We haven’t quite gotten their yet, but my prediction that the right will go full Buff Toehold and just start screaming racial epithets by November (if not sooner) is looking pretty solid.
It really is. I've heard the opinion that the legacy media persist in sane-washing the GOP because they are fixated on the fact it is one of the two major parties so they have to treat it seriously. Even though time and again the GOP politicians have demonstrated they'd be more at home in a straightjacket than at a podium. But I think with the NYT and WaPo it's more nefarious than that. Crazy people earn clicks.
The media treats these idiots seriously, while the idiots repeatedly fail at BEING serious. A school shooting done by a 14 year old student, and these dopes are STILL shouting like it was Mr. Rando Psycho just wandering in off the street. We're expected to believe foreign governments are eagerly awaiting Trump's return, instead of shaking their heads and preparing for the worst. Gavin Newsom participated in clearing homeless encampments, but since he didn't gun them all down as well he's still enabling them. And so forth.
Yeah, Vance's claim, made just a day after the shooting, is "Psychos know our schools are a soft target." Oh, really? Like softer than, say, a shopping mall? From what I've read this kid's family was fucked six ways from Sunday, but one particular way it was fucked is dad was a gun enthusiast who gave his kid an AR-15 AFTER the cops had already been to the house to ask about Junior's social-media post threatening a school shooting.
What's been lost is any kind of dividing line between the crazy and the candidates themselves. Here's how the pros used to do it: "Well, I don't know anything about that but what I see in the papers [knowing chuckle]" Now I guess the MAGA voters want their crazy direct from the candidates themselves. Either that, or the candidates have just decided they were tired of being left out of the fun, I don't know which.
One of the most depressing things about this campaign and these people is just when you've convinced yourself your rhinoceros hide of cynicism is impenetrable, they strike a new low that pierces your armor. How deep can they dig? Apparently ever deeper.
I've noticed that this campaign is much more a turbo-charged, hysterical, and largely incoherent replay of Trump's 2016 run than a revamping of 2020. Part of that has to do with Kamala Harris being a brown lady, but a lot of it has to do with the reality they've got nothing but fear and hysteria to work with. Their candidate is a brain-addled criminal and everyone knows it, even his supporters. There is no policy beyond keep the wimmins and n-words down while building their own wealth and power.
I've had the awful thought these past few days that November may prove that a large slice of American citizens are willing to look the other way at the loss of democracy if it means they can pay 75 cents less for a carton of milk or a tray of eggs. I really, REALLY hope I'm wrong about that.
It's the the price of eggs, my dear. It's that they want their freedom back. And what freedom have they been deprived of? The freedom to be openly racist without other people looking at them funny.
I have heard this directly from conservatives I know. They really REALLY want to be able to say "n****r" in public again. And they're willing to sacrifice anything and everything to get that freedom back.
Yeah, I get that. But they can't win with just their base even though the EC has its thumb on the scale for them, they can't win with just the 20-35% of people who define being able to voice slurs without pushback as "mah freedoms." I'm talking about the normies who are willing to look the other way on a whole host of horrors if their wallets are part of the equation. As I said, I hope I'm wrong.
There's this thing, it's called the economy, it's a unitary thing, either "good" or "bad" and the primary job of a President is to make it good. If your President makes it bad, then you should fire him and hire someone from the other party to make it good.
Also, because it involves money, the economy is like a business, only bigger, and so Republicans just naturally have an advantage when it comes to Make The Economy Good because they're either businessmen themselves or they have friends who are businessmen which is almost as good.
For our class discussion we will compare and contrast with the views of the Medieval peasant who says, "We must not displease the gods or the rains won't come and then we will starve."
I have to say, the peasant is at least aware of the cause-and-effect relationship between rain and a good harvest, a thing actually based in reality. That puts him one up on our modern-day Rich Guy Make Economy Good people, so +1 for Mr. Peasant.
Some jackass would say "If black people can say 'n****r' why can't I say it too?"
And I would foolishly take question seriously. How would their saying it be different? And I had a satisfying answer as to why they shouldn't say it.
The truth is that they hadn't considered how it would be different, because they hadn't considered what it might mean for black people to say it. (Which varies, and many don't say it at all.) Or what it means for LGBT people to claim the slur "queer," and so on.
The whites who want to say "n****r" just want an old-fashioned context. My assumption that they're aware of, or party to, serious discussions of appropriation of slurs is false. The very existence of those discussions is part of the problem [as racists see it] because they're characteristic of an intolerable context.
The white boy can say it all he wants, and then he can expect to get shunned if not curbstomped, because freedom comes with consequences. They just don't want the consequences.
You think they care about grocery prices at this point? Sure, they complain about rising prices all the time, but prices are always going to rise like the weather's going to snow and who can do anything about that, so what's another 75 cents for eggs when you can sneer at women and minorities and be applauded as true patriotic Americans for it?
That's what postliberal politics is, baby. It's all culture war all the time. It's what people want. It's what we have instead of art and science and entertainment and religion and all that formerly fun stuff which we postmoderns know has all become exhausted and hackneyed. The canon is closed, don't be a spoilsport modernist liberal, get with the AI program and persecute your neighbors today!
Gas prices here at Ground Zero ( that's SF for all y'all not up to speed) is five bucks anna dime...
Because they can (and since the price of a pound of dirt here is higher than the purchase price of some entire metropolitan areas, makes sense there are not all that many gas stations around, competing on price...).
One result is very few monster trucks here other than the Elon Wedgie. By the by, I've seen those traveling in small packs here, possibly to put up a heroic-ish front 'gainst the hordes of Waymoes.
Seriously, Waymoes have been a massive presence in this town for many years, but I think they've quadrupled in just the last few months as they roll out the driverless cab assault on all fronts. For instance, google has given Waymo money to organize Waymo-accessible events (picnics, concerts, etc) just to boost the use and hoover up more data.
