Donnie, as is his won't since being a little shit, crossed the line and made conservative media ravings safe for politicians to repeat. And like Pandora's box, there's no going back, if I may slam two metaphors together.
But substantively, how much are things worse for Donnie occasionally calling the shots as opposed to what the rest of the party would do and has done on its own... Oh, wait, there's Donnie's murderous response to Covid they supported and voting restrictions (although which part will really suffer more is an open question). I guess maybe I answered by own question :(
In any case, the solution is simple as fuck: Vote the fucking party out of power no matter the pol's position on or channelling of Trump.
It's actually not that simple. Because that again (& as always) insists that the solution to a deeply structural problem is individual, & if it doesn't go the way the Dems like then they pretend there's no earthly thing to be done.
Example: the USPS is fucked, but DeJoy as Postmaster G or whatever is only the feculent Mereschino on top of the shit sundae. The unfucking could happen if the funding bill that crippled their income (passed when Obama was a senator, enjoying substantial bipartisan support) were reversed. But that won't happen, and we all know why. First would be admitting that a non-zero number of Dem legislators supported the bill (secret vote, no public record of who). Second, campaigning on saving the Post Office probably generates more campaign dollars than actually saving the Post Office would.
So the solution is "buy more stamps." And if you don't, or don't buy enough, then it's your fault. Our fault. Thanks for nothing.
No, none of the fuckers are in office by any means other than being elected or appointed by people who’ve been elected.
Of course, getting the GOP out of power isn’t a complete solution but an essential first step. Of course, there’s a shit ton of Dems as subservient to the Powers That Be as every Republican corporate puppet out there. But a key difference is that Dems are at the least responsive to the needs of the masses. I cannot envision ant Dem responding to the pandemic the way Trump, aided by his party and the media, did. The difference between Republican domination and Dem is the difference between a failed state, a shithole, and a marginally functional one.
Again, none the guilty took power. It was given, even if in response to bullshit or inexcusable ignorance.
I hear you, yo. I am not so sanguine about anyone in power being responsive to the people's needs. But I'm just like that.
Case in point: After 5 months of _highly uneven_ vaccine distribution, the CDC is ready to just open everything up. The likely illness rate would likely still be about 3-5%, distributed disproproportinately upon the working class, the disabled, & the marginalized, with little public support to help those getting sick. We know that 3-5% of the US population is still a very high number.
Essentially, we have come not much further than where we started in 2020. But the comfortable will be able to mingle & vacation without masks. But because US politics is all about theatrics & not reality, MSNBC will smugly proclaim "our" superiority.
Getting the GOP out of power most likely involves deflating the class inequities that racism etc. were created to enforce. That involves public investment in a host of neglected essential services, taxing corporations, & giving up imperialist & colonialist structures that inflect not just foreign but domestic policies as well. That involves renouncing structures of privilege & complancy that prop up neoliberal modeas of living & being. That indeed sounds like an impossible paradox, & it probably is -- baby steps, I guess.
Oversimplifying, I guess, but getting independent voters informed and actually delivering are the two primary ways to get the GOP voted out. Of course, the new problem is Republicans overturning elections so they're as free as under Putin, say.
True, of course -- but folks usually want substance to vote upon if they are _truly_ independent (which I am highly agnostic about). And yes, getting rid of draconian voting laws in the states is another huge hurdle.
I have been ruminating on the genii out of the bottle as a metaphor for just a few racist wishes for the demagogue's launch. Israel now. The GOP still. Can't get that angry djinn back in the bottle once the mobs are drunk with it.
Jacob Marley wore lighter chains than the Republican Party and had more hope of redemption, too. Their current task is to rewrite history and deny the present, assuming the future is theirs, which unless Democrats and the DoJ stop cooperating in operating the Memory Hole, they will.
Meanwhile, it’s time for Joe and Kamala to visit Joe Manchin and show him what Christmas future will look like if he doesn’t stop helping the Party of Ignorance and Want regain control of the government.
Donald Trump was and is the conservative id frolicking naked in the fields. He was and is everything they ever wanted or dreamt of in a president: violent, ignorant, racist, stupid, thoroughly dishonest, incapable of anything approximating loyalty or even human affection. Extremely aggressive while being overwhelmingly cowardly. He personifies every rancid impulse of human nature, and conservatives worship that rancidness. He is at once everything they want to be, and everything they see in themselves.
