I’ve always been sceptical of ‘government’s’ intentions re: my (and my fellow Americans) future well-being.
I hate it when my gut feeling is right- when the consequences are all wrong. The real boot-in-the-ass is that, we, the people, are not going to properly address these grievances.
This is fucking pathetic. Whatever happened to the US policy of not negotiating with terrorists? The GOP certainly qualify for that label given their behavior and apparent willingness to destroy the country and the global economy if they cannot get their way.
I remember seeing the results of a survey a few years ago that showed that people who pay no attention to current events have a much greater likelihood of reporting being happy with their lives than those who do.
Come on, it’s all about shared sacrifice. The wealthy agree to give up part of the tax break they receive for upgrading the bathrooms on their yachts, and the rest of us give up financial security and healthcare in our old age. Sounds fair and balanced to me!
Really just illustrative of Democrats’ ability to turn a sure thing into a rout in which they themselves are the victims. Like the whole expiration of the tax cuts thing last fall. It could have been a campaign issue – “these Republicans are holding you hostage to preserve tax breaks for the people who fucked the economy.” Instead, they punted, lost the election, and gave in on raising taxes as well…which led to more Republican hand-wringing about the deficit and “law, how will we EVAH fix it?”
This time around, they have the chance to accurately paint the Republicans as handmaidens of the rich who want to decimate programs that all of us EXCEPT the rich rely on, in order to preserve tax cuts for the wealthy and lower their taxes even more. The only possible response to this is for Democrats to destroy these programs themselves. so that Republicans can paint them as the villains while winning all the goodies they wanted for their benefactors to begin with. Combined with the campaign cash rewards they’ll receive from doing their masters’ bidding, we’ll be back to complete GOP control of government by 2013. Collapse of the country will follow in short order as Republicans get back to doing what they do – borrowing and spending.
I’m pretty sure all our problems can be solved if we just give more tax breaks to the wealthy and big corporations, you know, the job creators. Now some of you may have noticed that many large corporations are making record profits, which may in turn cause you to ask “So where are the jobs,” to which I’d reply
I’m pretty sure all our problems can be solved if we just give more tax breaks to the wealthy and big corporations
Don’t forget to remove all government regulation. After all, once the planet is laid to waste and can no longer support life, all our problems will be solved permanantly.
I’ll wait to freak the fuck out until something actually happens, but this shit about needing to find a way to “fix” Social Security is a fucking joke.
Just have the tax apply to all income.
Do that and repeal the Bushbama tax cuts and **POOF!** Soc. Sec. and our deficit are all but solved.
Of course, that’d be something an actual liberal would propose.
But we have someone in the White House who, in a sane world, would be considered a moderate Republican. Sadly, we live in a clinically insane and utterly retarded world, so he’s painted as some radical leftist … one who is helping dismantle the social safety net while not doing A SINGLE FUCKING THING TO CREATE JOBS.
**sigh**
At this point, I really think an asteroid the size of, oh, Des Moines or so, would be the best thing for our species. Just start the fuck over.
I’ll wait to freak the fuck out until something actually happens, but this shit about needing to find a way to “fix” Social Security is a fucking joke.
It’ll be too late. It probably is already. The time to freak out was when Bushbama decided to create a ‘bipartisan deficit commission’ with Alan Simpson (typical right-wing fuckstick) and Erskine Bowles (famous for being a Democrat who wanted to ‘fix’ Social Security) as its co-chairs.
I can hardly tell you how many times I was told in comments at TPM, etc., not to worry, that Obama wouldn’t agree to cut Social Security. But of course, that was the whole reason for picking those two.
Obama is doing a better job of destroying the Democratic party than a Republican ever could.
~
Accepting the 2013 Noballs Prize in Economics on behalf of the Inverterbrate Party, the former President of the United States, Mr. Barack Obama (cue applause).
Most people don’t want Social Security cut. Most people want taxes raised in the upper brackets.
But most people aren’t willing to vote solely on those issues, or associate with the people who fight for those issues, or whatever. There’s no left-wing equivalent to the Tea Party Movement holding people in office accountable to the principles they’re supposed to have had, and if there was one, most of the center would shriek like elephants in front of mice, soil themselves, and run to the Republicans screaming about DFHs.
During the 1930s, people didn’t just vote, they pushed the Overton Window so far to the left that FDR actually considered Huey Long rather than anyone on Wall Street or in the GOP “one of the two most dangerous men in America,”* and was forced to move to the left in order to steal his thunder. I don’t see that sort of commitment from Dems today, and more importantly I don’t see people in the center allowing it. So yeah, even if they want Social Security, Medicare and the other parts of the liberal agenda, most Americans don’t seem willing to back it up with votes. Which is de facto voting against the modern democratic state, even if they wish it weren’t.
…and since it is only Dems talking about dismantling SS and Medicare, Rove & co. will run in 2012 on Dems dismantling SS and Medicare. Bookmark it!
This. Athousanfuckingtimes this.
Obama has NEVER been some progressive hero. I get that, and I think a lot of us here understand that, sadly, he’s a guy who views bipartisanship as an ideology in and of itself because he truly thinks that’s what’s best.
(In fact, he spent a ton of time in The Audacity of Hope going on and on and on about how wonderful the Senate used to be, with guys arguing during the day and drinking scotch in the evening. So it’s not some big, super-duper secret that his goal was to get everyone get along and sing Kumbaya. This is why I’m stunned when folks freak the hell out that he’s not the Progressive Hero They’ve Been Waiting For. But I digress … )
Now, in normal times, this all might not have been so bad. IMHO, deals have to be made to get things done, and I’m okay with some give and take. It’s how the world actually works.
But these aren’t normal times.
We have one side with no interest whatsofuckingever in making any sort of deal on anything ever no matter what. Hell, the GOP has openly admitted their #1 goal is to destroy Obama.
And yet there he is, trying to work with them, as if they’re negotiating in good faith.
So either Obama is more dense that depleted uranium and thinks that if he just tries harder, things will magically change and the GOP will be sane again … OR … he’s getting what he actually wants.
At this point, I don’t think most folks know which one it is ..
But we won’t get these things, because our politics are ruled by the principle, “one dollar, one vote”.
Voters are ruled by the Fox Catatonic State. Everyone is a deficit hawk now because the Dogs (reference the Pink Floyd song) say we need to shit our pants a lot over all this stuff.
NPR is in on the act too, with their usual parade of think-tank dumbfucks rounding out the roster.
“Fuck the economy, we gotta do something about this debt”
And to THIS VERY MOMENT, not a single mention of ending our involvement in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. They do a fantastic job of dancing around the issue of ending the Bush tax cuts too.
Obama must have a high tolerance to pain. That’s why he continues to let the republicans fuck him, then lets loose with the classic line: “Thank you sir. May I have another?”
Obama is not a liberal. He’s a sane (mostly) republican. He’s doing stuff that would give St.Ronnie wet dreams.
This seems especially ironic because I voted for Obama in the primaries precisely because he was a moderate, Third Way candidate. He was supposed to represent a way around the control being held by the extremes of either party. Instead, Obama is focused on negotiating only with Boehner. Boehner, who cannot even get the votes of the extreme of his own party on raising the debt. Why is Obama going through Boehner to get to the centrist House Democrats and he has to get virtually all of the Dems in the Senate too? Why is he completely wedded to Boehner? Shouldn’t this be the opportunity to break the order of things that got us here in the first place? This incredibly prescient piece by Matt Stoller was written in 2008
If Obama’s centrist policies fail, and he is considered a big government liberal or progressive, the public will reject liberalism and progressivism, as it has for the last forty years. But this will not be a result of disliking progressive ideas, but as a result of believing that bad centrist ideas are progressive ideas.
Chris IS actually smart.
Those of us to the left of Reagan usually get criticized by idiots saying that the democrats are still better than the republicans. Well, yeah, but so fuckin’ what?
It doesn’t matter a whole lot, when the dems of today are the repubs of the past and the repubs of today are more extreme than Birchers.
The only people who would agree that this state of affairs is still good in any way are the abject idiots who consider any win for “their side” golden, even if “their side” no longer wants anything to do with them.
There are also the squirmy sycophants who say that because of the numbers in the House and/or the Senate, the dems couldn’t have done better, period. That, of course, ignores that they could have been a hell of a lot more honest and agressive in the campaigns that LED to those numbers.
The real problem, for americans, is that they have no other choiche.
They only have the two viable parties.
I guess I shouldn’t care, not being american, but I do.
Not much, but enough to drive me to drink.
(You’d think that WOULD be much, but hey, I’m sadistic to my liver).
Speaking of NPR, I was rightly PO’d this antimatter when, reporting on the 9th Circuit lifting their stay on forcing the gubmint to stop enforcing DADT, in some bizarre attempt at “fairness”, they played a clip of Tony Perkins. WTF?
I sent a scathing note to the ombudsman asking why they give voice to military expert TP, the spokesperson for a hate-speech group. Let me say that again: you gave voice to someone with zero expertise on the subject, said voice being the voice of an organization the SLPC identifies as a hate-speech organization. Why? Just why, NPR?
Anyone else who gives a shit is free to chime in at NPR.org.
But most people aren’t willing to vote solely on those issues, or associate with the people who fight for those issues, or whatever.
Where is the party to inspire these people to come out and vote? The problem is the Democrats are controlled by people who would rather compete with the Republicans for a share of the corporate $$.
P.S. The “Tea Party” is simply the Republican base, rebranded with extensive marketing and organizational help by the Kochs after the Bush-Cheney debacle, and relentlessly hyped by our corporate press. Don’t believe the hype.
~
Aseptic, Plouffe et al. are in some ways brilliant strategists. In other ways they are total fucking idiots. They have let the rethuglican kleptocrats completely define the terms. Wanna fix the deficit problem? Let the Bush tax cuts expire. That’s all. Oh, some minor adjustments to Medicare will be needed but aren’t critically urgent. SS is fine just the way it is. Just do nothing, let the irresponsible Bush tax cuts expire. But nooooooo, raising taxes kills jobs. It must be true because the Rs keep saying it and the WH, and the D’s NEVER CALL THAT BULLSHIT BULLSHIT.
Why does no one ask Mr. speaker how many jobs bills they have introduced. I recall last fall him saying “we’re going to be all about jobs. Jobs jobs jobs.” But nooooooo, the D’s are so afraid of … something they just won’t call bullshit on the lies.
Wake the fuck up folks, you don’t win the game by letting them set the rules.
Where is the party to inspire these people to come out and vote? The problem is the Democrats are controlled by people who would rather compete with the Republicans for a share of the corporate $$.
They aren’t solely controlled by corporations–at least not nearly to the degree that the Repigs are. The problem is that every time a guy like say…Bill Bradley comes along (someone who actually believes in something), the corporate lap dogs destroy him. If the democrats would knock off the purple state garbage and take a risk on doing something worthwhile for a change, they could band together and support moderately progressive ideas (like ending wars, keeping our social safety net in place, telling baby boomers to SHUT THE FUCKING FUCK UP YOU FUCKERS, etc).
They could win on this. It just means you refute the Fox Noise shit–with some actual fire like Howard Dean does occasionally.
“Fuck the economy, we gotta do something about this debt”
This is the big rallying cry at the moment, and I got to say they’ve sure got that first part down pat. But I’ve also got to say that so far, all the people who have gotten into office screaming about the debt have turned around and cut taxes as their first order of business. And I seem to be about the only person in my neck of the woods going WTF. I am constantly pointing out to my more conservative neighbors an co-workers that if these people were serious about cutting the debt the very LAST thing they would do is cut taxes. I mean how the hell are you going to pay off the debt with less money. No, these people don’t give a damn about the debt. They are simply creating a disaster they can exploit to cut several popular social programs from the budget, but once they’ve done that I garauntee you that they will have no problem giving that taxpayer money and then some over to corporate welfare instead. Yes, taxes will have to go up again and they know that, but they will manage to leave it up to Democrats to do that dirty work.
Republican matra when they are in power – “deficits don’t matter”
Republican mantra when they are not – “we simply MUST balance the budget”
But wait! There’s good news! We will finally, at long last, get our fucking jet cars. ‘Course, the fucking Europeans will have them first. YOO ESS AIIIIIEEEEE
Bill Bradley comes along (someone who actually believes in something), the corporate lap dogs destroy him.
I had a friend that worked for Dollar Bill for quite a while. His beliefs aside hopes for higher office were dashed because he’s pentothal at the podium, deadly on the dais, soporific on the stump. A human sleep inducer. This also had a negative effect on his fund rasising.
So either Obama is more dense that depleted uranium and thinks that if he just tries harder, things will magically change and the GOP will be sane again … OR … he’s getting what he actually wants.
At this point, I don’t think most folks know which one it is ..
Could there be a third situation? Obama’s got the Jackie Robinson problem, only more so. Jackie had to be pretty conciliatory with baseball players who hated his guts for various reasons, because as The First Black Player Crossing the Color Line he had to set a good example.
Now imagine if Jackie found that every team he played against was composed of Ty Cobb clones…
Where is the party to inspire these people to come out and vote? The problem is the Democrats are controlled by people who would rather compete with the Republicans for a share of the corporate $$.
Which is exactly the way things were at the end of the nineteenth century, with Republicans being corporate whores and Bourbon Democrats being the other corporate whores. That changed because of decades of populist activism, beginning with W. J. Bryan in 1896 and eventually culminating in the New Deal, despite the many times it got knocked down and had to get up again. The 1950s state wasn’t created because Democrats were inspiring, it was created because millions of voters pressured them to be that way. I don’t see the same thing existing today.
P.S. The “Tea Party” is simply the Republican base, rebranded with extensive marketing and organizational help by the Kochs after the Bush-Cheney debacle, and relentlessly hyped by our corporate press. Don’t believe the hype.
Not completely. Half of their duty was what you described, to rebrand and reinvent the GOP and pretend to be something other than Bush/Cheney.
The other half, IMO, was to serve as the primarying army against Republican candidates, created to discourage any Republican politician from making any accomodation towards Obama for fear of losing the next election. Worked pretty well in that respect.
And I seem to be about the only person in my neck of the woods going WTF.
I sure can sympathize with this. All I hear: Obama is spending us into…..
Even dumbass liberals fall for the hand-wringing crap over Afghanistan and Iraq. As if another 10 years is going to change the inevitable outcome of either of those idiotic fucking abortions.
No debate about the budget has a single shred of credibility as long as we’re still occupying and building other nations. No debate has any credibility as long as those Bush tax cuts are still in effect.
(See how this works, OBAMA? You take the discussion OFF THE TABLE)
The Democrats did a good job of getting rid of Howard Dean, tsam.
I recall 2006 very well. In spite of being deep in debt at the time, I gave more money to more candidates then ever before (most lost, most were liberals sponsored by ActBlue…but some did win).
It was Howard Dean that was pushing to help these people, and it was Rahm Emmanuel who wanted to funnel all the money into the pockets of Blue Dogs (douchebag Heath Shuler was Rahmbo’s prize recruit in 2006).
Since then, we have DNC chairs: Tim Kaine and now Debbie Wasserman Schultz. A couple of peas from the same corporate pod.
I’ve often said the corporatist Dems would rather lose elections than control of the party. I see no reason to retract, so far…
~
I had a friend that worked for Dollar Bill for quite a while. His beliefs aside hopes for higher office were dashed because he’s pentothal at the podium, deadly on the dais, soporific on the stump. A human sleep inducer. This also had a negative effect on his fund rasising.
I know. But he had guts enough to challenge the status quo and demand that the American worker make a living wage.
LOLWUT? John Kerry was 10 times the sleep inducer Bill was! Not to mention a stupid asshole who regularly licks McCain taint.
