he's named."
There HAS to be a Big Angry Daddy at the top of the hierarchy.
Zeus, Moloch, Kali, whatever. Don't bother me with the details.
"In The Name Of God, The Merciful, The Compassionate (and who created man from clots of blood). . ."
ALL HAIL THE SUN GOD
HE IS THE FUN GOD
RA! RA! RA!
Roy's bullshit detector has a CASE! Mine's just some in a crappy faux-leather plastic bag with a seam coming apart. I bet Roy's also has the silent vibrate mode. No wonder he's charging this obscene...uhm, overly, uhm...well, shit, this joint's practically free! How does he do it??!!
"Roy's bullshit detector has a CASE!"
... that case is the Dative Case. Very tony & old-world.
Mine is in an ablative case
"Bullshit!" *tosses across room*
I really don't care who his case dates, as long as it works to uncover the BS
There are more than a few Democrats and liberals who really need to break their addiction to the idea there are Good Republicans who are just itching to come to the fore once the MAGA fever breaks. They need to get that monkey off their backs – there are no good Republicans.
I will add that while there are no good Republicans, there is a “good” Republican, in the sense of being an entertaining one. I speak of none other than George Santos. This guy fascinates me in the most horrific way. It’s like all the vice, venality, hypocrisy, and malice of the Republican Party has been distilled down in concentrated form into one buffoonish guy. I honestly hope Netflix options an Anna Delvey-type series about him, I would watch the hell out of it.
'Bye Bye Brazil' is already taken. Maybe 'Brazil and Back Again'?
To Rio With No Regrets.
Reminiscent of 'Flying Down to Rio (Steve's ears just pinged) but without the jaunty GingerFred patter.
"Lying Down to Rio" was right there, just crying to be picked up.
The Goys From Brazil
Same.
Did you see there's a Santos biography coming out? Some guy who's a reporter at Newsday and has known him for a couple of years, getting it out in print just in time for George's defenestration. When I first saw this I thought, "Who the fuck would read this? Haven't we all had enough of this asshole?" But after reading the review I have to admit I was half-interested.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/nov/29/the-fabulist-review-george-santos-congress-expelled
Enough of him? Can't stop, won't stop. The book looks intriguing, but I'm waiting for the biographical dramatization, baby.
The Talented Mr. Ripley is referenced in the review, and something like that would be the high-art way to go, but I agree if if's a movie it needs to be trashy just like him, Valley of the Dolls meets Long Island Lolita.
The Not-So-Talented Mr. Santos
George Santos will be on The Masked Singer within 6 months. You read it here first.
I'm actually OK with there being a nationally broadcast show where right-wing assholes go to humiliate themselves publicly. As long as I don't have to watch.
Josh Gad in the lead?
Perfect.
No -- Andrew Rannells -- even better. I'm with you. Hoping for a musical extravaganza!
Finally, Santos makes it to Broadway.
My God, yes. I don't know what you do for a living, but you missed your true calling as a casting director.
In the musical, I want the actor who plays Santos to wear a Carmen Miranda tropical headdress while singing a song dissing all his fellow GOPs Congresscritters -- MTG, Boebert, Gym Jordan, Matt Gaetz, all of them.
There is no way he doesn't have his own memoir in the works. And I am there for it. Especially the audio version.
I was actually a little shocked at his 3-hour rant, and how indignant he was at THE UNFAIRNESS of his treatment at the hands of his fellow Congressmen. I don't spend enough time around psychopaths to remember that's just how they are.
It was hard to concentrate on the message because of what he has done to his face with donor money.
I wish we could post images here, because this is the place to share the picture of George Santos looking heavenward with the caption, “Are you there, God? It’s me, Cher.”
Did you know Cher is actually a close personal friend of his? (lol)
Only the Cohn brothers could do Santos justice. Or maybe Terry Gilliam.
I think "good Republican" is meant to be one who wants to sieze control of the government by strictly legal means, like vote suppression and gerrymandering, and would only overthrow an elected government according to the Constitution, all nice and legal-like.
Sure the Pence stuff pinged the bullshit detector but the damn thing exploded when presented with Kevin McCarthy’s claim that Trump was so depressed after the election he stopped eating.
Stopped eating... who? (hat tip to Olberman)
Plus, it's dollars to (literally) donuts that when Trump is depressed, he eats even more.
But seriously, who is the audience for the tender tale of a friendship so cherished it pained the Vice President of the United States to do his fucking job?
Either Pence's entire stick-up-his-ass, god-bothering persona is a bunch of bullshit, or there is no way he "liked" Trump as his "friend."