Donald Trump was and is the conservative id frolicking naked in the fields. He was and is everything they ever wanted or dreamt of in a president: violent, ignorant, racist, stupid, thoroughly dishonest, incapable of anything approximating loyalty or even human affection. Extremely aggressive while being overwhelmingly cowardly. He personifies every rancid impulse of human nature, and conservatives worship that rancidness. He is at once everything they want to be, and everything they see in themselves.
For Noonan to acknowledge that free spending on militarization & policing is licit is not silliness, nor hypocrisy. She knows (as should anybody) that that particular plank is highly appealling to a very large number of Dem voters, and an even-larger number of Dem legislators & politicians.
The Ted Cruz line (if his "dignity-always-dignity schtik gets laughed off the stage") is solid gold. But is dignity-always-dignity "from" something? I read somewhere that Henry James, about to succumb on his deathbed, intoned, "At last, the dignified thing," but a) that could be apocryphal, and b) it's not the same. Source?
It makes a kind of sense that Republicans would, must, eventually embrace Trumpism without Trump. They know the formula works, but no one has been able to duplicate it. The kids are a joke, and desperate buffoons like Ted Cruz just end up embarrassing themselves. What do do with a proven spell that can't be spoken? Invoke the name of the Godhead and hope the rubes don't notice there's no one behind the curtain. But what to do when He comes roaring back? They have to lie back and think of Reagan, I assume. If the Republicans were competent authoritarians they'd find someone to assassinate Trump to make him a martyr like JFK, giving them Trumpism without Trump forever, a Trump who can never disappoint or die.
I never guessed that back when I was reading Allen Drury novels in high school I'd be living in one.
A conversation with a friend, returning from a business golf trip (he was collecting his baggage and so felt a strong urge to call me and continue our usual movie-reference text exchanges laced with anecdotes of work and the occasional fascist flashback), for some reason he began claiming his in-laws in the Midwest could not get enough workers in their businesses now because unemployment paid more and none of those people wanted to do those jobs. What were those people doing? He claimed they all took their fat guvment checks to the Indian casinos. "The casinos are packed."
Then he whipped out, "Minimum wage jobs are not meant for people to live on permanently." Here was a paradox for me. You want these people to be forced to work at minimum wage but they are not expected to work those jobs as a means of making a living. Who will replace them when they go off to elite jobs or open their own Walmart or complete the killer app they work on at night?
I throw this out here because I am trying to understand the utter lack of logic in the propaganda Pablum the rubes ingest and spew. These jobs are not supposed to pay enough to live on! So let's get these people back there by depriving them of any means of living other than to work several jobs and sleep in their cars. "But not in my neighborhood!" Yes, he also complained about a rise in people camping out in his neighborhood and living in vehicles.
Because if you give them enough money to eat and pay rent, they will go to the casino. They will not buy food and pay rent, will not take care of necessities. Suddenly I realized I had been handed the greatest storyline since Oliver Twist. But who was the hero of this imagined life? Who would step away from the gambling dens or emerge from the franchisee class to right these grave social wrongs of our times?
The Republicans are sure they _need_ their thugs and goons and generally uncouth, violent sort because the Democrats have Dark People, who are even more dangerous. They're just standing their ground.
The phrase "important Trumpian inflections" is going to stay with me for a long time, and not in a good way.
I hear the tones of a cocaine addicted Canada Goose from Queens.
Read first as “important Trumpian infections”
Donnie, as is his won't since being a little shit, crossed the line and made conservative media ravings safe for politicians to repeat. And like Pandora's box, there's no going back, if I may slam two metaphors together.
But substantively, how much are things worse for Donnie occasionally calling the shots as opposed to what the rest of the party would do and has done on its own... Oh, wait, there's Donnie's murderous response to Covid they supported and voting restrictions (although which part will really suffer more is an open question). I guess maybe I answered by own question :(
In any case, the solution is simple as fuck: Vote the fucking party out of power no matter the pol's position on or channelling of Trump.
It's actually not that simple. Because that again (& as always) insists that the solution to a deeply structural problem is individual, & if it doesn't go the way the Dems like then they pretend there's no earthly thing to be done.