Beat THAT, Green Bay!
[Note – I edited this to add one single letter up there somewhere – can you find it?]
Sad to say that the one explanation that makes me feel less despair for our future as a species is that Tammy is simply lying to us about being a Democrat:
Tammy Conway, a Democrat who is considering voting Republican for the first time in decades... is concerned about “sky-high” housing interest rates and says Trump might make the economy “a lot less complicated”.
Just wait, they'll probably do another story "discovering" that there are these people called Black Republicans, and then they'll fly out to Waukesha to interview one.
Tammy's, from the look of her, Gen X (like me) and all studies indicate they most heavily vote Republican anyway. Her first vote was either for Reagan or GHW Bush, because what White Wisconsinite would vote for Mondale or Dukakis?
So like Steve B said, lying about being a Democrat.
Yea, and when they could just go to Aldi's and save more than that on a carton of eggs.
On that note, I went to Aldi's the other day and eggs were $3.77. WTF? Is it something to do with bird flu? The free range eggs were only $3.99 and the much superior Pasture raised eggs were only a dollar more. And the organic grass fed hamburger was the same price as the cheapest regular hamburger and several dollars cheaper than the lean, and even $2 cheaper than friggin ground turkey. The supermarket world is upside down.
But what better explains so much American supermarket angst is that I've noticed the price of a bag of chips and a soda has risen dramatically to around $5 and that hits normal people where it really hurts. Normal people, you might be surprised to learn, drink about six sodas a day and it's putting them on the brink of financial ruin, or at least not being able to afford McDonalds every day and TGIF and Texas Roadhouse on the weekend..
Prices are all out of whack, and a lot of it is to do with big corporations (near-)monopolizing production and distribution of food. Steak is expensive, but goddamn it, steak *should be* expensive, in simple practical terms. It’s a high end product that takes a lot of time and money to produce, even with modern satanic factory farms. But you can also get an entire small pork loin—the choicest part of all—for $8. That’s insane. Prices for chicken wings (formerly a scorned part, but no longer) skyrocket if there’s a perceived shortage, or if it’s game day and people are tailgating. Who’s to blame for this chaos? Haitian immigrants, obviously! Definitely not Tyson or Albertsons.
Cynicism is a growing industry these days, and every time I feel bad about expecting the worst of the majority of people, I seem to be vindicated in my misanthropy.
Is mystery to me or a failure of imagination on my part or whatever but I have trouble grasping how Vance (if that's his real name) can be so Trumpy and simultaneously fail while at it--he succeeds and fails simultaneously. I think it's a rip in the space/time continuum yet apparently. Weird.
As for the evolution of Republican racism, the seeds have been sown in conservative media since at least the rise of Limbaugh. And then there's the need to shore up the GOP base with ever more unhinged BS for their dopamine hits so sure, illegal immigrants of color stealing, killing and eating cats. (Wait, what about the $9,000 Biden gives them? With all that money, surely they can afford better food?)
Speaking of needing greater incidents of insane speech and stuff, I suppose the establishment press needs it as well so as to notice Trump and Vance.
And speaking of stable genius, Donnie got the opportunity to choose to be the last to give a closing statement at tonight's debate. Which is to say the last thing people who go the distance see is two minutes of insanity. As smart as delaying all the court matters so he can be tried in the courts of public opinion instead of getting some acquittals. Did I say genius? (Myself, I won't be going the distance, not even close. I was gifted with a wee bottle of Buffalo Trace (whatever that is) that I saved for appropriate moments during the debate. It's far from enough to watch too long. I also expect Kamala to maybe disappoint which may trigger a sip or three in addition to the expected insanity.)
You can keep yer Biden Bucks – nuthin' finer than free-range cat, skinned immediately, then soaked in my secret Haitian sauce til it's everso je ne sais what...
No. First you pet the cat to make it chill and happy before the hammer or whatever comes down and it becomes meat. Strictly cart/horse, not vice versa.
Even Trump "fails" at being Trumpy. The difference is Trump is a Celebrity, and ol' JD is not, he is merely an acolyte, honoring his Celebrity. The People understand.
Everybody in America is now Under Pressure, and stuff long buried is bubbling and squirting to the surface. No one knows how deeply held and consciously believed all this racist stuff is by the People, but it is right out in the open now. I have no idea if this is good or bad, but its real.
Buffalo Trace is a decent mass market good bourbon, drink responsibly. Avoid drinking games if possible, the "debate" will be lit enough.
I'mo head out now (things need choring up) and on my way I'll be looking for bars with promo signs for "Debate Drinking Games". The perks of the Big City!
To paraphrase FPOTUS, only he can be a POS spewing the most reprehensible, disgusting BS. Anyone can say what he does but only he is loved by his supporters for saying it.
Truly, an exceptional nation, the likes of which have never been seen before.
I live right outside of Springfield Ohio. As you can imagine, I'm thrilled to pieces with these developments. I mean, Jesus Christ.
My wife works for a large non-profit healthcare org. Many of their patients are Haitians. There is a vibrant Haitian community in Springfield. There's nowhere near 20,000 of them. My wife guesses there may be a tenth of that amount.
I see this as a desperate, last minute Hail Mary pass. This is so stupid and blatant.
There's a gorgeous Park in Springfield, Snyder Park, which dates from the late 1800s. This was the time when successful cities would hire internationally known landscape architects to build parks and other public spaces. Snyder Park is an amazing place with some breathtaking views. There are vistas that only work with 100 ft tall trees. Anyway the park is full of geese and ducks and people from the surrounding neighborhoods frequently go to City council meetings to complain about this nuisance and to see if anything could be done to alleviate it.