Adios Muchacho!
I do not want to see the subreddit focused on Mike Pence /fanfiction.
"Oh, MOTHER! he cried..."
"But she turned away, and into the arms of the brawny, All-American former high school football star turned U.S. Marine, her very own spawn."
Looks like the piece where I pull out the old tropes...
First, "liberal media" is a term coined by conservatives as a slur and not an accurate characterization. To the extent there's a basis to it, it worked off of Vietnam and Watergate coverage, both of which actually started off conservative enough but, in the case of Nam, the facts became too overwhelming for bullshit and the reporters' kids didn't want to get drafted, at least for the shit show in southeast Asia. Similarly, Watergate coverage was mild and deferential to Tricky Dick. What I can't recollect is the timing of the shift, whether it was before or after McGovern got the nomination and the writing appeared on the wall. Meanwhile, someone who was mad that Nixon didn't choose him to replace J Edgar and therefore found a reporter willing to push the leaks of an anonymous source -- a reporter with an alleged relationship to the IC. (If so, maybe having removed JFK from office, they believed they could do the same with with Nixon once he appeared to be a liability. This is, of course, all speculation.)
Did I say a very brief golden age of responsible political reporting, anomalous yet always trotted out by the media for marketing, and still by wing nuts who want to play the liberal media card.
Back to now: The media are dealing with the fact that their audiences are literally dying out It's not just Fox that has an audience full of dotards, so, you now, more than ever they pander to the audience. And the owners are fascists* so of course political reporting skews to the right or, rather, these days, the far right. (*I'm using a definition of capitalists opposed to democracy and have no issue with the government corrupted by other capitalists. The OG definition -- pretty much just Mussolini, maybe the Bolsheviks -- is much too narrow to have any, uh, value.)
So put it together, of course you have to get the both sides bullshit.
That said, it seems that the Times was *displeased* (h/t P Noonan by way of R Edroso) with Fulton County (GA) Inmate No. P01135809's** use of the word vermin and therefore might be moving towards covering the fucker somewhere in the range of a threat to the nation. (**H/t Bro. CB Pierce.)
BTW, if I'm correct, "Anyone can spot these absurdities; the only reason to pretend you don’t is if your livelihood depends on pretending you don’t see them..." is pushing 100, coined by Sinclair Lewis IIRC (and this I would not bet on). Instant update; can confirm I'm correct: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/11/30/salary/
As for Pence, please. He's a Republican. 'Nuff said.
M. le Manque has returned to the Old Tropes Home, thank goodness.
QueensMan mighta gone off his feed, but it gave us a new nickname*, so there's that...
*What's that? Oh, sorry: KetchupSlinger, of course.
The Ketchup Kid, a bottle in each holster.
"I'm using a definition of capitalists opposed to democracy and have no issue with the government corrupted by other capitalists." Frank Capra's, too, as I recall.
What I can't recollect is the timing of the shift, whether it was before or after McGovern got the nomination and the writing appeared on the wall.
The events that comprise Watergate occurred about a month before McGovern became the Dem candidate and the burglars were convicted in January 1973 and were connected to Nixon by April 1973. The shift happened between January 1973 and April 1973
I recall when the break-in occurred, just not quite the sequence of events, when what happened in relation to what and when our even-then exceptional DC press corps whipped out the knives for Tricky Dick.
Of course I could look it up, but first I’d have to be interested in doing so, and…
David Brock (I believe) having admitted in the 90s that there was no actual "liberal media", plus the prolonged tonguebath the ""liberal" media gave Reagan as chronicled in On Bended Knee by Mark Hertsgaard.
But Henry Kissmyassinger is finally, FINALLY deceased, so the world's a bit brighter tonight. Hopefully someone thwacked him on the head to make sure the fucker's really gone.
How can I put this, like, tastefully...
Given all the Jews fleeing the Holocaust who were turned away, it turned out to be a historic disaster (partly ironic, too) letting little Heinz and his family into the nation.
Wait, was it Dan Quayle who reminded Pence what the Constitution requires or his Marine son? Or did he need multiple reminders because he couldn’t make up his mind? Or maybe Pence’s guardian angel came down to show him what the country would be like if he didn’t exist and it was all boarding houses and floozies and poverty and Mr. Trump owned everything and it was all shit and...oh, never mind, he wouldn’t care.
Mother was leaving post-it's on the fridge: "Duty 2 Const."
"Pick up a spine at the grocery store in the way home."
(Yes, as a matter of fact, oxtail *is* in short supply these days.)
Thanks a lot, Biden!