Example: the USPS is fucked, but DeJoy as Postmaster G or whatever is only the feculent Mereschino on top of the shit sundae. The unfucking could happen if the funding bill that crippled their income (passed when Obama was a senator, enjoying substantial bipartisan support) were reversed. But that won't happen, and we all know why. First would be admitting that a non-zero number of Dem legislators supported the bill (secret vote, no public record of who). Second, campaigning on saving the Post Office probably generates more campaign dollars than actually saving the Post Office would.
So the solution is "buy more stamps." And if you don't, or don't buy enough, then it's your fault. Our fault. Thanks for nothing.
No, none of the fuckers are in office by any means other than being elected or appointed by people who’ve been elected.
Of course, getting the GOP out of power isn’t a complete solution but an essential first step. Of course, there’s a shit ton of Dems as subservient to the Powers That Be as every Republican corporate puppet out there. But a key difference is that Dems are at the least responsive to the needs of the masses. I cannot envision ant Dem responding to the pandemic the way Trump, aided by his party and the media, did. The difference between Republican domination and Dem is the difference between a failed state, a shithole, and a marginally functional one.
Again, none the guilty took power. It was given, even if in response to bullshit or inexcusable ignorance.
I hear you, yo. I am not so sanguine about anyone in power being responsive to the people's needs. But I'm just like that.
Case in point: After 5 months of _highly uneven_ vaccine distribution, the CDC is ready to just open everything up. The likely illness rate would likely still be about 3-5%, distributed disproproportinately upon the working class, the disabled, & the marginalized, with little public support to help those getting sick. We know that 3-5% of the US population is still a very high number.
Essentially, we have come not much further than where we started in 2020. But the comfortable will be able to mingle & vacation without masks. But because US politics is all about theatrics & not reality, MSNBC will smugly proclaim "our" superiority.
Getting the GOP out of power most likely involves deflating the class inequities that racism etc. were created to enforce. That involves public investment in a host of neglected essential services, taxing corporations, & giving up imperialist & colonialist structures that inflect not just foreign but domestic policies as well. That involves renouncing structures of privilege & complancy that prop up neoliberal modeas of living & being. That indeed sounds like an impossible paradox, & it probably is -- baby steps, I guess.
Oversimplifying, I guess, but getting independent voters informed and actually delivering are the two primary ways to get the GOP voted out. Of course, the new problem is Republicans overturning elections so they're as free as under Putin, say.
True, of course -- but folks usually want substance to vote upon if they are _truly_ independent (which I am highly agnostic about). And yes, getting rid of draconian voting laws in the states is another huge hurdle.
I have been ruminating on the genii out of the bottle as a metaphor for just a few racist wishes for the demagogue's launch. Israel now. The GOP still. Can't get that angry djinn back in the bottle once the mobs are drunk with it.
"important Trumpian inflections" = looting the treasury? child rape? world-class ignorance?
="We need another Civil War", breaking heads and shooting all BLM protesters as violent rioters, anti gay/trans bigotry as "religious freedom"...
And a definite heart for the Singing in The Rain reference.
This is exactly what our political discourse needs: Less Donald Trump, More Donald O'Connor.
Jacob Marley wore lighter chains than the Republican Party and had more hope of redemption, too. Their current task is to rewrite history and deny the present, assuming the future is theirs, which unless Democrats and the DoJ stop cooperating in operating the Memory Hole, they will.
Meanwhile, it’s time for Joe and Kamala to visit Joe Manchin and show him what Christmas future will look like if he doesn’t stop helping the Party of Ignorance and Want regain control of the government.
Donald Trump was and is the conservative id frolicking naked in the fields. He was and is everything they ever wanted or dreamt of in a president: violent, ignorant, racist, stupid, thoroughly dishonest, incapable of anything approximating loyalty or even human affection. Extremely aggressive while being overwhelmingly cowardly. He personifies every rancid impulse of human nature, and conservatives worship that rancidness. He is at once everything they want to be, and everything they see in themselves.