The Springfield PD say they know nothing about any pet-napping or eating. So when are we supposed to Back the Blue and when are we supposed to call them traitors?
I worked at a nursery just south of Springfield. It was the volume operation. We grew annuals for a major big box hardware store.
In a busy year, when they were available, we would have 150 - 175 migrants on staff. Most of them lived in the same part of town and they would all carpool. Four or five nights a week, on my way home I would see a car full of my coworkers pulled over by the police. DWB.( Driving While Brown) Evidently city cops are unable to resist the lure of a car full of brown people. I'd ask about it and they would just shrug. Welcome to America.
"Four or five nights a week, on my way home I would see a car full of my coworkers pulled over by the police. DWB.( Driving While Brown) Evidently city cops are unable to resist the lure of a car full of brown people. I'd ask about it and they would just shrug. Welcome to America."
Last month, when Vance was making himself look ridiculous at a Valdosta, Georgia donut shop, I was reminded that Valdosta and Lowndes County are the Driving While Black capitals of the American Southeast.
Well, J6 was one of those days...and I guess 9/9 was another. The great thing about not being bound by ideology but having only grievances and resentments is its fluidity. You aren't required to adhere to consistency any more than to logic or reason.
Coincidentally, So, Stupid & Blatant LLP are setting up the liability immunities for the contractors operating my next food truck fleet...go on, guess...
...
...
Yup – Beeline to the Feline! Haitian BBQ and Bird Conservation Services
They've already updated the Preschool Satanic Child Abuse Cults from the 70s/80s with their trans panic. Why not play ALL the old hits? Sure, they're coming for your children AND your pets.
True story: I was staying in a hotel in Cedar Rapids before the Friedrich Nietzsche Duoathalon “That which does not kill me, makes me stronger” and took an evening stroll around the neighborhood. In an alley behind a Chinese restaurant a chef ran out waving something, maybe a knife, and chasing a cat. Life imitating racism!
Lumpy Shit President is STILL claiming kids are being abducted from school and returned having had reassignment surgery. Obviously not, since parents aren't doing the rounds of right-wing ragebait media with them. But, as I keep saying, the GOP and their constituents run on lies and conspiracy.
Not only is he repeating this absurd lie, he's embellishing it, seems the kids name is Johnny, and his mom says "I love you Johnny" before she sends him to school to have his little dick sliced off.
I vaguely remember a story around here of a lady who killed a goose that was hanging around a retaining pond at a local mall. Very much not Haitian, but a home grown weirdo. It’s a thing that no doubt happens from time to time because people are strange.
Early one fine morning, as I was minding my own business , poaching a golf course in reverse, as one does, I was startled to see...another golfer...poaching the other direction – that is, aiming straight at me. I aroused myself for the likely need to run/jump outta the way as he swung. But I needn't have fretted – his Titlist* rose majestically and smacked a pigeon at the top of its arc, causing a flurry of feather fluff, and the remnants of the pigeon to fall earthward. Tough way to earn a birdie, but chapeau, was all I could think.
You'd think Josiah Demetrius Vance would rejoice that cats were being eaten by Haitians. After all, the less cats, the less for the childless cat ladies.
Some are speculating that Vance's racist outburst was a pitch to those childless cat ladies. After all, who's going to protect their cats from the ravening Haitian hordes?
The NYT has just discovered that Trump is old and cognitively impaired and he and Vance are misogynists. Maybe they’ll tumble to the racism next. It seems the editors read their publisher’s op-ed in WaPo and decided their Trump stroking has gotten out of hand.
Unsurprisingly, the Democrats never talk about the fact that Trump's mother and grandfather were immigrants. Given that, why does he hate immigrants so much? Mommy issues? And why is he always accusing them of rape? Was he raped as a child by family members? Is the Trump family motto "incest is best?" His recurring daydreams about fucking his daughter suggest maybe so. And his proclivity for rape and sexual assault fit the profile of someone who was raped and sexually assaulted. Throw in his hatred of women and it all makes sense.
Odd too that both Trump and Vance married immigrants, or in Vance's case a first generation American, and that both their wives clearly find them repulsive. What's the psychology beneath those facts?
Why isn't anyone in or around the Democrats or any part of the press asking these questions? The bar has been lowered much lower than that, so why not go there?
Apparently because all the migrants are EEE-LEE-GULS (even the ones entering legally!), the GOP has decided that since they got away with misdemeanor border crossing they all go on to commit ALL THE CRIMING because reasons.
You know - like you run a red light at 3 in the morning, don't get arrested, then proceed to armed robbery and cannibalism because LAWLESSNESS. It's science, people.
They are nothing if not consistent in their bigotries. Sure, they hate the Guatemalans, but they hate the Haitians the most, so the Haitians get the worst of the slanders, that they're cannibals. You could probably get them to rank all the migrants, by country-of-origin, on a 0-10 scale of "Who do you hate more?" and I'd bet the answers of randomly selected Republicans would come out shockingly similar.
But Michael, people don't expect consistency from politicians, so they're not shocked or moved when they find inconsistency (or hypocrisy, to use a loaded term.) That's why attacks like this, when they're tried, never land with any force. Kamala Harris was against fracking, now she's OK with it, who cares? Sure, there are people who will pretend to care just to score some points, but most of us are on to that game by now.
I think J.D. Vance is due for a 5150 call. I think we have the horses for involuntary commitment at this point. Trump was there long ago. If he had family who cared about him, it would happen at the debate. Don Jr. and Eric would walk on stage and say, "Okay, dad, enough. Let's go home."
But this is not a Capra film. Even Reagan's movie presidency was a relative picnic to what we're seeing now. I like that rich/poor divvy on the spoils: Tax cuts for you, and watching your enemies suffering for the common rube. Capital! Capital!