Gosh, I’m just terrible at politics, and most everything else. I was never a good judge of character, and frequently wound up socializing with morons and convicts just because they were more fun to hang out with than the frat boys or the pencil nerds. So I’m not very good at recognizing intelligence when I see it. Past a certain point, all intelligence looks the same to me: obscure and murky, like a muddy river. But, because of a lifetime of being so close to it, I have always been able to recognize the stupid when I see it.
I know this will piss off a lot of folks, but I see stupid in Pres Obama. I know he’s got grace, and elegance, and intellect, or at least I have read countless articles and columns saying he has those things, but I also know he’s afflicted with a thick and rigid swath of the dumbass. I used to believe in my own vacillating way that this was just his inexperience, his “greenness”, but now, after observing him for over two years in the White House, I can’t give him a pass based on inexperience anymore. Yep, I am truly beginning to believe that he is just plain fucking stupid; not all the time, of course, but enough of the time that even someone as dense as I can see it.
There, I said it. Been putting it off for a while. But that’s how I feel. Honestly.
I’ve met them both socially and seen them both speak at events and Bill wins going away. His speeches are like the cartoon wooden mallet that hits Yosemite Sam.
I recently have learned that you plan to come to some sort of deal with Republicans in terms of raising the debt ceiling in exchange for substantial revenue enhancements and spending cuts. I urge you to please think about what you are doing: you are reaching a “negotiated” deal to accomplish something that both sides want and that should not require negotiation in the first place. Thus, that the GOP even wants to negotiate to achieve something the ostensibly support in the first place means they are not acting in good faith, so you should stop treating them as if they are acting in good faith. Moreover, as you ought to know, credit will be given to the GOP (not to you or to the Democrats) for being fiscally responsible while blame for cuts in popular programs, tax increases and the increased debt (which is why the ceiling needs to be raised) will go to you and the Democrats. I fail to understand why you did not simply make the case clear to the American people as to why the debt ceiling needed raising, have clean bills proposed in both houses to accomplish that goal and force the GOP to argue why spending cuts would be needed and force Republican legislators to propose the specific spending cuts they wish to make so that they would take the political heat for what really are their (and at least supposedly not your) agenda items.
You were an awesome campaigner for the Presidency and you raised our hopes that there would be a new approach to governance in DC. But alas, it seems you, in your eagerness to negotiate with a party which has continually demonstrated their inability to act in good faith, have simply continued many of the same tired policies and right-leaning political trends that have gotten us into our current economic and political pickle.
I urge you now to change course before it is too late – if the GOP wants spending cuts, let them take ownership of those cuts and their refusal to support necessary legislation to raise the debt ceiling. Don’t give away the store to reach a compromise about something which reasonable people already agree is necessary. Don’t be like Charlie Brown to the GOP’s Lucy, trying to kick that ball when every previous time the GOP has yanked it out from under you. That’s not 11-dimensional chess, that’s foolishness!
never thought I would say it, but perhaps Obama would have been the better choice, at least he might have told the GOP to get off..
Let’s not kid ourselves, the only difference we’d have between Hillary and now is we’d be shitting bricks over her bending over backwards to placate the GOP and asking why oh why she does such things when the Republican faithful hate her filthy stinking guts.
The only reason the grass is greener is because we imagine the grass instead of having to actually see it.
Meanwhile in NJ, the Sen President, Sweeney (not Todd), after shepherding Christie’s ghastly budget through the legislature and giving him bipartisan cover seems sincerely shocked by what a bully Chris Christie is.
Let’s not kid ourselves, the only difference we’d have between Hillary and now is we’d be shitting bricks over her bending over backwards to placate the GOP and asking why oh why she does such things when the Republican faithful hate her filthy stinking guts.
Back in 07, I had to write a college paper about the health care system in the U.S. and, as part of it, looked up what leading candidates in both parties had to say. Of the three candidates on the Dem side of the aisle, I remember that Obama’s position was the most vaguely defined and the most centrist. Didn’t think much of it at the time, but it’s come back to my mind quite a few times since.
Of the three candidates on the Dem side of the aisle, I remember that Obama’s position was the most vaguely defined and the most centrist. Didn’t think much of it at the time, but it’s come back to my mind quite a few times since.
At the same time, back in 2010 I believe, I took a look at the health care system in the U.S., and as a part of it, looked up what the three leading candidates of the 2008 presidential election on the Dem side of the aisle were doing at the time.
Obama had been president when Congress passed a tepid but still reasonably valid health care reform, Hillary was Obama’s secretary of state and so didn’t produce her own health care reform bill (but I’m sure the proposal she didn’t have to actually fulfill was awesome), and John Edwards had been in some manner of sex scandal in the midst of 2008 and was therefore kind of irrelevant, even though his reform proposal was clearly the best of the three.
But yes, if only the potential Presidents we could’ve had actually existed, then things would come up roses. I personally dream of what President Camacho’s health care reform proposals would look like now.
By hacking into thousands of cellphones from the Royal family to a kidnapped missing girl to wounded and dead soldiers.
The tyrants lose their swagger and those that lived in fear dare to speak out. The dynamics of the News International saga are similar to the ones that shape the fall of dictatorial regimes, except in this case it is some mighty media executives who are suddenly fearful and the politicians who are liberated.
Yesterday’s exchanges in the Commons were ones I thought I would never witness. They are of historic importance. Senior elected politicians dared to challenge the powerful Murdoch empire and there was an air of catharsis as they did so…
…In supporting a full public inquiry, Cameron also went much further than he has done, even if he could not quite sever all ties with a company that has delivered overwhelming support and some friends. For a prime minister to signal distance when he is receiving supportive coverage is as significant as Miliband’s more strident onslaught.
The novelty of this transformed choreography takes the breath away. Senior figures in both the bigger parties are used to paying homage. As a BBC political correspondent, I was the only journalist who travelled with Tony Blair in July 1995 for his famous meeting with Rupert Murdoch at a conference in Australia.
The investment of political and physical energy was staggering. Murdoch issued an invitation at relatively short notice to Blair, a summons that could not be ignored. Blair, Alastair Campbell and Anji Hunter dropped all plans, flew for 24 hours, taking sleeping pills to manage the jet lag, attended the conference and returned in time for Prime Minister’s Questions…
So that Murdoch’s paper’s cellphone hacking is clear, but of course no one at all was ever responsible and no matter how many thousands of times it happened and led to stories it was always an individual act of a journalist, here’s one of the latest.
The investigation into the death of Essex teenager Danielle Jones could be re-examined after the inquiry into the voicemail hacking scandal found that mobile phones linked to her may have been targeted by a private investigator working for the News of the World.
Stuart Campbell, the uncle of the 15-year-old schoolgirl whose body was never found after her disappearance in June 2001, was convicted of her murder in 2002 after a trial in which prosecutors relied on forensic evidence relating to text messages sent from Danielle’s phone.
Scotland Yard is now looking for evidence of mobile phone hacking related to every high-profile murder and abduction of a child since 2001 following the disclosure this week that private investigator Glenn Mulcaire and the NOTW hacked into the phone of Milly Dowler, allegedly deleting voicemails which had been left for her and creating the false impression that she was still alive.
Police feared the deleted messages may have contained important evidence about the disappearance of the Surrey teenager in March 2002.
Obama had been president when Congress passed a tepid but still reasonably valid health care reform, Hillary was Obama’s secretary of state and so didn’t produce her own health care reform bill (but I’m sure the proposal she didn’t have to actually fulfill was awesome), and John Edwards had been in some manner of sex scandal in the midst of 2008 and was therefore kind of irrelevant, even though his reform proposal was clearly the best of the three.
But yes, if only the potential Presidents we could’ve had actually existed, then things would come up roses
You forgot to mention ponies, peace on earth, goodwill towards men, and a whole other host of cliches I can’t be bothered to think of right now.
Only one of those presidents ever came to be, but since the subject of this was whether Hillary might have done better if she’d been elected, bringing up the subject of their health care plans at election time seemed strangely relevant. Water under the bridge is water under the bridge, but there’s nothing ludicrous in looking back on your electoral choices and asking questions.
Meanwhile in NJ, the Sen President, Sweeney (not Todd), after shepherding Christie’s ghastly budget through the legislature and giving him bipartisan cover seems sincerely shocked by what a bully Chris Christie is.
Meanwhile, in GA, all sorts of Republican state legislators who gleefully passed their tough guy anti-immigrant bill were genuinely shocked — I mean it, that fucking dumber-than-a-deer in the headlights right wing look, not faking it — that now crops were rotting in the fields because Georgia farmers had no one to pick their fruit and vegetable crops.
An innovative program by the Governor to allow (not force, yet) convicted persons on probation to get a job (as required, yet oddly convicts on probation, not exactly snapped up by employers) replacing the farmworkers strangely resulted in probationers saying “fuck this” and leaving, and those who did stay worked at 1/4th or slower the rate of the migrants.
If they’d just been assholes and said “too fucking bad,” that would be one thing; that legislators were genuinely shocked that legislation they passed would do exactly what they passed it to do.
@El Cid
Do you think it was genuine shock? Somebody HAD to have told them this would happen. Farm lobbyist, perhaps?
I guess what I’m saying is that if they were genuinely shocked, then I’m genuinely shocked. Shock implies that they give some sort of a fuck. This is out of character for these Mexican haters.
I was three 25 years ago, and I burned out before I was even allowed to vote. Now, I think things are changing all the time, just haven’t decided if it’s for the better or worse.
But from me to you, thanks for fucking off when things were rough.
He was supposed to represent a way around the control being held by the extremes of either party.
Oh sweet fucking Jesus H. Christ on a Big Wheel …
No offense, but could you please point us to where we can find these extreme leftists who were in need of being balanced out by some amorphous notion of The One True Centrist?
Because, in the reality I inhabit, the closest thing to “extreme” on the left is … what, Dennis Kucinich? Bernie Sanders, maybe?
Of course, considering that both of them support policies that a majority of Americans support (such as tax increases on the wealthy, pulling out of Afghanistan, more regulations, punishing the assholes who destroyed our economy, etc.) not sure they should count.
At least not in a sane world. In one of those, Bernie is President, the deficit is gone thanks to a repeal of the Bush tax cuts and bringing our troops back home, everyone has affordable basic health care due to Medicare For All, a massive infrastructure bank is putting people to work rebuilding our nation, and a massive push for green energy and better education — via repeal of NCLB — is being made that will put us at the forefront of the 21 Century.
Oh, wait … sorry for making so much sense when it comes to solving our problems.
Let’s go back to discussing that extreme left that doesn’t actually exist.
An innovative program by the Governor to allow (not force, yet) convicted persons on probation to get a job (as required, yet oddly convicts on probation, not exactly snapped up by employers) replacing the farmworkers strangely resulted in probationers saying “fuck this” and leaving, and those who did stay worked at 1/4th or slower the rate of the migrants.
And I’m loving it. Now to watch them deal with the existential crisis of realizing that by the judgment of the Free Market, those illegal immigrants that we all know come here to cheat on welfare and don’t respect our Protestant work ethic… turn out to be harder and MORE EFFICIENT workers than the best rugged individualists the South has been able to produce so far.
The popcorn! Where’d I put the damn popcorn!
I guess what I’m saying is that if they were genuinely shocked, then I’m genuinely shocked. Shock implies that they give some sort of a fuck. This is out of character for these Mexican haters.
I seriously doubt if they thought it through. The anti-immigrant rhetoric and the certainty that they’re what’s been fucking everything up and that everything would be OK if we just cracked down on them, were so ingrained they didn’t even bother to ask about the consequences.
Which probably contradicts what I just wrote; they’ll never have an existential crisis, because they’ll simply ignore the data El Cid just posted. One wonders just how far the ignore button will take them.
crops were rotting in the fields because Georgia farmers had no one to pick their fruit and vegetable crops.
No-one yet blamed the minimum wage?
That’s usually high up the list of boiler-plate wingnut excuses for why shit doesn’t happen in the economy the way they think it should. Still, very happy for wingnuts to have reality rubbed in their face that the immigrants that arrive here are among the hardest working people on the planet. Somehow never comes up in the fucking amnesty debate, but it’s kind of central to why the path to citizenship issue is a no-brainer.
I call myself a militant leftist because I don’t want to play Army in the sandbox anymore, and I don’t think muslims and gays are trying to eat my brains, and that people like me who work our asses off deserve health care, a world class education for our children and to not have to coast to death living on dog food.
I believe in liberty and justice for all. Where have we heard those words?
But there are options for leaving if one so wishes.
I’ve lived abroad most of my adult life. But I was in Buffalo for three years during the Bush administration and I protested and tried to organize people.
But, Yeah.
I gave up.
If anybody is really sincere about fucking off for real — give me a holler. I have knowledge of the international job market.
Y’all really serious ’bout leaving?
There’s Europe — difficult without an EU passport.
I can’t believe that he would even consider this. He had a chance to be FDR, he chose to bypass Clintonian Republican Lite and govern to the right of Reagan.
ikr?!? and i also hear: passed in secret, in middle of the night meetings behind closed doors…
oh, really? but it’s okay when:
The president’s renewed efforts follow what knowledgeable officials said was an overture from Mr. Boehner, who met secretly with Mr. Obama last weekend,
i am sick to death of the double standard, the name calling (i am not some whackaloon liberal socialist just because i believe we should help out the less fortunate, gdang it) and nothing the fuck happening because our politicians are too busy in their petulant pissing contest…
jennifer…i’ve been saving up my not smoking money…where are we headed to?
Fear not. Let this not trouble your soul. The Good Book tells us that the meek shall inherit the Earth.
Of course, this will be after the Earth has passed through the alimentary canal of multi national corporations. Enjoy your shit sammish.
I tried, really, I tried. But the “babee jeebus” dun hate me.
No seriously, thanks for the support.
I left the States back in ’86 for the sake of adventure and desperation. Lived all over — Asia and Europe. Did the Alaskan fishing boat thing for two years.
It’s really about time that some population outflow started happening from the US. If the American dream is about living well, not paying for health care or going broke on higher education might be something you wanna look at. Other countries do a better job on those two things.
Do you think it was genuine shock? Somebody HAD to have told them this would happen. Farm lobbyist, perhaps?
I guess what I’m saying is that if they were genuinely shocked, then I’m genuinely shocked. Shock implies that they give some sort of a fuck. This is out of character for these Mexican haters.
It was genuine shock. You’re talking people so god-damned stupid they don’t even realize that when you pass a law shit happens.
The Georgia growers’ association had tactfully submitted lots of testimony and documents begging the legislators to take their needs into account while taking no position outside what would be complying with the law.
No differently than all these fucking assholes in California who backed the recall move (including voters) over the vehicle fee. Remember the California government can’t raise income taxes.
And then when Arnie got in and canceled that fee, suddenly the state was another 8 billion in the hole.
Suddenly it was all “my gosh, why do we have all this spending”! Yeah, you can’t fucking cancel $8 billion in revenue without simultaneously having your budget deficit go up by $8 billion.
@El Cid
Do you think it was genuine shock? Somebody HAD to have told them this would happen. Farm lobbyist, perhaps?
They certainly should have known. About a year ago the farm workers union had a big campaign out west to prove this point. They put out all kinds of advertising encouraging real Americans to “take our jobs”. They offered to give a farm working job currently held by an illegal alien to any Americans that showed up to claim it. They provided an accurate job description:
“Job may include using hand tools such as knives, hoes, shovels, etc. Duties may include tilling the soil, transplanting, weeding, thinning, picking, cutting, sorting & packing of harvested produce. May set up & operate irrigation equip. Work is performed outside in all weather conditions (Summertime 90+ degree weather) & is physically demanding requiring workers to bend, stoop, lift & carry up to 50 lbs on a regular basis.”