Donald Trump was and is the conservative id frolicking naked in the fields. He was and is everything they ever wanted or dreamt of in a president: violent, ignorant, racist, stupid, thoroughly dishonest, incapable of anything approximating loyalty or even human affection. Extremely aggressive while being overwhelmingly cowardly. He personifies every rancid impulse of human nature, and conservatives worship that rancidness. He is at once everything they want to be, and everything they see in themselves.
Conservative id frolicking in fields (artist’s conception): https://youtu.be/CnYDLHUwRKc
I figured it would look like this... https://youtu.be/39Bnk6VU53Y
And I thought of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wstIBq2H0z8
Nasty, brutish and short. At least in temper. Yes, that's Trump alright.
And these same people try to say the Left is pessimistic & hates everything
I’m beyond disgusted with this country on so many levels, and so beyond exhausted that this is all I can write.
An elegant summation!
For Noonan to acknowledge that free spending on militarization & policing is licit is not silliness, nor hypocrisy. She knows (as should anybody) that that particular plank is highly appealling to a very large number of Dem voters, and an even-larger number of Dem legislators & politicians.
Trump may have small hands, but they still do the job!
The Ted Cruz line (if his "dignity-always-dignity schtik gets laughed off the stage") is solid gold. But is dignity-always-dignity "from" something? I read somewhere that Henry James, about to succumb on his deathbed, intoned, "At last, the dignified thing," but a) that could be apocryphal, and b) it's not the same. Source?
https://vimeo.com/7667259
Oh, THAT kind of dignity. Got it! (Thx.)
Say what ya want about that Gene Kelly fella, he sure could dance a bit!
Baseball Head Embraces The Fuhrerprinzip, A Summary
I think Baseball Head had one too many beanings, perhaps even one of the Roy Chapman variety
It makes a kind of sense that Republicans would, must, eventually embrace Trumpism without Trump. They know the formula works, but no one has been able to duplicate it. The kids are a joke, and desperate buffoons like Ted Cruz just end up embarrassing themselves. What do do with a proven spell that can't be spoken? Invoke the name of the Godhead and hope the rubes don't notice there's no one behind the curtain. But what to do when He comes roaring back? They have to lie back and think of Reagan, I assume. If the Republicans were competent authoritarians they'd find someone to assassinate Trump to make him a martyr like JFK, giving them Trumpism without Trump forever, a Trump who can never disappoint or die.
I never guessed that back when I was reading Allen Drury novels in high school I'd be living in one.
Reagan survived his terms and was still revered. Frog-marching Trump would benefit everybody.
+1 for “lie back and think of Reagan”.
Ian Faith meant that Boston wasn’t a big collage town—the local art scene was far more into oil on canvas and maybe a bit of watercolor.
Or was it Boston’s not a big colander town? I forget, it was 40 years ago and we were all under heavy sedation at the time.
A conversation with a friend, returning from a business golf trip (he was collecting his baggage and so felt a strong urge to call me and continue our usual movie-reference text exchanges laced with anecdotes of work and the occasional fascist flashback), for some reason he began claiming his in-laws in the Midwest could not get enough workers in their businesses now because unemployment paid more and none of those people wanted to do those jobs. What were those people doing? He claimed they all took their fat guvment checks to the Indian casinos. "The casinos are packed."
Then he whipped out, "Minimum wage jobs are not meant for people to live on permanently." Here was a paradox for me. You want these people to be forced to work at minimum wage but they are not expected to work those jobs as a means of making a living. Who will replace them when they go off to elite jobs or open their own Walmart or complete the killer app they work on at night?
I throw this out here because I am trying to understand the utter lack of logic in the propaganda Pablum the rubes ingest and spew. These jobs are not supposed to pay enough to live on! So let's get these people back there by depriving them of any means of living other than to work several jobs and sleep in their cars. "But not in my neighborhood!" Yes, he also complained about a rise in people camping out in his neighborhood and living in vehicles.
Because if you give them enough money to eat and pay rent, they will go to the casino. They will not buy food and pay rent, will not take care of necessities. Suddenly I realized I had been handed the greatest storyline since Oliver Twist. But who was the hero of this imagined life? Who would step away from the gambling dens or emerge from the franchisee class to right these grave social wrongs of our times?
The Republicans are sure they _need_ their thugs and goons and generally uncouth, violent sort because the Democrats have Dark People, who are even more dangerous. They're just standing their ground.