I had those the "teachers are letting students identifying as kitties does shit and piss in litter boxes in their rooms" to be some sort of bottom: that's what I get for thinking...
It was so, i guess the word is "cute": smearing educator and public schools, and trans kids sexuality and self concept, mixed with excrement: the perfect thing to trigger conservative disgust (that nice Professor Haidt tells us is a special conservative "moral foundation ", and not bigotry or a neurological issue...
This year's model is Donnie claiming "your son goes to school and they make him a girl": mixing anti trans hate with castration anxiety, and more school smearing.
Any knowledge of how schools actually run, or how they budget should stop this stupid lie; where dies gender reassignment fit in underfunded school budgets?
That its a full court press IS NUTS. Gym Jordan and the whole GOP must have gotten the memo.
Haitian Americans now must live in terror, and the MSM Usual Suspects aren't discussing the anti immigrant pogrom the Right has a hard-on for...or how destructive it would be...
Teacher-smearing is always in vogue (many of them are females, whatta coincidence), but also, we need to arm them. I will be surprised if there isn’t a mass shooting of immigrants before November.
Just realized: these guys want to take TikTok and smartphones away from kids because of all the ChiCom radical left pervert Soros brainwashing they see, but who's concerned about the alternate media their PARENTS are sucking down?
Someone should ask Nikki Haley what she did with the remnants of her self-respect, bury it in the backyard in a shoe box or just flush it down the toilet.
Strange. I watched/remembered the Simpsons link you used to mock the illegal-Haitians-eating-pet-cats thing, and a deja vu-like tingle went up (or down, not really sure, but it was a spiny tingle the likes of which the world has never seen) ... my spine.
I'm so old now I can't even remember what fucking decade it was (70s/80s?) that we had all that "Satanic ritual murder" shit and "aliens probed my ass" and all that shit.
I asked my shrink (best shrink in Japan, by the way), if he would rather die by Satanic ritual murder or just have his ass probed by aliens. He thought about it for a moment and said, "you know, Rick, nobody's ever asked me that question before. It's an interesting question."
Personally, I think an alien ass probe would leave you alive, at least long enough to tell people how horrible it was, whereas a Satanic death ritual kinda has your demise in it's very title. Hehe, you see how good I am at reading! Nobody's better at reading than me!
Anyway, America, it's time to choose! Alien ass probes or Satanic death rituals!
We all trust you'll make the right choice!
(I'll probably have to apologize to some for this!)
Strictly local comment here: I'll be interested to see whether Mitch Albom uses his Sunday Detroit Free Press column to defend his beloved Haitians from this slander. My guess is: He won't. Or he'll both-sides it, if he dares.
We haven’t quite gotten their yet, but my prediction that the right will go full Buff Toehold and just start screaming racial epithets by November (if not sooner) is looking pretty solid.
How much you wanna bet that Trump somehow manages to say Harris is Haitian tonight?
Side bet: The FNYT headline tomorrow is that Trump "mistakenly" calls Harris Haitian (despite being corrected three times).
Probably a little more subtle: Trump Draws Sharp Parallels While Highlighting Immigration Concerns During A Lively And Heated Debate
Spot on. It’s genuinely disturbing how zealously the Times does PR rewrites for dangerously unhinged Republicans.
It really is. I've heard the opinion that the legacy media persist in sane-washing the GOP because they are fixated on the fact it is one of the two major parties so they have to treat it seriously. Even though time and again the GOP politicians have demonstrated they'd be more at home in a straightjacket than at a podium. But I think with the NYT and WaPo it's more nefarious than that. Crazy people earn clicks.
"they'd be more at home in a bank vault"
Thing is, there are only so many bank vaults to go around, and the rightie-tighties are eating their own in a vicious struggle to GET IT ALL.
The media treats these idiots seriously, while the idiots repeatedly fail at BEING serious. A school shooting done by a 14 year old student, and these dopes are STILL shouting like it was Mr. Rando Psycho just wandering in off the street. We're expected to believe foreign governments are eagerly awaiting Trump's return, instead of shaking their heads and preparing for the worst. Gavin Newsom participated in clearing homeless encampments, but since he didn't gun them all down as well he's still enabling them. And so forth.
It's a short but meaningful way from 'ginned up' to 'gunned down'...
Yeah, Vance's claim, made just a day after the shooting, is "Psychos know our schools are a soft target." Oh, really? Like softer than, say, a shopping mall? From what I've read this kid's family was fucked six ways from Sunday, but one particular way it was fucked is dad was a gun enthusiast who gave his kid an AR-15 AFTER the cops had already been to the house to ask about Junior's social-media post threatening a school shooting.
What's been lost is any kind of dividing line between the crazy and the candidates themselves. Here's how the pros used to do it: "Well, I don't know anything about that but what I see in the papers [knowing chuckle]" Now I guess the MAGA voters want their crazy direct from the candidates themselves. Either that, or the candidates have just decided they were tired of being left out of the fun, I don't know which.
I think it just turned out that Trump is one of the crazies.
One of the most depressing things about this campaign and these people is just when you've convinced yourself your rhinoceros hide of cynicism is impenetrable, they strike a new low that pierces your armor. How deep can they dig? Apparently ever deeper.
I've noticed that this campaign is much more a turbo-charged, hysterical, and largely incoherent replay of Trump's 2016 run than a revamping of 2020. Part of that has to do with Kamala Harris being a brown lady, but a lot of it has to do with the reality they've got nothing but fear and hysteria to work with. Their candidate is a brain-addled criminal and everyone knows it, even his supporters. There is no policy beyond keep the wimmins and n-words down while building their own wealth and power.