Oddly enough there was virtually no response. Although they got a fair number of E-mail enquiries, less than thirty people actually showed up on a job site and only two lasted more than a week.
It’s really about time that some population outflow started happening from the US. If the American dream is about living well, not paying for health care or going broke on higher education might be something you wanna look at. Other countries do a better job on those two things.
Bleargh.
My country, and I like it. I’ll bitch at its imperfections until I live to be a hundred and drop dead, but fuck it if I’m getting run out. Here, this guy articulates it better than I can.
(Disclaimer: not criticizing anyone who does want to hop over to Europe. Great place. Try the Alps).
Oddly enough there was virtually no response. Although they got a fair number of E-mail enquiries, less than thirty people actually showed up on a job site and only two lasted more than a week.
i think colbert did a brilliant segment on this…it’s funny how when you tell someone to go ahead and do what the illegals and the migrants do, they suddenly have something better to do…also, if i hear one more time about how they all have mansions with pools down in mexico and just perform migrant work in the u.s. cuz it’s tax free, i will shoot someone…
also, i think in ga, they were genuinely shocked…i mean, c’mon, the gop’ers are always right, aren’t they? they’re the patriots and their base is all patriotic murkans…what could go wrong?
I know this will piss off a lot of folks, but I see stupid in Pres Obama. I know he’s got grace, and elegance, and intellect, or at least I have read countless articles and columns saying he has those things, but I also know he’s afflicted with a thick and rigid swath of the dumbass. I used to believe in my own vacillating way that this was just his inexperience, his “greenness”, but now, after observing him for over two years in the White House, I can’t give him a pass based on inexperience anymore. Yep, I am truly beginning to believe that he is just plain fucking stupid; not all the time, of course, but enough of the time that even someone as dense as I can see it.
i just keep hoping that he has something that passes all understanding up his sleeve…
Me too, Chris. How about we get behind someone like Feingold who, while he has no chance of winning, might push the Dems to the left, much like the teatards have pushed the Reps to the right? Just a thought.
If anybody is really sincere about fucking off for real — give me a holler. I have knowledge of the international job market.
The Mrs and I are VERY interested. We have English (me) and Art and Design (her) degrees, and years of experience in marketing/PR, with her doing so in the non-profit field.
But … we also have a son with autism and, most likely, Tourette’s Syndrome, two dogs we won’t leave behind or in quarantine for months on end, and less than $50 in savings thanks to $4K in medical bills (and we have insurance).
So, um, yeah. Know of any openings for folks in that situation?
The Mrs and I are VERY interested. We have English (me) and Art and Design (her) degrees, and years of experience in marketing/PR, with her doing so in the non-profit field.
But … we also have a son with autism and, most likely, Tourette’s Syndrome, two dogs we won’t leave behind or in quarantine for months on end, and less than $50 in savings thanks to $4K in medical bills (and we have insurance).
So, um, yeah. Know of any openings for folks in that situation?
How about we get behind someone like Feingold who, while he has no chance of winning, might push the Dems to the left, much like the teatards have pushed the Reps to the right? Just a thought.
I’m still partial to Bernie Sanders, since he has a bit less personal baggage than Russ does.
But fuck yeah — we need SOMEONE to pull the left back … well, left.
And I’m willing, as is tsam, to be called an extremist if that’s what it takes.
i believe the point is that the anti-mexican’s are always yelling that the ILLEGALS ARE TAKING JOBS AWAY FROM AMERICANS!!!
I’ve done that work. And I imagine many people on this thread have done as well.
most of the school kids in the town(s) i grew up in would do this type of work in the summers…the kids now? nope…there’s probably 3-4 in each class that maybe work for a farmer…
you do make a point that it is impossible to raise a family on this type of wage, which speaks, of course involve a multitude of issues that need to be solved…so were do we begin?
bbkf – well, the ciggie fund will help, but I’m sure the move is gonna involve sale of the house. Fortunately, we didn’t take a hit here on real estate values, though the market still isn’t back to where it should be (still lots of housing stock on the market).
As for where I’m gonna go, as someone asked upthread, I have no freaking idea. I love Italy, so maybe there, if I can figure out how to support myself when I get there. But who knows. I’m not at a point where I have anything approaching a plan, just the decision that life is short and I’m not going to spend what’s left of mine on a sinking ship surrounded by idiots who fist-pump and cheer at seeing it go down, because they find it entertaining.
I’m not going to get too torn up over this bit of “news” today until I see what it actually entails. If it does indeed involve slashing the programs we all rely on in old age, the only way I can see to stop it is general strike. And of course, that’s not going to happen, because for all their blather about being tough guys, Americans are big, soft pussies who won’t take on anything that requires even some momentary discomfort.
I’m not going to wade too deeply into this here, because I think I need to really flesh it out and post it over at my place, but seeing as how we’re just a few days past the 4th and how it’s all about “patriotism” and “love of country” I’ll for now just say this much: how, and for how long, am I supposed to “love” a country which shows every day, in ways large and small, that it doesn’t love me back?
My point is that the legislators in Georgia shouldn’t be shocked that American citizens are not willing to do that kind of work for those kind of wages.
Of course those legislators are pushing very hard to create an America where American citizens will have no other options and will have to work at those kind of jobs for those kind of wages.
What are you qualified to do? Start sending out resumes. Employers don’t give a shit about your families or debts, just whether or not you can do the work: after all if you’re after health care it’s just not their business if the government pays for most of it anyway. Extended coverage is between you and your employer.
In Canada – note that autism treatment options vary wildly across the provinces – this is a good resource:
Markus – I’m dead serious about wanting to leave. Any info you can offer would be greatly appreciated. I’ve got experience in multitudes of areas – construction, sales, management, writing & etc. so there has to be somewhere I’ll fit in.
I can’t speak to your personal health care issues, but here in Taiwan(not dissimilar in other East Asian countries), all health care needs are heavily subsidized by the mean ol’ gov’t.
You can enter the market as an English teacher(minimum requirement: Bachelors Degree in any subject) and obtain a Resident Visa.
From there, the world is your bivalve mollusc!
A colleague of mine just got promoted to “Training Manager — Asia Pacific” for an international auditing company.
So, what the FUCK.
If you are really sincere about leaving, the social support system here is a fuck ton better than the USA
Markus
The baby Jeebus goan shoot meh wid hiz rusty ol’ shotgun fo’ bad mouthin da U S a fuckin A
Have you looked into countries that have a “right of return”. I’m on generation to old to return to Ireland but I recently discovered I can gain citizenship in Luxembourg because of a change in L’bourg law.
Me too, Chris. How about we get behind someone like Feingold who, while he has no chance of winning, might push the Dems to the left, much like the teatards have pushed the Reps to the right? Just a thought.
Love the thought. But Dems are only half the problem, as mentioned before, the problem’s also that the center is much more receptive to right wing rhetorical lunacy than the left wing kind – at least that’s how it seems to me.
Getting the message out beyond traditional Democratic constituencies (e.g. making them more receptive to a Democratic party that moved left) would be the real trick. As stated numerous times before – not sure how.
The Applications. The applications are a military invention. There is many applications, the games and quizzes on Facebook, applications on Ipods and Iphones, and on other cell phones and electronics. The applications are like VLT’s, they send subliminal messages that brainwash people. The strongest impulse that they encourage is of course, further time spent with the games. It encourages people to be apathetic, people who are normally procutive find themselves spending hours ‘zoning out’, less aware of their surroundings, and less likely to take positive action. There is so much data being collected on people that personal information is encrypted everywhere. It’s encrypted in the applications as well, as well as details of the nazi agenda. The applications have been around for many, many years now. Now, the nazi’s attempt to create distractions, so as offenses aren’t overheard, and while they do so, they use virtual reality equipment that helps facilitate murder, and torture. Using calibrators, the ‘virtual reality’ person guides the criminal, and makes death and destruction precise. The nazi’s (and I do use this term generally) have been calling it ‘fragging’. There is prisoners wordwide being forced to participate in sexual abuse, torture and murder. There is plenty of nazi’s running free, that are the most dangerous of criminals. The ‘fragging’ or ‘assisted murder’ as I have heard it referred to is based on applications.
“Just stating facts, guys,” Lekha began, as we scribbled notes, “Australia is known as the dumbest continent. Literally, college was unknown there until recently. So speak slowly.” Next to me, a young man in a turban wrote No college in his notebook.
So, there is brainwashing on the radio. People have subliminally learnt a musical morse code, there is so many songs, most of them encouraging people to go out have a good time, drink, be promiscous, encourages the objection of women, and forget one’s worries. There are the ‘don’t care’ songs, musical clones popping up everyday. The most notable of these is “I don’t Care’ by Apocaclyptica, it has nazi sentiments, and for those who don’t agree, it instructs them to look away, be apathetic. The nazi’s have been informing their ‘ilk’ of the next strike through the radio. The songs overlap, the same song playing multiple times at once on different stations. Since the nazi’s are so fond of their information being on the radio, we have encrypted information regarding premeditated murders and assaults, on Rock 102.1, one such evening being last evening July 6, 2011, into the morning of July 7, 2011. There has been a leak regarding this information. This is evidence that needs to be protected, and/or analyzed before it is destroyed.
New to me, but not necessarily new… fully-interactive floor/medical technology (I am for seriously here, you guys…); mmm, call it a stun gun, the outdoor version (camping is not the solution), electricity pointed with some sort of blue lazer, slowly gathers in the ground around a person, electrocution, plus intent is to ccause unconsciousness. This is a new technology, it seems that some of the stun guns have insufficient battery packs, and so it is best to concentrate on remaining conscious as long as possible, in order to avoid an ambush, assault or attempted abduction. Stomping on the floor vigorously may induce tender legs and weakness of the limbs, but it does temporarily displace the charge… beware of high voltages.
Markus – I am serious. I don’t know that I could make the move right away – there is stuff to be wrapped up, including sale of or winding down a business and putting a home on the market. But I could probably swing it by the end of the year or early next year.
The other thing is…what are living expenses like there? For example how much of that $2000 – $3000 per month could I expect to pay for housing, food and that type of thing?
The college degree’s in hand – Bachelor of Architecture, plus most of the hours required for a Master in Secondary Ed. (I bailed on the practice teaching because of a good job offer).
Official policy of the Pacific Army, item 1. we do not answer to nazi’s. item 2. the deal is, (anyone, everyone) there is no deal.item 3. we are based 100% on volunteerism.
An INGO from the Middle east has been kind enough to take photographs, and collect evidence here in North America, in order to help facilitate peace for North Americans. There has been a request for reciprocation, as the situation there has become critical. We, as a United front, are asking people from all continents to take action, and help bring the ongoing injustice to an end. This is now on the table. Sincerely, The Pacific Army
felixmoronia – right of return is a dead end for me I’m afraid. The latest immigrant ancestor we’ve found anywhere in the family history is a guy who came over from Germany in the 1760s. The earliest were a couple of women on the Mayflower. We’re pretty much American WASPs through and through.
At the inception of our INGO, The Pacific Army, there was several hundred people already involved in the peace process, from the Middle East, join our organization, numbers are growing daily. There are many individuals that have over the years collected information in order to counteract violent regimes. We are calling on these people to come forward now, and share their information. I have heard some word that our message is spreading to other continents, and their is increased interest by the moment. I have prepared this statement for easier translation.
All right, so they’re dumb. But curiously endearing. And there’s Cricket
More importantly there’s footy. Only problem is I am loathe to change my name to Bruce. I have an annoying brother named Bruce and don’t want to be confused with him.
the problem’s also that the center is much more receptive to right wing rhetorical lunacy than the left wing kind – at least that’s how it seems to me.
The problem is that there is no dispersion apparatus for the left wing kind, and so nobody ever hears it. Americans are besieged by right wing talking points spouting from every orifice of our famously “left wing media.”
If the “center” were ever actually exposed to left wing ideas as viable alternatives rather than as things-to-demonize-as-soshulizm, and were ever allowed to think and talk about them without being ostracized as being “other”, they might find that those are very much the policies they’d like to see implemented. Polls often show that if people are asked about policy specifics without political attachment, “progressive” ideas tend to be quite popular.
The cost of living here is fairly low. A bowl of Taiwanese beef noodles can be obtained for less than $3.00US and a simple meal at a buffet restaurant is about $2.00US.
Rent in Taipei can be high — I pay $300US for a small place in the heart of the city. If you’re willing to commute, a nice American style apartment can be rented at the same rate.
I don’t know what you expect. This is Asia. It is what it is.
If you live like a local, life is good — excellent even.
If you want to live like an American. Stay home.
Markus
If you can’t come now…no worries. There’s always lots of jobs for people who can offer something.
… Dems are only half the problem, as mentioned before, the problem’s also that the center is much more receptive to right wing rhetorical lunacy than the left wing kind – at least that’s how it seems to me.
I’m not sure if the center is more receptive to rightwing rhetoric (no matter how full of lunacy), or are just exposed to it more often and, thus, seem to be receptive to it.
I say that due to polls on actual policy. For example, most Americans don’t like the health care law — but they do like most of what it does.
That disconnect is due, IMHO, to:
1. A lack of message discipline amongst Dems — This is an issue that Dems have struggled with since pretty much forever, and I have no clue why that is. Maybe they’re more independent in thought, have a lousy PR team, or even too interested in actual policy rather than soundbites. I honestly don’t know, but wish they’d fix it.
2. The media shuts out left voices — Studies of the Sunday Bobblehead shows proves this to be the case, as the left (and note, not Dems, but actual lefties) is never truly or accurately represented. McCain or Newt is on damn near every single fucking week, while the media treats assfaces like Harold Ford as “the left.”
Until those two things change, the center will seem to lean right, whether or not they actually do.
Well … that depends on if you mean “qualified” or “able.”
😉
I can write my ass off (have won several awards, in fact), can do some graphic design, a bit of basic IT help desk stuff.
I might be able to pull off teaching English and/or writing, but they’d have to be advanced students since I suck at learning foreign languages.
And I haven’t sent out resumes, even though we’ve discussed moving out of country since we first got married in early 2000 (so it’s not due to Bush, nor Obama, nor the Teatardaloons). I also had no clue how it all works — Do I need a visa first? How do they do interviews? How do we pay for moving costs? What is the cost of living compared to my salary—will it be comparable to what we make now? Etc. etc. etc.
Quite frankly, I give props to anyone with the balls to move to another country. There’s a lot of shit folks don’t consider that h
The problem is that there is no dispersion apparatus for the left wing kind, and so nobody ever hears it. Americans are besieged by right wing talking points spouting from every orifice of our famously “left wing media.”
If the “center” were ever actually exposed to left wing ideas as viable alternatives rather than as things-to-demonize-as-soshulizm, and were ever allowed to think and talk about them without being ostracized as being “other”, they might find that those are very much the policies they’d like to see implemented. Polls often show that if people are asked about policy specifics without political attachment, “progressive” ideas tend to be quite popular.
how come you can say all the things that i want to but can’t figger out how to?
Markus – in other words, the cost of living is LOW. $300 for rent is unheard of here, even in economically-depressed Arkansas. I’m not looking for a big place – I’ll have to get rid of most of my stuff to move anyway, so it’s just a matter of not re-accumulating. And if I didn’t have to have a car, that would be most excellent.
You’ve given me some food for thought. Any links to company websites or other that I should check out?
You all know I take great pride in my title as Mr. Positive.
In that grand tradition of clouds found in every silver lining, let me just point out to those thinking of moving to Europe that there’s not even a slight shortage of racists and right-wing fucknozzles over there either. Italy, which Jennifer mentioned – Berlusconi’s fiefdom for almost the last two decades. France – Sarkozy seems determined to be the local Nixon, law-and-order-platform-to-steal-the-far-right’s-votes and all. Britain – those who visit Balloon Juice have heard many people bitch about it.