No soup for you!
This. I mean, as Veep you’re kind of supposed to do the right thing because…it’s the right thing. You shouldn’t need to enlist a bunch of people to tell you “don’t overthrow a Presidential election, maybe?” And the “my friend” thing is just jaw-dropping.
"My friend" is a face-saving, "we had a relationship of reciprocal equality" trope by which Pence pretends he wasn't just a subservient pawn bringing in evangelical votes.
I'm on to you – you're just channeling Roy's AI post from yesterday. Next thing you know Pence'll just be another individual.
This is the best explanation.
He certainly couldn't be invited to the teenager massage parties, like a REAL friend.
King Toad, much like Deputy Dan, has no friends.
I picture the Marine son in his full dress uniform standing at attention with his ceremonial sword at his side during this conversation. At least that's how I'd stage it.
Uniform still soaking wet after wading ashore at Iwo Jima.
Again???
Ha!
Iwo Jima, Inchon, guys just walkin' out of the sea like Poseidon all over the place
“Or maybe Pence’s guardian angel came down to show him what the country would be like if he didn’t exist and it was all boarding houses and floozies and poverty and Mr. Trump owned everything and it was all shit and...oh, never mind, he wouldn’t care.”
It’s a Wonderful Lie!
Excellent newsletter Roy. As Napoleon once said, “history is a series of lies; agreed upon!”
Unfortunately, it’s not the victors revising history, it’s the MSN that continually legitimizes the indefensible and absurd.
As far as Pence is concerned; he’s always been a halfwit at best, and a nitwit, always! We didn’t need to hear about the recent revisionist history regarding J6th. Pence, tied himself into a pretzel playing political jujitsu trying to appease the tangerine terrorist.
He flirted with suspending the electoral count; knew about, and partook in many of the insurgent meetings, and only changed his mind, after America’s 21st century political Einstein; Dan Quayle set him straight. Only to later learn that his marine son, also played a role in dismantling the insurgency.
Not to mention, it took Pence two years, a presidential run, and a book tour to finally come clean about the Trump administration. And guess what? When asked if he’d vote for Trump again, the poor man’s Bobby Knight was the first to raise his hand.
If there is any lesson to be learned; it’s that the Mango Mafia is bigger than any one man, including Trump himself. It’s a network of facetious fascists and authoritarian kleptocrats who will stop at nothing to inflict their parochial viewpoints on the rest of us.
Like Jared Yates Sexton pointed out in his pod this week, even if King Toad is kept out of the White House, Project 2025 will be quietly filed away for the next opportunity.
"fancy-pants J-school dipshits who have been trained to overcome the gag reflex a normal person would experience when dealing with them;"
That's the good stuff right there!
It's not just the fancy pants J - schools.
It's the unpaid internships that guarantee Big Media is Nepo Baby Central.
Good article!
Yeah, even yer pups would smell thru it and take a hard pass.
You weren't the only one whose bullshit detector went wild. Evan Hurst at Wonkette said Pence's testimony was the worst Hallmark Christmas movie, and I just wanted to pay tribute to that. https://www.wonkette.com/p/mike-pence-testimony-to-jack-smith
I was shocked, SHOCKED I TELL YOU to learn that people from Indiana actually go to Colorado for their vacations. What, the Indiana ski scene isn't hot enough for you?
I'm gonna stick up for lying as means of moral instruction (and a proud American tradition too!). See, this is like a fable, we learn that violently overthrowing the United States Government is wrong, through the words of fictional character Marine Son. Of course it's bullshit. but it's like those stories about Washington chopping down the cherry tree, or Lincoln walking five miles through the snow to return a borrowed book, why quibble about details like what's true or not when there are kids (and their parents too!) who have got an important moral lesson to learn?
"It ain't me/it ain't me/I ain't no Vice President's Son
It ain't me/it ain't me/I ain't no gullible one. . ."
For some reason I cannot explain my life has put in the company of an unfair number of folks who still support Trump. Not just at work. My bother-in-law told me the day after Thanksgiving as I was making breakfast for the family, he voted for Trump and will probably do so again, even though he does not believe, as some of my coworkers, the man is "anointed by God."
This is how far the swing from reality, largely because of the framing in the media, has taken us in our consideration of political norms. Now, I'm not saying I could not imagine these extremes. Certainly as parody and humor, these are no stretch. It's the fact I know persons who are dead serious about it.
And why have we arrived at this comedy sketch situation in our state of disunion? Because lots of people are alienated from our world, from their own lives, plain and simple. They don't know what's going on inside or outside themselves. Their identities are fabrications as faulty as the beliefs and truths they hold to be fragile but still hang onto firmly.