I've had the awful thought these past few days that November may prove that a large slice of American citizens are willing to look the other way at the loss of democracy if it means they can pay 75 cents less for a carton of milk or a tray of eggs. I really, REALLY hope I'm wrong about that.
Me too.
It's the the price of eggs, my dear. It's that they want their freedom back. And what freedom have they been deprived of? The freedom to be openly racist without other people looking at them funny.
I have heard this directly from conservatives I know. They really REALLY want to be able to say "n****r" in public again. And they're willing to sacrifice anything and everything to get that freedom back.
Yeah, I get that. But they can't win with just their base even though the EC has its thumb on the scale for them, they can't win with just the 20-35% of people who define being able to voice slurs without pushback as "mah freedoms." I'm talking about the normies who are willing to look the other way on a whole host of horrors if their wallets are part of the equation. As I said, I hope I'm wrong.
The normies have given up.
I'm just mad about prices
Oh so sad about that
I'm just mad about prices
Soon they'll be eatin' my cat
They call me Stormy Normie (Quite Rightly)
They call me Stormy Normie (Quite Rightly)
They call me Stormy Normie
Electrical banana
Is gonna be a simple sell
Electrical banana
They charge you just for the smell
They call me Stormy Normie (Quite Rightly)
They call me Stormy Normie (Quite Rightly)
They call me Stormy Normie
...and don't get me started 'bout saffron...
There goes Norman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H94_cTbFgA
There's this thing, it's called the economy, it's a unitary thing, either "good" or "bad" and the primary job of a President is to make it good. If your President makes it bad, then you should fire him and hire someone from the other party to make it good.
Also, because it involves money, the economy is like a business, only bigger, and so Republicans just naturally have an advantage when it comes to Make The Economy Good because they're either businessmen themselves or they have friends who are businessmen which is almost as good.
For our class discussion we will compare and contrast with the views of the Medieval peasant who says, "We must not displease the gods or the rains won't come and then we will starve."
[snickering at backward peasants]
"But, but...ELON!!!"
Rich Guy Make Economy Good
I have to say, the peasant is at least aware of the cause-and-effect relationship between rain and a good harvest, a thing actually based in reality. That puts him one up on our modern-day Rich Guy Make Economy Good people, so +1 for Mr. Peasant.
Some jackass would say "If black people can say 'n****r' why can't I say it too?"
And I would foolishly take question seriously. How would their saying it be different? And I had a satisfying answer as to why they shouldn't say it.
The truth is that they hadn't considered how it would be different, because they hadn't considered what it might mean for black people to say it. (Which varies, and many don't say it at all.) Or what it means for LGBT people to claim the slur "queer," and so on.
The whites who want to say "n****r" just want an old-fashioned context. My assumption that they're aware of, or party to, serious discussions of appropriation of slurs is false. The very existence of those discussions is part of the problem [as racists see it] because they're characteristic of an intolerable context.
The white boy can say it all he wants, and then he can expect to get shunned if not curbstomped, because freedom comes with consequences. They just don't want the consequences.
Here's to The Shunning
[battening the windows across the face of Jack Nicholson – see how easy that was?]
You think they care about grocery prices at this point? Sure, they complain about rising prices all the time, but prices are always going to rise like the weather's going to snow and who can do anything about that, so what's another 75 cents for eggs when you can sneer at women and minorities and be applauded as true patriotic Americans for it?
That's what postliberal politics is, baby. It's all culture war all the time. It's what people want. It's what we have instead of art and science and entertainment and religion and all that formerly fun stuff which we postmoderns know has all become exhausted and hackneyed. The canon is closed, don't be a spoilsport modernist liberal, get with the AI program and persecute your neighbors today!
It's like when somebody who drives a gigantic monster truck that takes up three parking spaces, complains about the price of gasoline.
Gas prices here at Ground Zero ( that's SF for all y'all not up to speed) is five bucks anna dime...
Because they can (and since the price of a pound of dirt here is higher than the purchase price of some entire metropolitan areas, makes sense there are not all that many gas stations around, competing on price...).
One result is very few monster trucks here other than the Elon Wedgie. By the by, I've seen those traveling in small packs here, possibly to put up a heroic-ish front 'gainst the hordes of Waymoes.
Seriously, Waymoes have been a massive presence in this town for many years, but I think they've quadrupled in just the last few months as they roll out the driverless cab assault on all fronts. For instance, google has given Waymo money to organize Waymo-accessible events (picnics, concerts, etc) just to boost the use and hoover up more data.
Beat THAT, Green Bay!
[Note – I edited this to add one single letter up there somewhere – can you find it?]
Sad to say that the one explanation that makes me feel less despair for our future as a species is that Tammy is simply lying to us about being a Democrat:
Tammy Conway, a Democrat who is considering voting Republican for the first time in decades... is concerned about “sky-high” housing interest rates and says Trump might make the economy “a lot less complicated”.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gl3qd1g90o
I read that story, and it seemed like BBC went out of their way to not find any people of color in Wisconsin. Again.
Just wait, they'll probably do another story "discovering" that there are these people called Black Republicans, and then they'll fly out to Waukesha to interview one.
Tammy must not have been alive during the administration of St Ronnie, when mortgages were interesting up to ~17%...talk about complicated...
Tammy's, from the look of her, Gen X (like me) and all studies indicate they most heavily vote Republican anyway. Her first vote was either for Reagan or GHW Bush, because what White Wisconsinite would vote for Mondale or Dukakis?
So like Steve B said, lying about being a Democrat.
Yea, and when they could just go to Aldi's and save more than that on a carton of eggs.
On that note, I went to Aldi's the other day and eggs were $3.77. WTF? Is it something to do with bird flu? The free range eggs were only $3.99 and the much superior Pasture raised eggs were only a dollar more. And the organic grass fed hamburger was the same price as the cheapest regular hamburger and several dollars cheaper than the lean, and even $2 cheaper than friggin ground turkey. The supermarket world is upside down.