The governments there are still a leg up on the U.S. in the sense that none of them (that I can think of) are half-composed of lunatics who literally think economic suicide is a good bargaining position. Big difference being, IMO, that the center right and the far right are still two different things, and often at odds with each other – as opposed to here where they share the same party.
Along the same line as Markus, I know a bunch of people who’ve taught in Japan. Most of those gigs don’t seem to pay much for the lifestyle lived there – although health care health care health care – but good lord do they seem to take a lot of long holidays.
i get that, it’s the funding to get there and set up a household that seems insurmountable…
You don’t have to take off with a clean slate, all debts settled.
Oh, just one question to Jennifer – are you fluent or conversational in any foreign language? I don’t have much advice to give, but thought it might give other readers ideas if they knew what foreign countries you can get around in (opens up a whole host of other options if you already speak the language when you get off the plane).
Chris – I’m not fluent in any foreign language, but I do have kind of a gift for picking up languages. I took 3 years of French in high school and have studied some Italian on my own – which I find has also helped me understand Spanish, at least when I read. Also, I’m able to understand some Danish & German when I read and I would guess I’d find the same with Dutch. Visiting France 5 years after finishing up my high school studies I was amazed at how much of it came back and how quickly. USAF recruiter who talked me into taking the foreign language aptitude test right after college almost cried when I ultimately decided not to enlist and attend the language school in Monterey. They said my aptitude was such that I could study whatever language I chose, including Korean (which apparently is one of the harder ones?) Anyway, right after I took the test the whole Tailhook thing hit the news, and I pretty quickly decided that the armed forces were not female-friendly enough that I’d be willing to sign over the next 4 years of my life, and so….
In any case, I’m not really worried about picking up another language – like I said, if I went to Italy I already have some familiarity, and if I go someplace like Taiwan, I know I’d pick it up relatively quickly via immersion.
Jennifer at 15:31: Where do you want to go? Southern hemisphere looks like its gonna get really HOT in the nearish future. Europe: being sold to the Banksters even more quickly (and openly) than the US.
No offense, but could you please point us to where we can find these extreme leftists who were in need of being balanced out by some amorphous notion of The One True Centrist?
I’ll call them center-left extremists if that seems more accurate. It’s not the extremity of the ideology that defines the problem, it’s the partisanship. And just because the entirety of the US body politic is becoming more and more anti-progressive doesn’t mean that the likelihood of there being a majorities on any actual policies is greater. It’s not ideology, it’s partisanship. It’s still a problem that bi-partisanship is toxic to most politicians, and while the Democratic leadership is not nearly as bad at causing it as the Republicans, they are still part of the problem. Since Bernie Sanders is never going to become president with a supportive majority in both houses in the foreseeable future, I don’t see the point in pushing that as a solution. As a practical matter, there are good reasons that the strongest environmental policy changes happened under Nixon or that the last time the budget was balanced was under Clinton. As politicians, their ideology is nothing to admire, but as a roadmap to policy goals, maybe. I fully expected Obama would disappoint a lot of people from an ideological standpoint, but really never this way. So perhaps I am wrong to believe in a centrist approach, bt but then it doesn’t sell on putting the in the furthest left politician that can be practicably elected because, well just because.
At this point, I really think an asteroid the size of, oh, Des Moines or so, would be the best thing for our species…
Oh, I’d settle for a smaller one to hit DC- just the capitol/congress area. But even in pretend imagination I feel sorry for the innocent people there. I’m sure there are a few, janitors and maids and shop-clerks.
Níðhöggr–
Great points, and I understand better from where you were coming. So thanks for that clarification.
I would like to note a few things real quick (quick for me, at least):
1. I know Bernie doesn’t have a chance in hell, but a guy can dream, can’t he?!? 🙂
2. I’m not so sure partisanship, as it’s usually defined, is a problem with Democrats. Show me where they filibustered things under Bush they should have, but were afraid to be called partisan if they did. (In fact, I remember even discussing the filibuster being called “an assault on the will of the American people.”) Show me where they drew a line in the sand and refused to negotiate. Show me where they haven’t all but given the GOP every single thing they’ve wanted, time and time again.
This isn’t to type that there aren’t some partisan Dems out there, particularly in the House. But to say that there was some huge problem with partisanship on the left just doesn’t match reality. It just hasn’t been a problem.
So, again, will have to respectfully disagree with you on that one.
3. You might want to check some polls, because the body politic is NOT becoming more anti-progressive. In fact, once the Boomers start to croak, I think we’ll see a really large rise in progressive action since many younger folks are solidly on the left on most issues. The GOP knows this, which is why they try to appeal to the older set on issue after issue as much as they can right now — they know time is NOT on their side.
Anyway, thanks again for the clarification and great discussion!
You might want to check some polls, because the body politic is NOT becoming more anti-progressive. In fact, once the Boomers start to croak, I think we’ll see a really large rise in progressive action since many younger folks are solidly on the left on most issues. The GOP knows this, which is why they try to appeal to the older set on issue after issue as much as they can right now — they know time is NOT on their side.
i think you are correct on this…our son was home for the long weekend and so we had a chance to listen to him and his friends…this is indeed what they are saying…
And I haven’t sent out resumes, even though we’ve discussed moving out of country since we first got married in early 2000 (so it’s not due to Bush, nor Obama, nor the Teatardaloons). I also had no clue how it all works — Do I need a visa first? How do they do interviews? How do we pay for moving costs? What is the cost of living compared to my salary—will it be comparable to what we make now? Etc. etc. etc.
It really depends on what you wanna do and where you wanna go. Teaching English in Asia is a popular choice among folks I know, and it is sometimes the case that rootless males just fly someplace and try to set up shop. A lot of governments are cracking down on that kind of behaviour – Korea makes a big show of deporting people without the proper paperwork – but it might be easier than you think to pursue the teaching route regardless of the kinds of degree you and your partner have. As for other jobs, the route into a country in your case pretty much has to be a result of a hiring: you need the income. Google “jobs abroad” and you’ll get some ideas about starting.
And keep up the sleuthing Jennifer. No slight on Markus, who I am sure agrees with proper vetting, but one friend of mine recruited another and friend #2 wound up doing friend #1’s shit work for not a lotta money. Businesses still want employees for low pay wherever you go.
Wait a minute–who says Bernie doesn’t have a chance? Have a look at the current crop of psychos surrounding PawPaw and Mittney. Those are the “moderates” in the bunch–the rest of them are hopelessly fucked up.
The fact that a Michelle Bachmann can poll near the top of that field is indicitive of a pretty hard right turn in the Republican party. The way they’ve done that is with shaming. Remember after the 2008 election, when any time a Repig would break reactionary orthodoxy, he would find himself apologizing to Rush the very next day?
Don’t think for a second that this isn’t doable. Unfortunately we would have to get behind some distasteful people (Ed Schultz?), and push push push until we get some motion. It can be done. Who knows, maybe I need to get my blog going.
You who I am worried about? My generation. The one who were about 12 to 18 when Reagan ran for Pres. Most of the really irrational fundie/teatards are in my generation. They comprise a large number of the elected teatards and we’re not going to die anytime soon, alas. Reagan really got in our heads at a impressionable age. The compete lack of empirical evidence anything he did had any of its own, claimed positive effect there towards the end, will persuade us. (Yes, the arms treaty with Gorby there towards the end was of much benefit, but that’s what will make my generation put their fingers in their ears and say “lo-lo-lo-lo”) Well, a lot of us. I know the grumpy old white guy is the poster boy, but I’m telling you, don’t trust anyone over 40 and under 50. In 2010 progressives stayed home and these guys came out in droves to vote.
I cannot even understand my own post – I’ll try again
You know who I am worried about? My generation. The ones who were about 12 to 18 when Reagan ran for Pres. Most of the really irrational fundie/teatards are in my generation. They comprise a large number of the elected teatards and we’re not going to die anytime soon, alas. Reagan really got in our heads at an impressionable age. The compete lack of empirical evidence anything he did had any of its own, claimed positive effects will not persuade us. (Yes, the arms treaty with Gorby there towards the end was of much benefit, but that’s what will make my generation put their fingers in their ears and say “lo-lo-lo-lo”) Well, a lot of us. I know the grumpy old white guy is the poster boy, but I’m telling you, don’t trust anyone over 40 and under 50. In 2010 progressives stayed home and these guys came out in droves to vote.
I am–not nearly as much as in the early days. Truthfully, I think I could get by without it, but I rather enjoy puffing on it at my desk. I don’t know why–maybe I’m hoping it’s making somebody mad.
I was 12 to 18 during that time (I’m 41 now). I think most of your teabaggers are baby boomers. The younger ones–our age are just the dumbfucks would would be Paultards if it weren’t for all the awesome poon at those teabag rallies.
The generation that needs to get a fucking clue are those motherfucking greedy selfish shitfaced baby boomers. The ones who ended Vietnam, then turned around and put Reagan in office. WTF? Now they want the rest of us to eat their greed by taking cuts in Social Security and Medicare, but DONT CUT THEIRS! I’m really coming to hate those motherfuckers. They define the Reagan Revolution. Fuck my country and fuck you–It’s all about ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME.
The 20-something idiots that think Ron Paul is anything more than a racist fucking retard also get me a little fired up.
From http://thinkprogress.org
Iowa Group Asks Republican Candidates To Agree That Homosexuality Is A Choice, Pornography Should Be Banned.
– PORNOGRAPHY SHOULD BE BANNED: Vow 9 stipulates that the candidate must “support human protection of women and the innocent fruit of conjugal intimacy” and protect them from “seduction into promiscuity and all forms of pornography…and other types of coercion or stolen innocence.”.
[“the innocent fruit of conjugal intimacy” Is merchant ivory making porn now?]
– REJECT SHARIA ISLAM: Vow 11 requires the candidate to reject Sharia law.
[Yes, Sharia is too muslimy. What’s wrong with good old fashioned Christian subjugation of women?]
tsam – still using mine, but I “mix my own” on the liquid & have been stepping down the nicotine level. I enjoy puffing on mine as well – I’ve got a yummy spearmint liquid I mixed up & it’s like puffing on a stick of gum. I’m guessing by this point I’m down to about 1/3 or so on the nicotine & getting ready to start mixing weaker yet.
In other words, those fucking scumbag Reaganite baby boomers raised us 40 to 50 year olds. And they owe us an apology. How do you go from the Sexual Revolution and the whole late 60’s counterculture to thinking a pony tail with a fucking suit is OK for anyone other than a fucking rapist cocaine dealer? COME THE FUCK ON PEOPLE.
I admit: I harbor deep antipathy for the boomers as a group. Individually not so much. But I’ve been feeling this way ever since I started college right as Reagan was slashing student aid so that yuppies could keep more of “their money” to buy necessities like food processors and pasta machines. Then I hit the job market just as those yuppies destroyed commercial real estate with the S & L business, and decided that health insurance was too expensive so they were going to find ways to get out of paying for it. And so on and so forth up until where we are today.
I know it’s not all their fault. But damned if it would have been possible without their support.
Speaking of baggage, you DO realize that Sanders formerly called himself a Socialist, don’t you?
One of Bernie’s many attractions. Cadre 18 voted for him 2008, and will probably do so again in 2012.
Mark D, tsam, Chris: Solidarity.
Maxim One of the Guerrilla Voter Manifesto
Always vote in each and every election in which you are eligible to vote, and for every office, question, referendum, or initative on the ballot. Never passively protest by ‘sitting out’ an election. Do not cast ‘punishment’ votes for Republicans.
Human trafficking has reached phenomenal levels worlwwide. There are people being replaced, recycled, many whose memories are affected, by injection. Children are brainwashed in the schools, forced to participate in the Hitler experiments. Some schools have a harsher policy than others. Then there is “THE School” in the states somewhere, a great source of frustration that I cannot remember the location. Torture, murder, mobs, and brainwashing were the norm there. Dissidence is not met with patience. I lost the tip of my finger there, when it was reconstructed, a radar feature was an unwelcome and freakish addition. Old gps, potent.
There are many people who have taken responsibility and initiative of their own over the years, educating themselves regarding thought oppression, privacy concerns, ongoing violence and tyranny. The situation worldwide is thus. Governments, police departments and military officials refuse to take action regarding human trafficking, and all the associated criminal activity that human trafficking entails. The situation at hand is critical, and further action is required, collecting information is not enough. There is photographic evidence at different locations worldwide.
Then I hit the job market just as those yuppies destroyed commercial real estate with the S & L business, and decided that health insurance was too expensive so they were going to find ways to get out of paying for it. And so on and so forth up until where we are today.
Not to mention cheering like a bunch of whores while Reagan destroyed the Air Controllers Union, cleared the way for every corporation in America to deplete their pension funds (at companies their fathers and grandfathers started to give people a good living and pension) which they promptly did.
I harbor an INTENSE amount of hatred for baby boomers. As a group, they’re a bunch of selfish, whiny fucking entitled princesses who destroyed all of teh progress this nation made since the New Deal.
Yeah, I know it’s not all of them either, my parents didn’t vote for Reagan, didn’t like Bush much, knew Clinton was a fucking phony, DESPISED Bush Jr, and have given up all hope with Obama. However, they freely admit that their generation should have been gunny sacked and thrown in the river at birth.
[“the innocent fruit of conjugal intimacy” Is merchant ivory making porn now?]
You forgot the first part of that pledge: “support human protection of women and the innocent fruit of conjugal intimacy.” Thus, protecting women from something non-human.
Correction: the ones who ended the draft. It’s been pretty obvious that once they didn’t have to risk their asses they didn’t have a whole lot of trouble with military interventionism.
Rupert Murdoch’s asshole “News of The World” in the UK is no more.
There’s almost no one on this planet I despise more than that asswipe, and maybe – just maybe – he’s starting to lose his grip, at least in Britain. Please let it be so, please, please, please.
– – – – – – –
It’s been pretty obvious that once (boomers) didn’t have to risk their asses they didn’t have a whole lot of trouble with military interventionism.
Strange… I could’ve sworn that I’m no more warlike today than I was when I was drafted as a conscientious objector forty years and four months ago. But don’t let me interrupt your stereotyping.
It’s been pretty obvious that once they didn’t have to risk their asses they didn’t have a whole lot of trouble with military interventionism.
Speak for yourself, white eyes. I for one have opposed every military intervention except Bosnia since Vietnam (when I was drafted). The same goes for most of my friends. It is the political establishment, not the Boomers per se, that is fond of military intervention. Very large numbers of us remain deeply skeptical of it as a foreign policy tool as a result of Vietnam. It is just that nobody actually listens to us. I actually find more people under 40 who are supportive or indifferent about such interventions, mostly because there is no draft so they have no skin in the game.
when I was drafted as a conscientious objector forty years and four months ago.
We must be the same age. I was drafted about 40 years ago, as well. I do not remember when I got the induction notice, but my physical was in August (thankfully flunked the sucker). I wasn’t a CO, since in Oklahoma they were almost impossible to get and completely impossible for unbelievers like me.
Pretty pink pajamas. These aren’t even the same pair. He’s so dumb. There was blood all over them. Dirt. These pajamas don’t have a white top. I don’t like pink anymore. Yes, I Everyone’s name is Jenny. That doesn’t make any sense. Everyone gets renamed Jenny. That’s not true, they call me Alicia. What do you think, you’re more special than me? I am special. Your mean. “Machete, machete, machete.” “She’s crazy.” No, she isn’t. K is for knife. Snapping. Circular movements, speech that speeds up then slows down. It’s the rhythym of things. Probably doesn’t know what rhythym is. Yes, I do. They were going to send me to the music school, I can play the piano by ear, but…you were a bad girl. “I don’t know what language she speaks, we don’t know where she come from That guy he’s a mean one, machete in the vagina, little girl too. I don’t see how they;d heal up.” You have to listen carefully. it’s English. The language you speak in. Everyone but us will be leaving soon. There might be a few minutes that there is no guard by the door. Oozies. The oozies is the gun, the machete is the knife. It’s the locations, so if you get away, you can have someone come back for us. Listen. remember what I told you about being scared. The lotion is the Cochin is the margarine.