They have nothing else. They are truly lost souls. What they valued has betrayed them and proves every day more worthless, but they find no alternatives. They are like base runners caught in a pickle but they have chosen to run off into the outfield. There are no rules where survival is concerned!
But who's covering the bases anyway?
I think about people like this way too much, it is my burden, and I must carry it without complaint, but sometimes I wonder if I'm overthinking, and all can be explained by simple inertia. You voted for Trump in the 2016 Republican primary, then in the 2016 Presidential election, then in the 2020 Presidential election. Gosh, what are you going to do now? How about exactly what you've been doing for the past seven years? Doing anything else would require thinking, and caring about stuff, do you really want to do that?
Naomi Klein theorized that a number of people in the Alternate Reality camp are prone to believe in conspiracy theories because they have witnessed decades of important people flagrantly breaking the law and violating norms, and suffering no consequences. At that point, when no justice ever asserts itself, some people just snap and think the Bilderberg Group (or whatever) must be running the show. Sure, these people are probably damaged in other ways too, but it was an intriguing hypothesis.
Depends on which group you're trying to explain. So if we're thinking about the true-believers, the cultists, the QAnon freaks, they may have some deep psychological needs that are being met by the cult, which is why cults attract people in the first place, of course.
But for every one of those people I'd bet there are 10 Republican car dealers who are just gonna vote Republican, no matter who it is, because why wouldn't they? Rethinking the habits of a lifetime isn't easy, and it requires a strong motivation, and these people simply don't care enough to even try.
Oh for sure. Most people who vote Repub continue to do so because it’s their identity, nothing more. Even the ones who are Good Now, Actually still say they’re going to vote for corrupt fascists anyway, despite their glorious epiphany that got them a gig on MSNBC.
To do otherwise you'd have to actually care about a vague abstraction called democracy.
Hey they deserve that tax cut
Klein's seems a partial explanation and may even be a self-reported response from some of these folks. My impression is that the conspiracy histrionics are a subset of what we all do to find meaning and rationalize our behavior. They seek answers that provide order and comfort from chaos and events that otherwise would leave them clueless and powerless. They know the truth! It gives them back control.
Plus it makes you feel SPECIAL, knowing all the extra-secret stuff that the normies don't know about.
Prexactly!
Gnosticism for Dipshits!
I'd buy that book.
Reminds me of Sarah Kendzior's similar take. I'm reading her They Knew. It's okay, I guess, but it's like store-brand ice cream: not 100% first-rate ingredients. It's mainly (well-written, scathing) polemics, with barely enough actual facts and reportage to support. Then again, I've often wondered why there aren't left-wing equivalents of the books of Coulter, Hannity, etc., so maybe this is one of them.
"polemics, with barely enough actual facts"? What am I waiting for?
I'm reading The Steal just to reminisce about the days leading up to Jan6. It'll do.
Sometimes it makes me think about Stephen King's novel "11-23-63", in which the main character stumbles upon a kind of wormhole that shoots him back to 1962 so he can prevent Kennedy's assassination. There are all sorts of temporal rules and glitches, resulting in repeated trips back to undo the havoc his historical changes wreak.
I imagine Trump and Trump-adjacent voters catch glimpses of what they figure will happen if the reality they are familiar with comes undone and it's so scary because they're sure they will meet the same fate as they've been content to see afflicting everyone who's not them. What a horror-show, to be knocked off their position at the right hand of their merciless white Judeo-Christian god. Perish the thought and stick with their present reality, however unsatisfying it might be, because it's their last, best and only hope. They can't imagine that maybe we're not as mean and vengeful as they are.
Meanwhile, we have a real, live Afrikaner in our presence who can't stop shooting his damn mouth and could easily explain to these fearful people that White folks in South Africa are doin' just fine, even with black majority rule. Something about owning all the businesses and all the best land, I think.
The whole point of Project 2025 is to ensure it never comes undone.
American Snipe Hunt.
BTW, A.R. Moxon has a parody out of that WaPo editorial you mentioned, and it's freakin' hilarious.
Link?
Sorry, forgot to linkify:
https://armoxon.substack.com/p/wives-in-stepford-increasingly-dont
Thanks that was perfect.
I am a mere conduit.
better than a mare conduit
Hey, that semen ain't gettin' there on its own.
If it'll make the MAGA guys feel any better, I can attest that I won't sleep with liberal guys either. That's just how being a lesbian works 🤣
Oh, you bothsider, you.