But what better explains so much American supermarket angst is that I've noticed the price of a bag of chips and a soda has risen dramatically to around $5 and that hits normal people where it really hurts. Normal people, you might be surprised to learn, drink about six sodas a day and it's putting them on the brink of financial ruin, or at least not being able to afford McDonalds every day and TGIF and Texas Roadhouse on the weekend..
Prices are all out of whack, and a lot of it is to do with big corporations (near-)monopolizing production and distribution of food. Steak is expensive, but goddamn it, steak *should be* expensive, in simple practical terms. It’s a high end product that takes a lot of time and money to produce, even with modern satanic factory farms. But you can also get an entire small pork loin—the choicest part of all—for $8. That’s insane. Prices for chicken wings (formerly a scorned part, but no longer) skyrocket if there’s a perceived shortage, or if it’s game day and people are tailgating. Who’s to blame for this chaos? Haitian immigrants, obviously! Definitely not Tyson or Albertsons.
No bones about it
[always wanted to work that phrase in somewhurs...]
You definitely do not want to think about the conditions that produce $8 pork loin.
Neither in the processing plant nor at the satanic factory farm.
Some don’t even need that. Simple tiki torches and mob violence are good enough for them.
I am a simple tiki torch of the soil
I burn with an inner righteousness
Now with more outer!
Cynicism is a growing industry these days, and every time I feel bad about expecting the worst of the majority of people, I seem to be vindicated in my misanthropy.
Pyrrhic.
Is mystery to me or a failure of imagination on my part or whatever but I have trouble grasping how Vance (if that's his real name) can be so Trumpy and simultaneously fail while at it--he succeeds and fails simultaneously. I think it's a rip in the space/time continuum yet apparently. Weird.
As for the evolution of Republican racism, the seeds have been sown in conservative media since at least the rise of Limbaugh. And then there's the need to shore up the GOP base with ever more unhinged BS for their dopamine hits so sure, illegal immigrants of color stealing, killing and eating cats. (Wait, what about the $9,000 Biden gives them? With all that money, surely they can afford better food?)
Speaking of needing greater incidents of insane speech and stuff, I suppose the establishment press needs it as well so as to notice Trump and Vance.
And speaking of stable genius, Donnie got the opportunity to choose to be the last to give a closing statement at tonight's debate. Which is to say the last thing people who go the distance see is two minutes of insanity. As smart as delaying all the court matters so he can be tried in the courts of public opinion instead of getting some acquittals. Did I say genius? (Myself, I won't be going the distance, not even close. I was gifted with a wee bottle of Buffalo Trace (whatever that is) that I saved for appropriate moments during the debate. It's far from enough to watch too long. I also expect Kamala to maybe disappoint which may trigger a sip or three in addition to the expected insanity.)
Yeah, what about the food stamps the government hands out in MILLIONS to migrants?
That too????
Of course! "Hi, welcome to America, here's your car, your house, your smartphone, your insurance coverage, and all the food stamps you can eat!'
And cat. Or “cat” IYKWIM.
You can keep yer Biden Bucks – nuthin' finer than free-range cat, skinned immediately, then soaked in my secret Haitian sauce til it's everso je ne sais what...
Y'oughta try it sometime!
Pet or meat?
Why not both, I always say (tho I'd be careful if I was you, about which comes first...)
"We use every part of the cat except the meow"
No. First you pet the cat to make it chill and happy before the hammer or whatever comes down and it becomes meat. Strictly cart/horse, not vice versa.
I've been holding back on my XXX origin/source for Vance's claim...
And now that I'm thinking about it, I'm getting a little queasy. Gotta go rest up for the part of the debate I'm going to watch.
Even Trump "fails" at being Trumpy. The difference is Trump is a Celebrity, and ol' JD is not, he is merely an acolyte, honoring his Celebrity. The People understand.
Everybody in America is now Under Pressure, and stuff long buried is bubbling and squirting to the surface. No one knows how deeply held and consciously believed all this racist stuff is by the People, but it is right out in the open now. I have no idea if this is good or bad, but its real.
Buffalo Trace is a decent mass market good bourbon, drink responsibly. Avoid drinking games if possible, the "debate" will be lit enough.
I'mo head out now (things need choring up) and on my way I'll be looking for bars with promo signs for "Debate Drinking Games". The perks of the Big City!
No matter how good, a copy is just a copy.
To paraphrase FPOTUS, only he can be a POS spewing the most reprehensible, disgusting BS. Anyone can say what he does but only he is loved by his supporters for saying it.
Truly, an exceptional nation, the likes of which have never been seen before.
Oh how we pine for those days of yore (Do I hear a Halcyon?!), when candidates could boast of having binders full of women...
😂
You’re killing me…
It's the Halcyon, admit it...
You normally can't get it without prescription, but I know a guy...
I live right outside of Springfield Ohio. As you can imagine, I'm thrilled to pieces with these developments. I mean, Jesus Christ.
My wife works for a large non-profit healthcare org. Many of their patients are Haitians. There is a vibrant Haitian community in Springfield. There's nowhere near 20,000 of them. My wife guesses there may be a tenth of that amount.
I see this as a desperate, last minute Hail Mary pass. This is so stupid and blatant.
There's a gorgeous Park in Springfield, Snyder Park, which dates from the late 1800s. This was the time when successful cities would hire internationally known landscape architects to build parks and other public spaces. Snyder Park is an amazing place with some breathtaking views. There are vistas that only work with 100 ft tall trees. Anyway the park is full of geese and ducks and people from the surrounding neighborhoods frequently go to City council meetings to complain about this nuisance and to see if anything could be done to alleviate it.