I wasn’t a CO, since in Oklahoma they were almost impossible to get and completely impossible for unbelievers like me.
In some places absolutely no one was granted CO status unless they could prove they had been raised from childhood in a pacifist religious sect (Quaker, Mennonite, etc). Puerto Rico and Montana were especially notorious for that, as I recall.
I’ve been thinking I was the geezer here. Refreshing to learn I’m only midrange, or just over. I ets’ed from Ft Benning, June 21, 1972. Worst two years of my life, and I’ve seen some real shit over the years. It leaves a fucking mark on you no amount of ajax or disco music will ever rub off. I hate fucking uniforms of any kind, even bell hop uniforms piss me off.
The entire time Casey Anthony was on trial, the voices in the media pontificating about justice for the victim didn’t seem to notice the hypocrisy of a group that gives its approbation for the slaughter of thousands every day demanding justice for the wrong suffered by two-year-old Caylee Anthony.
Even still, few would argue that the senseless death of a helpless tot isn’t heartrending. However, the larger heartbreak is that in a nation that has faithfully sown the culture of death; the idea of a mother wanting to be free from responsibility by taking the life of her offspring is not all that far-fetched.
Whether America believes Casey Anthony is guilty or not is not the issue. The issue is that no one is totally convinced she didn’t. Most believe Casey dumped the body of her dead child in a swamp and then for 31 days partied and treated herself to a “Beautiful Life” tattoo while her tiny daughter was decomposing inside a plastic bag.
A mother doing such a thing shouldn’t be surprising, because under the auspices of a woman’s right to “privacy” in 1973, with the ruling in Roe v. Wade, child murder officially became legal in America. Over the next three decades, developing fetuses were reduced to less than human and women were convinced that disposing of unwanted offspring is a commendable goal.
Lest we forget, the value of life in America has been reduced to this motto: “Every child a wanted child.” Clearly, Caylee was unwanted by someone and if Casey took her daughter’s life, she’s no different from women who justify a similar decision as being nothing more than an exercise in “reproductive rights.”
For almost 40 years, in sterile environments and with the approbation of the United States legal system, millions of little Caylees have lost their lives. The only difference between 60 million aborted babies and a little girl with brown curls from Orlando, Florida is that for at least a couple of years Caylee got the chance to color, wear a baseball cap, and swim with Grandma in the family pool.
If Casey Anthony actually did kill her daughter, she joined the ranks of 98% of the women who choose to abort their unborn children for the sake of convenience. If guilty of the crime for which she was acquitted, single party girl Casey did nothing more than take a little longer to make up her mind about how and when to buy personal freedom in exchange for the life of her child.
Twenty-four months after Casey missed the chance to submit her baby to a partial-birth abortion, the young woman may have decided that it wasn’t too late to take the situation into her own hands. For an immature, narcissistic person like Casey Anthony it’s easy to see how the lines may have become blurred. It’s possible that Casey rationalized that when a woman decides to dispose of a child, what’s a couple of months in either direction? Six months in utero, 2½ years post-partum, either way it doesn’t make much of a difference.
Furthermore, Ms. Anthony may have been personally persuaded that as long as a heart sticker was over the duct tape that suffocated her daughter, she could party hearty with a clear conscience. It could be that Casey agreed with popular opinion that human life is only fully “human” if a person can survive without depending on another. As a pre-verbal toddler, Caylee certainly couldn’t survive without her mother, and ironically, like so many others before and after her, Caylee very well may have perished because of her mother.
Since Roe v. Wade was decided, the march toward infanticide has been ongoing. It began with a first-trimester cutoff for an abortion; within a few years, women and their doctors became the arbiters of whether or not fully developed children should be granted life or tossed into an incinerator.
The next step was inevitable: partial-birth abortion became an option to get rid of fully developed, viable human beings. The brutal procedure desensitized the public to pro-choice politicians who vote against giving medical assistance and comfort to dying infants, born alive in botched abortions, to avoid “burdening the original decision” to kill a child.
In American society the value of life has eroded to the point where women now give birth in restrooms and dispose of newborns in toilets and sewers, or place lifeless infants like garbage into plastic bags and hide them under beds. Many of these murdering mothers are then acquitted, much like Casey Anthony, which is indicative of a chilling truth that a mother murdering her own child is not nearly as offensive anymore as a child being murdered by a stranger.
Casey Anthony was acquitted of murder, but her freedom doesn’t erase the fact that Caylee is dead. Regardless of who killed Caylee Anthony, her death was caused by a person who lacked respect for human life. If it was her mother, kudos go to pro-choice America, whose indoctrination has been unrelenting in its effort to convince women that mothers come before children; a woman’s life takes precedence over her offspring; and the right to choose is an honorable objective.
In the end, a two-year-old child was murdered and a mother who appeared guilty was ultimately acquitted. Also acquitted was a pro-death society largely responsible for not taking into consideration that when life is cheapened we’re all potential victims of someone’s justifiable reason for disposing of us. The sad truth is that in America a seed of death has taken root, and the murder of Caylee Anthony is just one of the many fruits produced on that bitter vine.
My fellow Americans, in regard to the U.S. presidency, please tell me we are over “the black thing.” Can we move past race and gender and simply elect the best American for the job?
Due to liberal media manipulation and guilt, America elected an incompetent black guy as leader of the free world to prove that we are not racist. Obama’s black skin has made him untouchable, the left’s dream tool to further their socialist agenda. Once America gets over “the black thing”, will the liberal media demand we elect Hilliary to prove we are not sexist?
How long will it be before the liberal media demands that we elect our first openly gay/lesbian president to prove that we are not homophobic?
I believe that the novelty of a black guy in the White House is over — been there, done that, got the historic Obama (false) Hope & Change t-shirt.
I hereby proclaim the season of Presidential Affirmative Action over!
Funny how the liberal media and their far-left buddies deal with blacks and women. You need to understand that the left’s progressive/socialist agenda trumps everything. Thus, race and gender are highly effective tools used to further their agenda.
If you are a black liberal, the left gleefully views you as a poor victim of a racist America. Quoting Obama’s pastor, Rev. Wright, “Barack knows what it feels like to live in a country controlled by rich white people”. The left demands that standards be lowered and government entitlements be gifted.
If you are a black conservative, the left views you as a stupid self hating n***** suffering with Stockholm Syndrome. And yes, the left freely uses the “n” word when referring to black conservatives.
If you are a liberal woman, you are a victim of a sexist America controlled by white male SOBs. If you are a conservative woman, you are a stupid slut.
So, you can understand why my stomach turns when the liberal media and their far-left buddies are lauded for their superior compassion and tolerance for blacks and women.
The left celebrates liberal blacks and women while engaging in the high-tech lynching of conservative blacks and women. It is quite simple, folks. If you are a minority confident enough to be a self-starter and you love your country, you are on the left’s excrement list. Leftists embrace only victims. Why? Because it fits their desire to believe that America sucks and is the greatest source of evil in the world.
I realize that what I am about to say will make a lot of folks angry. Well, I am sorry, but it is the truth: black voters behaved like a bunch of racists in the 2008 election. Obama got 96% of the black vote with surveys proving that many blacks were clueless about Obama’s intentions and even his running mate. Some black Obama voters thought his VP was Sarah Palin.
Call me crazy, but if it “ain’t” right for whites to vote for the white guy because he is white, it “ain’t” right for blacks to vote for the black guy because he is black.
Yes, we blacks have suffered greatly in the past due to racism. But to exploit America’s original sin of slavery as a license for black racist behavior is a slap in the face to MLK and all who have sacrificed, suffered, and died to move us forward and together as a nation.
Race-profiteers love to opine about America’s racist roots and the eternal debt owed to blacks. They completely ignore the fact that decent, God-fearing Americans corrected those evils. Apparently, these race-profiteers are unaware of the Civil War. Approximately 40,000 blacks died, 320,000 whites died, and 275,200 were wounded fighting to end slavery.
So, America, despite what the liberal media and race-profiteers say, your debt to black Americans is paid in full. You elected the first affirmative action president. Rah-rah, congratulations! Now, can we please, this time around, elect the best candidate for our country?
The presidency of the United States of America is far too important to the world to be decided by silly surface nonsense such as race or gender. Never again can we allow the liberal media to select our president based on whose “turn” they think it is — Asian, Muslim, gay, lesbian, or whatever.
I am black. I want the best American leading our great country. I want the horrific assault on our freedom called Obamacare repealed! I want a conservative presidential candidate who is well aware of the evil confronting us and is boldly and eagerly up for the battle.
Folks, the left/liberal media will never retire the race and gender cards. Both cards have proven extremely powerful and effective.
The liberal media will always “blame America first.” Though powerless over changing the liberal media, we have total power in our response to them: no pandering, appeasing, or fearing them. We must simply ignore their propaganda and defeat them.
The year 2012 is not just another presidential election. It is the most important presidential election in the history of our country. Obama is destroying America, plain and simple. Four more years under the lawless reign of this divisive, evil man will land a serious deathblow to the heart of America as we know it.
We need a hero, folks. Regardless of race or gender, we need the best American in the White House — someone who is “champing at the bit” to clean up Obama’s mess!
From Humphrey Bogart in The Treasure of the Sierra Madres to the television comedy classic The Monkees and through the iconic Blazing Saddles, those words have signified the defiance of individuals firm of belief and with a philosophical approach more akin to Larry the Cable Guy (“Git’r done!”) than the self-absorbed pontificating of President “smartest person in the room.” And that is exactly what the Republican Party needs: the spine and steel and conviction of candidates with “immoderate” beliefs rather than the pant-pant-pant of the please-love-me wing of the party celebrated by elites both left and right. And so it is time for conservative primary voters to deliver a message: “Moderates? We don’t need no stinking moderates!”
Conservatives would do well to remember the lessons of Ronald Reagan. His success, Lady Margaret Thatcher tells us, was powered by “clear principles,” great “purpose,” and “strength and conviction.” That’s why there’s now a statue of him in London. He was as immoderate as they come, relentlessly attacking those who trespassed upon his core beliefs: the Soviets were “the focus of evil in the modern world”; the growth of government threatens “to crush the very roots of our freedom”; and President Jimmy Carter gave the nation a “litany of despair, of broken promises, of sacred trusts abandoned and forgotten.” Ronald Reagan won in large part because of his immoderation, openly mocking the conventions of the Beltway and media elites. You’re wrong, wrong, wrong, he told them, unashamedly professing deep and immoderate faith in God and American exceptionalism.
He was, in fact, one of our most intelligent, able, and immoderate of presidents. History told him that moderates — those willing to compromise and negotiate away foundational beliefs — leave broken lives and shattered dreams in their wake. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain of Great Britain was a moderate who embraced negotiation with Adolf Hitler, signing away the lives of tens of millions to a genocidal maniac and guaranteeing a Second World War. Moderate Republicans of the sixties and seventies collaborated in the large-government welfare programs of Democratic progressives and “unleashed a whirlwind of marriage destruction and illegitimacy” on the African-American community.
Ronald Reagan saw this and more. His books, his papers show a man who knew that immoderates — such as those who immoderately told King George to take his tea and taxes and go jump in the Thames — created freedom and prosperity. His grasp of history and reality told him that a stubbornly immoderate Abraham Lincoln saved the United States when he fired a series of military generals, moderates more interested in their personal public relations with the Civil War-era Washington elites than saving the union; in their place he put the hard-drinking and exceedingly immoderate Ulysses S. Grant. When the Lindsey Grahams and John McCains of Lincoln’s party kicked their spittoons and screamed, he merely looked at them and said immoderately, “I can’t spare this man; he fights.”
For Beltway Republicans, moderation is business-as-usual, participating in rather than stopping the growth of government and power at the expense of average Americans. Moderate was Republican presidential candidate John McCain, lauded by the mainstream media for refusing to acknowledge the questionable associations and corruption of then-candidate Barack Obama. Moderate is Republican John Huntsman pledging — to the cheers of mainstream media, which view him as the “best” presidential nominee for the GOP — a “mellow” campaign in which he would, under no circumstances, attack a President who has vowed to bring traditional America to its knees — after all, can’t disappoint the journalists who flock to his press conferences, “as numerous as supporters.” Moderate is Indiana governor Mitch Daniels, a flavor-of-the-month for Beltway Republicans and media who admired his willingness to call a “truce on the so-called social issues,” thereby ensuring his electability.
“Electable,” of course, is code for Republicans and conservatives who are willing not to be conservative. They are Republicans who, in their souls, are merely politicians basking in the praise of mainstream media à la John McCain. McCain recently celebrated his return to elite grace with a photo op at a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Cairo with Senator John Kerry (Democrat, Vietnam) and Jeffrey Immelt of General Electric. American taxpayer dollars — borrowed, of course, with the approval of Republican moderates — are being distributed by the Egyptian government to key insiders of that country and McCain, of course, is right back in the middle, his conservative principles as dead as New Coke or a Coptic Christian in Egypt.
Republican moderates join in the consensus of the educated class of New York Times columnist David Brooks, thinking and acting correctly. Income redistribution, expanded government, an economy ruled by regulation and politicians — none of it works. But, unlike the immoderate Reagan and his successors either joining or about to join the party’s primary scrums, the Republican moderate recognizes good intentions. And, with the best of intentions, join the president and his party — as National Review’s Mark Steyn put it — as “lifetime member[s] of the government class,” a “well-connected Latin American-style elite enjoying” their privileges while consigning the rest of us to “poorer, meaner lives.”
And so the mainstream unhappiness with the Republican presidential field for 2012 should be taken with a Reaganesque and politically incorrect grain of salt. The primaries are attracting the attention — if not yet the official candidacies — of a plethora of immoderates: Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, Chris Christie, Ron Paul, even Tim Pawlenty. The official field is strong, the potential field stronger.
And that is what’s worrying the media and political elites: that the 2010 elections signified a critical mass of voters deciding “we don’t need no stinking moderates” and the 2012 election will see the return of the immoderates…and “Morning in America.”
Stuart Schwartz, a frequent AT contributor, is on the faculty of Liberty University in Virginia.
I was born in 1987. Thanks to the 1960s, I don’t live in a country where racial segregation is enforced by law, women are confined to their “traditional” roles as a universal standard, and personal behavior’s regulated by fifteenth-century morality. And yeah, I know how far we’ve still got to go, but we’re still lightyears ahead of where we were back in the day.
The Boomers made us worse on economics, better on civil rights and social issues. Economic paradise though they were, the 1950s would’ve driven me batshit fucking insane in every other possible way.
I got one at 7-11 called “Xhale 02”. It was cheap, it uses a refill cartridge that you snap on the little heater. It’s not the best way to go, but the starter kit was $20 and the refill pack which lasted about 10 days at first and about 20 days now, costs $16.
The Boomers made us worse on economics, better on civil rights and social issues. Economic paradise though they were, the 1950s would’ve driven me batshit fucking insane in every other possible way.
That’s fair. I’m part of the echo–which I feel is a sort of lost generation because of these guys.
1987–the year I graduated and headed off to basic training at Ft Dix, NJ.