The Springfield PD say they know nothing about any pet-napping or eating. So when are we supposed to Back the Blue and when are we supposed to call them traitors?
I worked at a nursery just south of Springfield. It was the volume operation. We grew annuals for a major big box hardware store.
In a busy year, when they were available, we would have 150 - 175 migrants on staff. Most of them lived in the same part of town and they would all carpool. Four or five nights a week, on my way home I would see a car full of my coworkers pulled over by the police. DWB.( Driving While Brown) Evidently city cops are unable to resist the lure of a car full of brown people. I'd ask about it and they would just shrug. Welcome to America.
"Four or five nights a week, on my way home I would see a car full of my coworkers pulled over by the police. DWB.( Driving While Brown) Evidently city cops are unable to resist the lure of a car full of brown people. I'd ask about it and they would just shrug. Welcome to America."
Last month, when Vance was making himself look ridiculous at a Valdosta, Georgia donut shop, I was reminded that Valdosta and Lowndes County are the Driving While Black capitals of the American Southeast.
Well, J6 was one of those days...and I guess 9/9 was another. The great thing about not being bound by ideology but having only grievances and resentments is its fluidity. You aren't required to adhere to consistency any more than to logic or reason.
OMFG THE POLICE ARE IN ON IT
😱😱😱
I think the larger issue is it's nice to have the choice...
Coincidentally, So, Stupid & Blatant LLP are setting up the liability immunities for the contractors operating my next food truck fleet...go on, guess...
...
...
Yup – Beeline to the Feline! Haitian BBQ and Bird Conservation Services
I'm so old I remember when a variation of that story concerned Chinese restaurants, with no neighborhood stray cats.
They've already updated the Preschool Satanic Child Abuse Cults from the 70s/80s with their trans panic. Why not play ALL the old hits? Sure, they're coming for your children AND your pets.
True story: I was staying in a hotel in Cedar Rapids before the Friedrich Nietzsche Duoathalon “That which does not kill me, makes me stronger” and took an evening stroll around the neighborhood. In an alley behind a Chinese restaurant a chef ran out waving something, maybe a knife, and chasing a cat. Life imitating racism!
[pulls grass stem out of mouth] Cedar Rapids? That sounds like more of a Waterloo story. [resumes rocking]
You win.
2 marks is an imperfect metric for so much winning, but that's all I got. I'll just put 'em here on the stoop.
Just put 'em next to the bagful of zucchini the neighbors dropped off in the middle of the night.
Who put my 2 marks underneath this truckload of zucchini??!!
I feel a deep sense of shame for stealing a joke from Garrison Keillor.
Lumpy Shit President is STILL claiming kids are being abducted from school and returned having had reassignment surgery. Obviously not, since parents aren't doing the rounds of right-wing ragebait media with them. But, as I keep saying, the GOP and their constituents run on lies and conspiracy.
Next iteration will be like "But they're not really your kids – your real kids are getting slow-roasted on a spit in Hilary's bunker"...
Not only is he repeating this absurd lie, he's embellishing it, seems the kids name is Johnny, and his mom says "I love you Johnny" before she sends him to school to have his little dick sliced off.
I vaguely remember a story around here of a lady who killed a goose that was hanging around a retaining pond at a local mall. Very much not Haitian, but a home grown weirdo. It’s a thing that no doubt happens from time to time because people are strange.
Oh, I've thought of it, all right. Just take a walk through Vilas Park in the fall, and watch where you step.
I just shooed 'em all over to the golf course...
Because I like to use SCIENCE to justify murder, every damn goose is a flying factory of viral variants.
Early one fine morning, as I was minding my own business , poaching a golf course in reverse, as one does, I was startled to see...another golfer...poaching the other direction – that is, aiming straight at me. I aroused myself for the likely need to run/jump outta the way as he swung. But I needn't have fretted – his Titlist* rose majestically and smacked a pigeon at the top of its arc, causing a flurry of feather fluff, and the remnants of the pigeon to fall earthward. Tough way to earn a birdie, but chapeau, was all I could think.
*Yeah, Titlist. Tit list. Golf is weird.
Why do you think there were no neighborhood cats??!!
You'd think Josiah Demetrius Vance would rejoice that cats were being eaten by Haitians. After all, the less cats, the less for the childless cat ladies.
Some are speculating that Vance's racist outburst was a pitch to those childless cat ladies. After all, who's going to protect their cats from the ravening Haitian hordes?
Some in his party are all for more catless child ladies.
Child ladies are the only kinda ladies to have!
Especially if they look like the not that old, sexy, scantily clad cat ladies Publius shows.
Damn. Out-thunk again.
Now where have I seen this sort of thing before? Oh, yeah - here. (TW: sister-fuckers) Boy, the more things change, huh?
https://jimcrowmuseum.ferris.edu/antiblack/index.htm
There's some serious oof in there...
The NYT has just discovered that Trump is old and cognitively impaired and he and Vance are misogynists. Maybe they’ll tumble to the racism next. It seems the editors read their publisher’s op-ed in WaPo and decided their Trump stroking has gotten out of hand.
What? Links or it didn't happen.
"Is Trump Mellowing In His Golden Years?"
"Tempered by the wisdom that comes with age, former President Trump is showing a new tone..."
We call it "Sunset Blush"
It's so very fucking tiresome, but still essential that we keep reminding ourselves that there is no bottom with these MAGAts. Period.
It’s early September. Ugh.
At least we have, by U.S. standards, a significantly shorter campaign season this time. Small blessings...
An oroborous of bullshit.