Jeffreham – I use a Joye 510 that I ordered online. A starter kit will run from $42 – $47 depending on where you order, but includes 2 full e-cigs, the charger, and 5 pre-filled cartridges. I’ve been ordering from a place called vaporpro, mostly because the service is awesome (my stuff arrives within 2 days of ordering) but also because they have the liquid you can use to re-fill cartridges that’s 1) USA made (for the obvious reasons, I don’t want to be purposely inhaling a chemical brew produced in China) and 2) they have a refill liquid which is a pure VG (vegetable glycerine) base. Something about the PG (propylene glycol) that most of them are using gives me the willies because, well, I KNOW what vegetable glycerine is, but WTF is propylene glycol? Plus, the PG creates a burn at the back of the throat that apparently SOME former smokers enjoy, but I do not. Also, vaporpro has tons of different flavors of the e-liquid, as well as unflavored base you can use for creating your own custom blend. A bottle of the e-liquid stuff runs from $10 – $15, but will refill cartridges for at least 6 weeks – so it’s more economical than what tsam’s picking up at the 7-11. Only drawback to the guy I order from is his price is slightly higher for the e-cig and parts, and he charges shipping, where some of the others will ship for free if the order is big enough – say over $50.
You’re sucking on the business end of a tiny fog machine laced with nicotine.
No, YOU are. My stuff doesn’t have propylene glycol in it. I’m sucking on vegetable oil.
Another plus to the glycerine-only base though – it produces more vapor, and it’s thick enough that you get this really great sensation of coolness on your face when you exhale it from condensation or whatever.
i am a longtime lurker. i know i shouldnt feed the troll, but the x% of the black vote went to obama, therefore blacks are the REAL RACISTS, argument is tiresome! before 2008 100% of the black vote went to white men! who are teh REAL RACISTS? why doesnt that argument get more traction?
It’s about god-damned time that a mother like Casey Anthony could stand up and free herself from one of these non-working, parasite shits who had been living for years without making one dollar to contribute. Just like Ayn Rand knew to appreciate a kidnapper ransomer specializing in child dismemberment, we have to get rid of this liberal elite latte-sipping condemnation of somebody just because they might have stuck their baby in a trunk until it got ripe. Fucking selfish little useless eaters.
I have no idea why black people didn’t flock to vote for Reagan when he opened his campaign at the Neshoba county fair in Mississippi calling for states’ rights, especially when he harshly rejected the KKK endorsement!
Because the people who make OMFG REAL RACISTS!!! arguments are stupid fucking assholes with whom argument is an abject waste of time and energy. They only make those arguments because they really really hate not being able to be openly racist without getting publicly clobbered. Hence this little “they started it” dogwhistle.
I have no idea why black people didn’t flock to vote for Reagan when he opened his campaign at the Neshoba county fair in Mississippi calling for states’ rights, especially when he harshly rejected the KKK endorsement!
HA! I forgot about this. What a fucking moron. Maybe he could have quoted George Wallace while he was at it to really drive the point home…
“those words have signified the defiance of individuals firm of belief and with a philosophical approach more akin to Larry the Cable Guy (“Git’r done!”) than the self-absorbed pontificating of President “smartest person in the room.” And that is exactly what the Republican Party needs;”
Well then the troll should be happy because that is exactly what the Republican party is today: A bunch of Larry the Cable Guys.
And, also, too – a large part of the reason for the differences between black and white voting patterns comes down to what each group has defined as its interests. For blacks, their interests have typically been “treat us equally and give us a fair shake.” For whites, it’s too often been defined as “fuck the n***ers.” Blacks have voted in favor of things they view will make their lives better or at least not make them any worse. Whites don’t really care if it makes their lives better, as long as it makes other peoples’ lives worse.
I say that flippantly but…one group is voting in favor of something positive, while the other views the act of voting as a punitive measure. You tell me which group is smart and which is fucking nuts.
And, also, too – a large part of the reason for the differences between black and white voting patterns comes down to what each group has defined as its interests. For blacks, their interests have typically been “treat us equally and give us a fair shake.” For whites, it’s too often been defined as “fuck the n***ers.” Blacks have voted in favor of things they view will make their lives better or at least not make them any worse. Whites don’t really care if it makes their lives better, as long as it makes other peoples’ lives worse.
Well, they are the descendents of the poor dumbfucks who jumped into the meat grinder so the Southren Gentility could keep their “peculiar institution”.
as an egoist i will thank you for the welcome! classic film/poetry/punk rock/animation is my favorite! if only you could reference my passion: 1950s horror comics! i will do my best to snark with the best of you!
Peace protests? That’s not even a misnomer.
Regarding the motivations of those who organize mass ‘peace protests’, what is the projected result of these marches? Crowd control? Is that what we’re calling it these days? Feelings of unity and purpose? Did the world become safer after that march? Was everyone peaceful marching? Who was in their homes as they marched? Who was murdered? Did people feel complacent afterwards, as though they were a part of something important? Did the world become more peaceful? Is identifying oneself as peaceful going to achieve some desirous result? Action must be taken, and it must be taken now. The continued silence of our respective governments is unconscionable, unacceptable.
Got here late, but so what! Got an old friend who’s been living in Japan for about 20-odd years, totally integrated there. Loves it, told me that when (if) I retire, a minimum income would qualify me to emigrate and reside. The Far East (AKA not Japan) looks pretty good, also. I thought about Europe, as I was stationed there in the 70’s (I was drafted in ’72) and loved it. I don’t think they like Americans too much, right now, though. South America also calls, as I speak/read/write Spanish, and can get by in Portuguese. I don’t want to go to Israel, either- more fucked-up than the US. Africa has fascinated me, also, but still a bit too volatile. Convincing the Creaturette is the tough part. I have a lot of college behind me, but no degrees. I have a trade in auto technology, but I don’t want to schlep a ton of tools all over, and besides, I’ve been trying to get out of the car biz almost since I got in it. Not ready yet, I guess.
Dignity is not bestowed upon a person like a reward for good behavior. Dignity is knowing completely what a weak, failed, phony, harmful, thoughtless, destructive, duplicitous, and ignorant fool one is, and accepting that it is a part of what one must deal with from others.
If one meets someone who is intellectual, mature, and kind, kill him before whatever is wrong with him spreads among the general population. Unfortunately, dignity is not contagious, while its opposite is.
Welcome Nuchik. I was a longtime lurker before diving headfirst into the pule. I don’t pipe up all that often, having two things that impair one’s abilities as a true sadlynaught–a job and a life–but I am a faithfull follower. Looking forward to seeing you develop your snark-fu!
Fuck yeah, dude. Our local plan center hosts it every year.
A bunch of contractors, mostly. Lots of bad hair, bigass fucking stomachs and really shitty jokes reminding us that there’s a nigger in the WHITE HOUSE. “Can’t really call it that now, can we? HUH HUH HUH HUH HAHA HAHA HA HA…..ah, I’m slayin’ ’em!”
Thanks Jennifer and tsam — I took the plunge, and ordered this starter kit, as it rated very highly everywhere I could find people talking about it (and I got a discount). Kinda liked the idea that they are pretty anal about what goes into the product, letting you know what’s in the product, and not doing the flavors thang so as to discourage kids from jumping into nicotine addiction.
.
Thanks Jennifer and tsam — I took the plunge, and ordered from thesafecig dot com (URL deleted, as it looks to have been caught in the spam bukkit), as it rated very highly everywhere I could find people talking about it (and I got a discount). Kinda liked the idea that they are pretty anal about what goes into the product, letting you know what’s in the product, and not doing the flavors thang so as to discourage kids from jumping into nicotine addiction.
.
Take just one club, a four or five iron, and maybe a putter. That’ll impress the hell out of ’em. Be sure to hold the club backwards and use colored balls.
How do you go from the Sexual Revolution and the whole late 60?s counterculture to thinking a pony tail with a fucking suit is OK for anyone other than a fucking rapist cocaine dealer? COME THE FUCK ON PEOPLE.
o.m.g…this is too much…i laffed out loud…again, happy i am an office of one…
I used to think that golf was a game for the very conservative, but then I found out that golfers are always playing around in foursomes and I reconsidered.
A mother doing such a thing shouldn’t be surprising, because under the auspices of a woman’s right to “privacy” in 1973, with the ruling in Roe v. Wade, child murder officially became legal in America. Over the next three decades, developing fetuses were reduced to less than human and women were convinced that disposing of unwanted offspring is a commendable goal.
HA! I forgot about this. What a fucking moron. Maybe he could have quoted George Wallace while he was at it to really drive the point home…
George Wallace’s 1982 Governor’s race is the only example I can think of where black voters, seemingly, voted against their self interest. Also, I’ve always wanted to go to the Neshoba County Fair.
I really encourage you to adopt the habit of yelling “Incoming” rather than “Fore”.
That is a great way to suss out which ones are really the combat vets.
i know i shouldn’t feed the troll, but FUCK YOU…
The first time I have ever unfriended someone from facebook was someone who linked approvingly to a “satire” piece about how the effect of the Casey Anthony verdict was going to hurt Planned Parenthood abortion income.
The first time I have ever unfriended someone from facebook was someone who linked approvingly to a “satire” piece about how the effect of the Casey Anthony verdict was going to hurt Planned Parenthood abortion income.
if only fb had a way to unfriend by shooting flames through said a-hole’s computer…
that is exactly what the Republican party is today: A bunch of Larry the Cable Guys
Especially because Larry the Cable Guy is just a routine.
According to a CMT bio, Whitney grew up on a pig farm in Pawnee City, Nebraska. Whitney went to college at the now defunct Baptist University of America.
He credits his roommates from Texas and Georgia for developing his imitation Southern accent. He dropped out after his junior year after trying his hand at comedy…
…He became famous developing the Larry character, a personality that he now maintains throughout his stage act.
The Larry character has a stereotypical redneck appearance, a thick Southern accent, recounts stories about his “family”, and uses, among other common expressions, his own catchphrase “Git-R-Done!”
A part of Whitney’s routine is his affected Southern accent.
He says in interviews and in his autobiographical book GIT-R-DONE that he deliberately “turns on” the accent both on and off stage, because he may forget it if he kept his normal accent intact.
He uses catchphrase humor, including “Git-R-Done,” “Lord, I apologize, and please be with the Pygmies in New Guinea. Amen.” and “I don’t care who ya are, that’s funny right there” after certain jokes. He appears in Nutrisystem commercials with Dan Marino. Marino delivers the catchphrase, “Git-R-Done,” and is shown dressed in Whitney’s trademark attire, including a pair of jeans, a cut off, untucked flannel shirt, and camouflage hat.
A fraudulent routine intended to scream an imaginary solidarity with the Real America little guy against the gigantic librul commie Islamo-sexual secularist conspiracy to have baristas at Starbucks sneer at them: The Republican Party.
I never, until now, saw a resemblance between Lucy van Pelt and John Boehner, but they do have similarly dead eyes.
No worries, I’m sure Obammy is going to end up punking those R’s just like always.
I like Whitehouse but he’s talking through his hat. The Dems will fold like old lawnchairs.
I’ll wait for Ezra or Matt to splain the importance of this for all of us.
I’ve always been sceptical of ‘government’s’ intentions re: my (and my fellow Americans) future well-being.
I hate it when my gut feeling is right- when the consequences are all wrong. The real boot-in-the-ass is that, we, the people, are not going to properly address these grievances.
Fuck these politician motherfuckers.
This is fucking pathetic. Whatever happened to the US policy of not negotiating with terrorists? The GOP certainly qualify for that label given their behavior and apparent willingness to destroy the country and the global economy if they cannot get their way.
I’m glad I’ve already decided I’m leaving the country. Now if I can just get the money together to go….
All I have to say is,
Fuckettyfuckfuckfuckingfuckersfuckingfuckfuckfuckettyfuck…
etc.
Oh,
FUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!!!!!!!
Whatever happened to the US policy of not negotiating with terrorists?
Reagan proved you could negotiate with terrorists, screw the country, and people would still love you.
Of course, the important bit is this,
Oy.
I remember seeing the results of a survey a few years ago that showed that people who pay no attention to current events have a much greater likelihood of reporting being happy with their lives than those who do.
I see why this is so on a nearly daily basis.
Come on, it’s all about shared sacrifice. The wealthy agree to give up part of the tax break they receive for upgrading the bathrooms on their yachts, and the rest of us give up financial security and healthcare in our old age. Sounds fair and balanced to me!
Really just illustrative of Democrats’ ability to turn a sure thing into a rout in which they themselves are the victims. Like the whole expiration of the tax cuts thing last fall. It could have been a campaign issue – “these Republicans are holding you hostage to preserve tax breaks for the people who fucked the economy.” Instead, they punted, lost the election, and gave in on raising taxes as well…which led to more Republican hand-wringing about the deficit and “law, how will we EVAH fix it?”
This time around, they have the chance to accurately paint the Republicans as handmaidens of the rich who want to decimate programs that all of us EXCEPT the rich rely on, in order to preserve tax cuts for the wealthy and lower their taxes even more. The only possible response to this is for Democrats to destroy these programs themselves. so that Republicans can paint them as the villains while winning all the goodies they wanted for their benefactors to begin with. Combined with the campaign cash rewards they’ll receive from doing their masters’ bidding, we’ll be back to complete GOP control of government by 2013. Collapse of the country will follow in short order as Republicans get back to doing what they do – borrowing and spending.
Wait–what’s actually new here?
Those Bush cuts are NOT going away.
Malaclypsr said
I think actual collaboration with terrorists is what made that work for Reagan. The whingers need realviolence before showing their love.
fffff1xx0red
Nights you feel your about to win
Gold in your pocket turns to tin
Thunder and lightning striking me down
I’m pretty sure all our problems can be solved if we just give more tax breaks to the wealthy and big corporations, you know, the job creators. Now some of you may have noticed that many large corporations are making record profits, which may in turn cause you to ask “So where are the jobs,” to which I’d reply
FUCK OFF.
Whenever I hear someone mention the “tax and spend Democrats” I always come back with “as opposed to the don’t tax and spend even more Republicans.”
Dear Republicans,
Dudeskull has given your proposals a great deal of thought…and has concluded that you are as full of poop has his diapers.
Good day.
I’m pretty sure all our problems can be solved if we just give more tax breaks to the wealthy and big corporations
Don’t forget to remove all government regulation. After all, once the planet is laid to waste and can no longer support life, all our problems will be solved permanantly.
Quit gettin’ in the way of that there boomin’ economy, government!
I’ll wait to freak the fuck out until something actually happens, but this shit about needing to find a way to “fix” Social Security is a fucking joke.
Just have the tax apply to all income.
Do that and repeal the Bushbama tax cuts and **POOF!** Soc. Sec. and our deficit are all but solved.
Of course, that’d be something an actual liberal would propose.
But we have someone in the White House who, in a sane world, would be considered a moderate Republican. Sadly, we live in a clinically insane and utterly retarded world, so he’s painted as some radical leftist … one who is helping dismantle the social safety net while not doing A SINGLE FUCKING THING TO CREATE JOBS.
**sigh**
At this point, I really think an asteroid the size of, oh, Des Moines or so, would be the best thing for our species. Just start the fuck over.
Tintin, I think I beat you to this by a few days.
P.S. Can anyone remind me what Social Security has to do with the deficit?
~
Mark D said,
July 7, 2011 at 16:16
I’ll wait to freak the fuck out until something actually happens, but this shit about needing to find a way to “fix” Social Security is a fucking joke.
It’ll be too late. It probably is already. The time to freak out was when Bushbama decided to create a ‘bipartisan deficit commission’ with Alan Simpson (typical right-wing fuckstick) and Erskine Bowles (famous for being a Democrat who wanted to ‘fix’ Social Security) as its co-chairs.
I can hardly tell you how many times I was told in comments at TPM, etc., not to worry, that Obama wouldn’t agree to cut Social Security. But of course, that was the whole reason for picking those two.
Obama is doing a better job of destroying the Democratic party than a Republican ever could.
~
…and since it is only Dems talking about dismantling SS and Medicare, Rove & co. will run in 2012 on Dems dismantling SS and Medicare. Bookmark it!
Thunder: Because everthing has to with deficit and taxes. (Echoes aphorism.) Because why? HITLER. SHUT UP!
Obama is doing a better job of destroying the Democratic party than a Republican ever could.
So there IS a silver lining after all!
Nym-fail. Should be:
‘Guerrilla Voters Cadre 18.’
I blame islamofascism.
Can anyone remind me what Social Security has to do with the deficit?
At this time, reducing the appearance of the debt whenever someone feels like lumping its trust fund in with the general revenue.
Accepting the 2013 Noballs Prize in Economics on behalf of the Inverterbrate Party, the former President of the United States, Mr. Barack Obama (cue applause).
Invertebrate @#$%%^&
Here’s an interesting dilemma in political philosophy that might easily be worked into a High School civics class discussion.
What if a democracy votes for the destruction of democracy?
What if a democracy votes for the destruction of democracy?
One man, one vote, one last time
At this point, I really think an asteroid the size of, oh, Des Moines or so, would be the best thing for our species. Just start the fuck over.
Don’t blame us for the lunacy of half of your electorate.
Did it, Fenwick?
Most people don’t want Social Security cut. Most people want taxes raised in the upper brackets.
But we won’t get these things, because our politics are ruled by the principle, “one dollar, one vote”.
~
Thunder: True that !
Most people don’t want Social Security cut. Most people want taxes raised in the upper brackets.
But most people aren’t willing to vote solely on those issues, or associate with the people who fight for those issues, or whatever. There’s no left-wing equivalent to the Tea Party Movement holding people in office accountable to the principles they’re supposed to have had, and if there was one, most of the center would shriek like elephants in front of mice, soil themselves, and run to the Republicans screaming about DFHs.
During the 1930s, people didn’t just vote, they pushed the Overton Window so far to the left that FDR actually considered Huey Long rather than anyone on Wall Street or in the GOP “one of the two most dangerous men in America,”* and was forced to move to the left in order to steal his thunder. I don’t see that sort of commitment from Dems today, and more importantly I don’t see people in the center allowing it. So yeah, even if they want Social Security, Medicare and the other parts of the liberal agenda, most Americans don’t seem willing to back it up with votes. Which is de facto voting against the modern democratic state, even if they wish it weren’t.
* The other was Douglas MacArthur.
#
Jennifer said,
July 7, 2011 at 15:31
I’m glad I’ve already decided I’m leaving the country. Now if I can just get the money together to go….
Just curious, but have you had any thoughts as to where you might go?
chris is smart
This. Athousanfuckingtimes this.
Obama has NEVER been some progressive hero. I get that, and I think a lot of us here understand that, sadly, he’s a guy who views bipartisanship as an ideology in and of itself because he truly thinks that’s what’s best.
(In fact, he spent a ton of time in The Audacity of Hope going on and on and on about how wonderful the Senate used to be, with guys arguing during the day and drinking scotch in the evening. So it’s not some big, super-duper secret that his goal was to get everyone get along and sing Kumbaya. This is why I’m stunned when folks freak the hell out that he’s not the Progressive Hero They’ve Been Waiting For. But I digress … )
Now, in normal times, this all might not have been so bad. IMHO, deals have to be made to get things done, and I’m okay with some give and take. It’s how the world actually works.
But these aren’t normal times.
We have one side with no interest whatsofuckingever in making any sort of deal on anything ever no matter what. Hell, the GOP has openly admitted their #1 goal is to destroy Obama.
And yet there he is, trying to work with them, as if they’re negotiating in good faith.
So either Obama is more dense that depleted uranium and thinks that if he just tries harder, things will magically change and the GOP will be sane again … OR … he’s getting what he actually wants.
At this point, I don’t think most folks know which one it is ..
But we won’t get these things, because our politics are ruled by the principle, “one dollar, one vote”.
Voters are ruled by the Fox Catatonic State. Everyone is a deficit hawk now because the Dogs (reference the Pink Floyd song) say we need to shit our pants a lot over all this stuff.
NPR is in on the act too, with their usual parade of think-tank dumbfucks rounding out the roster.
“Fuck the economy, we gotta do something about this debt”
And to THIS VERY MOMENT, not a single mention of ending our involvement in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. They do a fantastic job of dancing around the issue of ending the Bush tax cuts too.
Obama must have a high tolerance to pain. That’s why he continues to let the republicans fuck him, then lets loose with the classic line: “Thank you sir. May I have another?”
Obama is not a liberal. He’s a sane (mostly) republican. He’s doing stuff that would give St.Ronnie wet dreams.
…and since it is only Dems talking about dismantling SS and Medicare, Rove & co. will run in 2012 on Dems dismantling SS and Medicare. Bookmark it!
Works every time.
Obama basketball rules:
Republicans can’t foul, but they can call all fouls against the White House.
White House will spot the Republicans 19 points. First team to 20 wins.
White House may not be on the court during the game.
Let’s keep this friendly, no harsh words or any of the black guy “twitching”.
never thought I would say it, but perhaps Hilary would have been the better choice, at least she might have told the GOP to get off..
never thought I would say it, but perhaps Hilary would have been the better choice, at least she might have told the GOP to get off..
I’m hating it too, because I hate her slimy whore guts, but you might be right.
This seems especially ironic because I voted for Obama in the primaries precisely because he was a moderate, Third Way candidate. He was supposed to represent a way around the control being held by the extremes of either party. Instead, Obama is focused on negotiating only with Boehner. Boehner, who cannot even get the votes of the extreme of his own party on raising the debt. Why is Obama going through Boehner to get to the centrist House Democrats and he has to get virtually all of the Dems in the Senate too? Why is he completely wedded to Boehner? Shouldn’t this be the opportunity to break the order of things that got us here in the first place? This incredibly prescient piece by Matt Stoller was written in 2008
found on Down with Tyranny today.
Chris IS actually smart.
Those of us to the left of Reagan usually get criticized by idiots saying that the democrats are still better than the republicans. Well, yeah, but so fuckin’ what?
It doesn’t matter a whole lot, when the dems of today are the repubs of the past and the repubs of today are more extreme than Birchers.
The only people who would agree that this state of affairs is still good in any way are the abject idiots who consider any win for “their side” golden, even if “their side” no longer wants anything to do with them.
There are also the squirmy sycophants who say that because of the numbers in the House and/or the Senate, the dems couldn’t have done better, period. That, of course, ignores that they could have been a hell of a lot more honest and agressive in the campaigns that LED to those numbers.
The real problem, for americans, is that they have no other choiche.
They only have the two viable parties.
I guess I shouldn’t care, not being american, but I do.
Not much, but enough to drive me to drink.
(You’d think that WOULD be much, but hey, I’m sadistic to my liver).
Speaking of NPR, I was rightly PO’d this antimatter when, reporting on the 9th Circuit lifting their stay on forcing the gubmint to stop enforcing DADT, in some bizarre attempt at “fairness”, they played a clip of Tony Perkins. WTF?
I sent a scathing note to the ombudsman asking why they give voice to military expert TP, the spokesperson for a hate-speech group. Let me say that again: you gave voice to someone with zero expertise on the subject, said voice being the voice of an organization the SLPC identifies as a hate-speech organization. Why? Just why, NPR?
Anyone else who gives a shit is free to chime in at NPR.org.
But most people aren’t willing to vote solely on those issues, or associate with the people who fight for those issues, or whatever.
Where is the party to inspire these people to come out and vote? The problem is the Democrats are controlled by people who would rather compete with the Republicans for a share of the corporate $$.
P.S. The “Tea Party” is simply the Republican base, rebranded with extensive marketing and organizational help by the Kochs after the Bush-Cheney debacle, and relentlessly hyped by our corporate press. Don’t believe the hype.
~
Aseptic, Plouffe et al. are in some ways brilliant strategists. In other ways they are total fucking idiots. They have let the rethuglican kleptocrats completely define the terms. Wanna fix the deficit problem? Let the Bush tax cuts expire. That’s all. Oh, some minor adjustments to Medicare will be needed but aren’t critically urgent. SS is fine just the way it is. Just do nothing, let the irresponsible Bush tax cuts expire. But nooooooo, raising taxes kills jobs. It must be true because the Rs keep saying it and the WH, and the D’s NEVER CALL THAT BULLSHIT BULLSHIT.
Why does no one ask Mr. speaker how many jobs bills they have introduced. I recall last fall him saying “we’re going to be all about jobs. Jobs jobs jobs.” But nooooooo, the D’s are so afraid of … something they just won’t call bullshit on the lies.
Wake the fuck up folks, you don’t win the game by letting them set the rules.
Where is the party to inspire these people to come out and vote? The problem is the Democrats are controlled by people who would rather compete with the Republicans for a share of the corporate $$.
They aren’t solely controlled by corporations–at least not nearly to the degree that the Repigs are. The problem is that every time a guy like say…Bill Bradley comes along (someone who actually believes in something), the corporate lap dogs destroy him. If the democrats would knock off the purple state garbage and take a risk on doing something worthwhile for a change, they could band together and support moderately progressive ideas (like ending wars, keeping our social safety net in place, telling baby boomers to SHUT THE FUCKING FUCK UP YOU FUCKERS, etc).
They could win on this. It just means you refute the Fox Noise shit–with some actual fire like Howard Dean does occasionally.
Heh, Aseptic = Axelrod. TYautocorrect.
“Fuck the economy, we gotta do something about this debt”
This is the big rallying cry at the moment, and I got to say they’ve sure got that first part down pat. But I’ve also got to say that so far, all the people who have gotten into office screaming about the debt have turned around and cut taxes as their first order of business. And I seem to be about the only person in my neck of the woods going WTF. I am constantly pointing out to my more conservative neighbors an co-workers that if these people were serious about cutting the debt the very LAST thing they would do is cut taxes. I mean how the hell are you going to pay off the debt with less money. No, these people don’t give a damn about the debt. They are simply creating a disaster they can exploit to cut several popular social programs from the budget, but once they’ve done that I garauntee you that they will have no problem giving that taxpayer money and then some over to corporate welfare instead. Yes, taxes will have to go up again and they know that, but they will manage to leave it up to Democrats to do that dirty work.
Republican matra when they are in power – “deficits don’t matter”
Republican mantra when they are not – “we simply MUST balance the budget”
But wait! There’s good news! We will finally, at long last, get our fucking jet cars. ‘Course, the fucking Europeans will have them first. YOO ESS AIIIIIEEEEE
Bill Bradley comes along (someone who actually believes in something), the corporate lap dogs destroy him.
I had a friend that worked for Dollar Bill for quite a while. His beliefs aside hopes for higher office were dashed because he’s pentothal at the podium, deadly on the dais, soporific on the stump. A human sleep inducer. This also had a negative effect on his fund rasising.
So either Obama is more dense that depleted uranium and thinks that if he just tries harder, things will magically change and the GOP will be sane again … OR … he’s getting what he actually wants.
At this point, I don’t think most folks know which one it is ..
Could there be a third situation? Obama’s got the Jackie Robinson problem, only more so. Jackie had to be pretty conciliatory with baseball players who hated his guts for various reasons, because as The First Black Player Crossing the Color Line he had to set a good example.
Now imagine if Jackie found that every team he played against was composed of Ty Cobb clones…
Where is the party to inspire these people to come out and vote? The problem is the Democrats are controlled by people who would rather compete with the Republicans for a share of the corporate $$.
Which is exactly the way things were at the end of the nineteenth century, with Republicans being corporate whores and Bourbon Democrats being the other corporate whores. That changed because of decades of populist activism, beginning with W. J. Bryan in 1896 and eventually culminating in the New Deal, despite the many times it got knocked down and had to get up again. The 1950s state wasn’t created because Democrats were inspiring, it was created because millions of voters pressured them to be that way. I don’t see the same thing existing today.
P.S. The “Tea Party” is simply the Republican base, rebranded with extensive marketing and organizational help by the Kochs after the Bush-Cheney debacle, and relentlessly hyped by our corporate press. Don’t believe the hype.
Not completely. Half of their duty was what you described, to rebrand and reinvent the GOP and pretend to be something other than Bush/Cheney.
The other half, IMO, was to serve as the primarying army against Republican candidates, created to discourage any Republican politician from making any accomodation towards Obama for fear of losing the next election. Worked pretty well in that respect.
I garauntee you that
Boudreaux? Dat you?
And I seem to be about the only person in my neck of the woods going WTF.
I sure can sympathize with this. All I hear: Obama is spending us into…..
Even dumbass liberals fall for the hand-wringing crap over Afghanistan and Iraq. As if another 10 years is going to change the inevitable outcome of either of those idiotic fucking abortions.
No debate about the budget has a single shred of credibility as long as we’re still occupying and building other nations. No debate has any credibility as long as those Bush tax cuts are still in effect.
(See how this works, OBAMA? You take the discussion OFF THE TABLE)
The Democrats did a good job of getting rid of Howard Dean, tsam.
I recall 2006 very well. In spite of being deep in debt at the time, I gave more money to more candidates then ever before (most lost, most were liberals sponsored by ActBlue…but some did win).
It was Howard Dean that was pushing to help these people, and it was Rahm Emmanuel who wanted to funnel all the money into the pockets of Blue Dogs (douchebag Heath Shuler was Rahmbo’s prize recruit in 2006).
Since then, we have DNC chairs: Tim Kaine and now Debbie Wasserman Schultz. A couple of peas from the same corporate pod.
I’ve often said the corporatist Dems would rather lose elections than control of the party. I see no reason to retract, so far…
~
I had a friend that worked for Dollar Bill for quite a while. His beliefs aside hopes for higher office were dashed because he’s pentothal at the podium, deadly on the dais, soporific on the stump. A human sleep inducer. This also had a negative effect on his fund rasising.
I know. But he had guts enough to challenge the status quo and demand that the American worker make a living wage.
LOLWUT? John Kerry was 10 times the sleep inducer Bill was! Not to mention a stupid asshole who regularly licks McCain taint.
I’ve often said the corporatist Dems would rather lose elections than control of the party. I see no reason to retract, so far…
Good observation. I can’t argue with it. It’s a logical conclusion anyway, their primary objective being protecting their corporate masters.
Gosh, I’m just terrible at politics, and most everything else. I was never a good judge of character, and frequently wound up socializing with morons and convicts just because they were more fun to hang out with than the frat boys or the pencil nerds. So I’m not very good at recognizing intelligence when I see it. Past a certain point, all intelligence looks the same to me: obscure and murky, like a muddy river. But, because of a lifetime of being so close to it, I have always been able to recognize the stupid when I see it.
I know this will piss off a lot of folks, but I see stupid in Pres Obama. I know he’s got grace, and elegance, and intellect, or at least I have read countless articles and columns saying he has those things, but I also know he’s afflicted with a thick and rigid swath of the dumbass. I used to believe in my own vacillating way that this was just his inexperience, his “greenness”, but now, after observing him for over two years in the White House, I can’t give him a pass based on inexperience anymore. Yep, I am truly beginning to believe that he is just plain fucking stupid; not all the time, of course, but enough of the time that even someone as dense as I can see it.
There, I said it. Been putting it off for a while. But that’s how I feel. Honestly.
LOLWUT? John Kerry was 10 times the sleep inducer
I’ve met them both socially and seen them both speak at events and Bill wins going away. His speeches are like the cartoon wooden mallet that hits Yosemite Sam.
I don’t know if he’s stupid. My take is that he wants to please his masters. Kinda like a puppy. Too bad the American people are not his masters.