Unsurprisingly, the Democrats never talk about the fact that Trump's mother and grandfather were immigrants. Given that, why does he hate immigrants so much? Mommy issues? And why is he always accusing them of rape? Was he raped as a child by family members? Is the Trump family motto "incest is best?" His recurring daydreams about fucking his daughter suggest maybe so. And his proclivity for rape and sexual assault fit the profile of someone who was raped and sexually assaulted. Throw in his hatred of women and it all makes sense.
Odd too that both Trump and Vance married immigrants, or in Vance's case a first generation American, and that both their wives clearly find them repulsive. What's the psychology beneath those facts?
Why isn't anyone in or around the Democrats or any part of the press asking these questions? The bar has been lowered much lower than that, so why not go there?
Apparently because all the migrants are EEE-LEE-GULS (even the ones entering legally!), the GOP has decided that since they got away with misdemeanor border crossing they all go on to commit ALL THE CRIMING because reasons.
You know - like you run a red light at 3 in the morning, don't get arrested, then proceed to armed robbery and cannibalism because LAWLESSNESS. It's science, people.
Melania worked in the US illegally
This is All Blacks Are Criminals, Kreyol Sub-Division
They are nothing if not consistent in their bigotries. Sure, they hate the Guatemalans, but they hate the Haitians the most, so the Haitians get the worst of the slanders, that they're cannibals. You could probably get them to rank all the migrants, by country-of-origin, on a 0-10 scale of "Who do you hate more?" and I'd bet the answers of randomly selected Republicans would come out shockingly similar.
But Michael, people don't expect consistency from politicians, so they're not shocked or moved when they find inconsistency (or hypocrisy, to use a loaded term.) That's why attacks like this, when they're tried, never land with any force. Kamala Harris was against fracking, now she's OK with it, who cares? Sure, there are people who will pretend to care just to score some points, but most of us are on to that game by now.
I think J.D. Vance is due for a 5150 call. I think we have the horses for involuntary commitment at this point. Trump was there long ago. If he had family who cared about him, it would happen at the debate. Don Jr. and Eric would walk on stage and say, "Okay, dad, enough. Let's go home."
But this is not a Capra film. Even Reagan's movie presidency was a relative picnic to what we're seeing now. I like that rich/poor divvy on the spoils: Tax cuts for you, and watching your enemies suffering for the common rube. Capital! Capital!
I had those the "teachers are letting students identifying as kitties does shit and piss in litter boxes in their rooms" to be some sort of bottom: that's what I get for thinking...
It was so, i guess the word is "cute": smearing educator and public schools, and trans kids sexuality and self concept, mixed with excrement: the perfect thing to trigger conservative disgust (that nice Professor Haidt tells us is a special conservative "moral foundation ", and not bigotry or a neurological issue...
This year's model is Donnie claiming "your son goes to school and they make him a girl": mixing anti trans hate with castration anxiety, and more school smearing.
Any knowledge of how schools actually run, or how they budget should stop this stupid lie; where dies gender reassignment fit in underfunded school budgets?
That its a full court press IS NUTS. Gym Jordan and the whole GOP must have gotten the memo.
Haitian Americans now must live in terror, and the MSM Usual Suspects aren't discussing the anti immigrant pogrom the Right has a hard-on for...or how destructive it would be...
Teacher-smearing is always in vogue (many of them are females, whatta coincidence), but also, we need to arm them. I will be surprised if there isn’t a mass shooting of immigrants before November.
"a mass shooting of immigrants"
Or, as we say in America, "Thursday."
Just realized: these guys want to take TikTok and smartphones away from kids because of all the ChiCom radical left pervert Soros brainwashing they see, but who's concerned about the alternate media their PARENTS are sucking down?
And the "making him a girl" is a significant part of the message, because men. In all their delirious fragility and terror...
Can live without 'em.
That "nice Professor Haidt" is an idiot of long standing
Someone should ask Nikki Haley what she did with the remnants of her self-respect, bury it in the backyard in a shoe box or just flush it down the toilet.
In an unmarked grave at Bedminster Country Club?
Its for sale on Etsy. Still.
Strange. I watched/remembered the Simpsons link you used to mock the illegal-Haitians-eating-pet-cats thing, and a deja vu-like tingle went up (or down, not really sure, but it was a spiny tingle the likes of which the world has never seen) ... my spine.
I'm so old now I can't even remember what fucking decade it was (70s/80s?) that we had all that "Satanic ritual murder" shit and "aliens probed my ass" and all that shit.
I asked my shrink (best shrink in Japan, by the way), if he would rather die by Satanic ritual murder or just have his ass probed by aliens. He thought about it for a moment and said, "you know, Rick, nobody's ever asked me that question before. It's an interesting question."
Personally, I think an alien ass probe would leave you alive, at least long enough to tell people how horrible it was, whereas a Satanic death ritual kinda has your demise in it's very title. Hehe, you see how good I am at reading! Nobody's better at reading than me!
Anyway, America, it's time to choose! Alien ass probes or Satanic death rituals!
We all trust you'll make the right choice!
(I'll probably have to apologize to some for this!)
well, just sayin', ass probes don't have to be horrible if done right
So THAT's why you're waiting impatiently for the UFO's.
You're burying the lede! Proof of aliens! Wait, what kind of aliens?
Green skin, but no green card.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86D2e7-Y2nU
Strictly local comment here: I'll be interested to see whether Mitch Albom uses his Sunday Detroit Free Press column to defend his beloved Haitians from this slander. My guess is: He won't. Or he'll both-sides it, if he dares.
Now I'm disappointed in Mitch Albom, and I hadn't thought about him in years.
I feel that way about James Lileks.
My wife met Mitch Albom. Welcome to the party, there's some room over by the punch bowl.
"Well, like Hamlet said, now the time gives it proof."
"Now we've boiled the skin and brains offa this skull, yup, just another empty head..."