I wrote a letter — doubt if it will do any good:
I recently have learned that you plan to come to some sort of deal with Republicans in terms of raising the debt ceiling in exchange for substantial revenue enhancements and spending cuts. I urge you to please think about what you are doing: you are reaching a “negotiated” deal to accomplish something that both sides want and that should not require negotiation in the first place. Thus, that the GOP even wants to negotiate to achieve something the ostensibly support in the first place means they are not acting in good faith, so you should stop treating them as if they are acting in good faith. Moreover, as you ought to know, credit will be given to the GOP (not to you or to the Democrats) for being fiscally responsible while blame for cuts in popular programs, tax increases and the increased debt (which is why the ceiling needs to be raised) will go to you and the Democrats. I fail to understand why you did not simply make the case clear to the American people as to why the debt ceiling needed raising, have clean bills proposed in both houses to accomplish that goal and force the GOP to argue why spending cuts would be needed and force Republican legislators to propose the specific spending cuts they wish to make so that they would take the political heat for what really are their (and at least supposedly not your) agenda items.
You were an awesome campaigner for the Presidency and you raised our hopes that there would be a new approach to governance in DC. But alas, it seems you, in your eagerness to negotiate with a party which has continually demonstrated their inability to act in good faith, have simply continued many of the same tired policies and right-leaning political trends that have gotten us into our current economic and political pickle.
I urge you now to change course before it is too late – if the GOP wants spending cuts, let them take ownership of those cuts and their refusal to support necessary legislation to raise the debt ceiling. Don’t give away the store to reach a compromise about something which reasonable people already agree is necessary. Don’t be like Charlie Brown to the GOP’s Lucy, trying to kick that ball when every previous time the GOP has yanked it out from under you. That’s not 11-dimensional chess, that’s foolishness!
lobbey from Earth-B said,
July 7, 2011 at 17:22 (kill)
never thought I would say it, but perhaps Obama would have been the better choice, at least he might have told the GOP to get off..
Let’s not kid ourselves, the only difference we’d have between Hillary and now is we’d be shitting bricks over her bending over backwards to placate the GOP and asking why oh why she does such things when the Republican faithful hate her filthy stinking guts.
The only reason the grass is greener is because we imagine the grass instead of having to actually see it.
Meanwhile in NJ, the Sen President, Sweeney (not Todd), after shepherding Christie’s ghastly budget through the legislature and giving him bipartisan cover seems sincerely shocked by what a bully Chris Christie is.
Let’s not kid ourselves, the only difference we’d have between Hillary and now is we’d be shitting bricks over her bending over backwards to placate the GOP and asking why oh why she does such things when the Republican faithful hate her filthy stinking guts.
Back in 07, I had to write a college paper about the health care system in the U.S. and, as part of it, looked up what leading candidates in both parties had to say. Of the three candidates on the Dem side of the aisle, I remember that Obama’s position was the most vaguely defined and the most centrist. Didn’t think much of it at the time, but it’s come back to my mind quite a few times since.
I’m with Greenwald: Obama is cutting entitlements because that is what he wants to do. The intransigent GOP is providing cover.
Of the three candidates on the Dem side of the aisle, I remember that Obama’s position was the most vaguely defined and the most centrist. Didn’t think much of it at the time, but it’s come back to my mind quite a few times since.
At the same time, back in 2010 I believe, I took a look at the health care system in the U.S., and as a part of it, looked up what the three leading candidates of the 2008 presidential election on the Dem side of the aisle were doing at the time.
Obama had been president when Congress passed a tepid but still reasonably valid health care reform, Hillary was Obama’s secretary of state and so didn’t produce her own health care reform bill (but I’m sure the proposal she didn’t have to actually fulfill was awesome), and John Edwards had been in some manner of sex scandal in the midst of 2008 and was therefore kind of irrelevant, even though his reform proposal was clearly the best of the three.
But yes, if only the potential Presidents we could’ve had actually existed, then things would come up roses. I personally dream of what President Camacho’s health care reform proposals would look like now.
Finally, someone is punished for unauthorized spying.
Rupert Murdoch’s asshole “News of The World” in the UK is no more.
By hacking into thousands of cellphones from the Royal family to a kidnapped missing girl to wounded and dead soldiers.
So that Murdoch’s paper’s cellphone hacking is clear, but of course no one at all was ever responsible and no matter how many thousands of times it happened and led to stories it was always an individual act of a journalist, here’s one of the latest.
Obama had been president when Congress passed a tepid but still reasonably valid health care reform, Hillary was Obama’s secretary of state and so didn’t produce her own health care reform bill (but I’m sure the proposal she didn’t have to actually fulfill was awesome), and John Edwards had been in some manner of sex scandal in the midst of 2008 and was therefore kind of irrelevant, even though his reform proposal was clearly the best of the three.
But yes, if only the potential Presidents we could’ve had actually existed, then things would come up roses
You forgot to mention ponies, peace on earth, goodwill towards men, and a whole other host of cliches I can’t be bothered to think of right now.
Only one of those presidents ever came to be, but since the subject of this was whether Hillary might have done better if she’d been elected, bringing up the subject of their health care plans at election time seemed strangely relevant. Water under the bridge is water under the bridge, but there’s nothing ludicrous in looking back on your electoral choices and asking questions.
I used to get mad.
Then just fucked off.
25 fucking years ago.
Been reading here for six years.
Don’t really care no more.
Does anybody think anything gonna change?
Taipei is a bit sultry this time of year.
But I gotz health care.
Meanwhile, in GA, all sorts of Republican state legislators who gleefully passed their tough guy anti-immigrant bill were genuinely shocked — I mean it, that fucking dumber-than-a-deer in the headlights right wing look, not faking it — that now crops were rotting in the fields because Georgia farmers had no one to pick their fruit and vegetable crops.
An innovative program by the Governor to allow (not force, yet) convicted persons on probation to get a job (as required, yet oddly convicts on probation, not exactly snapped up by employers) replacing the farmworkers strangely resulted in probationers saying “fuck this” and leaving, and those who did stay worked at 1/4th or slower the rate of the migrants.
If they’d just been assholes and said “too fucking bad,” that would be one thing; that legislators were genuinely shocked that legislation they passed would do exactly what they passed it to do.
Aha, Shorter Ezra…
I won’t say it, but Obama makes Reagan look like Mao, and tea-baggers don’t realize they got it so good.
@El Cid
Do you think it was genuine shock? Somebody HAD to have told them this would happen. Farm lobbyist, perhaps?
I guess what I’m saying is that if they were genuinely shocked, then I’m genuinely shocked. Shock implies that they give some sort of a fuck. This is out of character for these Mexican haters.
Hi Markus!
I was three 25 years ago, and I burned out before I was even allowed to vote. Now, I think things are changing all the time, just haven’t decided if it’s for the better or worse.
But from me to you, thanks for fucking off when things were rough.
Oh sweet fucking Jesus H. Christ on a Big Wheel …
No offense, but could you please point us to where we can find these extreme leftists who were in need of being balanced out by some amorphous notion of The One True Centrist?
Because, in the reality I inhabit, the closest thing to “extreme” on the left is … what, Dennis Kucinich? Bernie Sanders, maybe?
Of course, considering that both of them support policies that a majority of Americans support (such as tax increases on the wealthy, pulling out of Afghanistan, more regulations, punishing the assholes who destroyed our economy, etc.) not sure they should count.
At least not in a sane world. In one of those, Bernie is President, the deficit is gone thanks to a repeal of the Bush tax cuts and bringing our troops back home, everyone has affordable basic health care due to Medicare For All, a massive infrastructure bank is putting people to work rebuilding our nation, and a massive push for green energy and better education — via repeal of NCLB — is being made that will put us at the forefront of the 21 Century.
Oh, wait … sorry for making so much sense when it comes to solving our problems.
Let’s go back to discussing that extreme left that doesn’t actually exist.
Which is de facto voting against the modern democratic state
The United States is neither modern or democratic.
An innovative program by the Governor to allow (not force, yet) convicted persons on probation to get a job (as required, yet oddly convicts on probation, not exactly snapped up by employers) replacing the farmworkers strangely resulted in probationers saying “fuck this” and leaving, and those who did stay worked at 1/4th or slower the rate of the migrants.
And I’m loving it. Now to watch them deal with the existential crisis of realizing that by the judgment of the Free Market, those illegal immigrants that we all know come here to cheat on welfare and don’t respect our Protestant work ethic… turn out to be harder and MORE EFFICIENT workers than the best rugged individualists the South has been able to produce so far.
The popcorn! Where’d I put the damn popcorn!
I guess what I’m saying is that if they were genuinely shocked, then I’m genuinely shocked. Shock implies that they give some sort of a fuck. This is out of character for these Mexican haters.
I seriously doubt if they thought it through. The anti-immigrant rhetoric and the certainty that they’re what’s been fucking everything up and that everything would be OK if we just cracked down on them, were so ingrained they didn’t even bother to ask about the consequences.
Which probably contradicts what I just wrote; they’ll never have an existential crisis, because they’ll simply ignore the data El Cid just posted. One wonders just how far the ignore button will take them.
I’m glad I’ve already decided I’m leaving the country. Now if I can just get the money together to go….
ciggie fund?
crops were rotting in the fields because Georgia farmers had no one to pick their fruit and vegetable crops.
No-one yet blamed the minimum wage?
That’s usually high up the list of boiler-plate wingnut excuses for why shit doesn’t happen in the economy the way they think it should. Still, very happy for wingnuts to have reality rubbed in their face that the immigrants that arrive here are among the hardest working people on the planet. Somehow never comes up in the fucking amnesty debate, but it’s kind of central to why the path to citizenship issue is a no-brainer.
Indeed, he could have been the ONE PERSON who got the country back on the right track.
Mark D: Ima gonna cut-and-paste your Obama comment into an e-mail to friends and family. (Also a loud Huzzah from Cadre 18.)
I call myself a militant leftist because I don’t want to play Army in the sandbox anymore, and I don’t think muslims and gays are trying to eat my brains, and that people like me who work our asses off deserve health care, a world class education for our children and to not have to coast to death living on dog food.
I believe in liberty and justice for all. Where have we heard those words?
Yeah, I’m a REAL extremist.
Many pardons St. Trotsky,
But there are options for leaving if one so wishes.
I’ve lived abroad most of my adult life. But I was in Buffalo for three years during the Bush administration and I protested and tried to organize people.
But, Yeah.
I gave up.
If anybody is really sincere about fucking off for real — give me a holler. I have knowledge of the international job market.
Y’all really serious ’bout leaving?
There’s Europe — difficult without an EU passport.
Then there’s Asia — Bachelor’s Degree only.
I’m not rich, but I’m happy to be free.
And I gotz health care.
I can’t believe that he would even consider this. He had a chance to be FDR, he chose to bypass Clintonian Republican Lite and govern to the right of Reagan.
Some Europe info:
http://www.enic-naric.net/index.aspx?s=p&q=8&r=2
All I hear: Obama is spending us into…..
ikr?!? and i also hear: passed in secret, in middle of the night meetings behind closed doors…
oh, really? but it’s okay when:
The president’s renewed efforts follow what knowledgeable officials said was an overture from Mr. Boehner, who met secretly with Mr. Obama last weekend,
i am sick to death of the double standard, the name calling (i am not some whackaloon liberal socialist just because i believe we should help out the less fortunate, gdang it) and nothing the fuck happening because our politicians are too busy in their petulant pissing contest…
jennifer…i’ve been saving up my not smoking money…where are we headed to?
Fear not. Let this not trouble your soul. The Good Book tells us that the meek shall inherit the Earth.
Of course, this will be after the Earth has passed through the alimentary canal of multi national corporations. Enjoy your shit sammish.
Jesus Fucking Shite!
Mr. McGravitas,
I tried, really, I tried. But the “babee jeebus” dun hate me.
No seriously, thanks for the support.
I left the States back in ’86 for the sake of adventure and desperation. Lived all over — Asia and Europe. Did the Alaskan fishing boat thing for two years.
My dearest Pope in Avignon,
Sorry I’m not the preznit
It’s really about time that some population outflow started happening from the US. If the American dream is about living well, not paying for health care or going broke on higher education might be something you wanna look at. Other countries do a better job on those two things.
It was genuine shock. You’re talking people so god-damned stupid they don’t even realize that when you pass a law shit happens.
The Georgia growers’ association had tactfully submitted lots of testimony and documents begging the legislators to take their needs into account while taking no position outside what would be complying with the law.
No differently than all these fucking assholes in California who backed the recall move (including voters) over the vehicle fee. Remember the California government can’t raise income taxes.
And then when Arnie got in and canceled that fee, suddenly the state was another 8 billion in the hole.
Suddenly it was all “my gosh, why do we have all this spending”! Yeah, you can’t fucking cancel $8 billion in revenue without simultaneously having your budget deficit go up by $8 billion.
Mr. McGravitas,
If one of the least densely populated countries in the world, i.e. the US, is going to lose population — where are they going to go?
The world has room for some small number of us “foreigners”, but after that:
Do You think we will be welcome?
@El Cid
Do you think it was genuine shock? Somebody HAD to have told them this would happen. Farm lobbyist, perhaps?
They certainly should have known. About a year ago the farm workers union had a big campaign out west to prove this point. They put out all kinds of advertising encouraging real Americans to “take our jobs”. They offered to give a farm working job currently held by an illegal alien to any Americans that showed up to claim it. They provided an accurate job description:
“Job may include using hand tools such as knives, hoes, shovels, etc. Duties may include tilling the soil, transplanting, weeding, thinning, picking, cutting, sorting & packing of harvested produce. May set up & operate irrigation equip. Work is performed outside in all weather conditions (Summertime 90+ degree weather) & is physically demanding requiring workers to bend, stoop, lift & carry up to 50 lbs on a regular basis.”
Oddly enough there was virtually no response. Although they got a fair number of E-mail enquiries, less than thirty people actually showed up on a job site and only two lasted more than a week.
It’s really about time that some population outflow started happening from the US. If the American dream is about living well, not paying for health care or going broke on higher education might be something you wanna look at. Other countries do a better job on those two things.
Bleargh.
My country, and I like it. I’ll bitch at its imperfections until I live to be a hundred and drop dead, but fuck it if I’m getting run out. Here, this guy articulates it better than I can.
(Disclaimer: not criticizing anyone who does want to hop over to Europe. Great place. Try the Alps).
Oddly enough there was virtually no response. Although they got a fair number of E-mail enquiries, less than thirty people actually showed up on a job site and only two lasted more than a week.
i think colbert did a brilliant segment on this…it’s funny how when you tell someone to go ahead and do what the illegals and the migrants do, they suddenly have something better to do…also, if i hear one more time about how they all have mansions with pools down in mexico and just perform migrant work in the u.s. cuz it’s tax free, i will shoot someone…
also, i think in ga, they were genuinely shocked…i mean, c’mon, the gop’ers are always right, aren’t they? they’re the patriots and their base is all patriotic murkans…what could go wrong?
i just keep hoping that he has something that passes all understanding up his sleeve…
Me too, Chris. How about we get behind someone like Feingold who, while he has no chance of winning, might push the Dems to the left, much like the teatards have pushed the Reps to the right? Just a thought.
First, thank you, Fenwick. Glad someone liked it.
**bows in thanks**
The Mrs and I are VERY interested. We have English (me) and Art and Design (her) degrees, and years of experience in marketing/PR, with her doing so in the non-profit field.
But … we also have a son with autism and, most likely, Tourette’s Syndrome, two dogs we won’t leave behind or in quarantine for months on end, and less than $50 in savings thanks to $4K in medical bills (and we have insurance).
So, um, yeah. Know of any openings for folks in that situation?
Thread bear,
What’s your point? I’ve done that work. And I imagine many people on this thread have done as well.
The problem is the wage.
I did the minimum wage thing well into my adulthood, but that shit don’t wash if you have kids to take care of.
Maybe I’m misunderstanding all y’all.
But It ain’t the work that’s the problem — It’s the un-livable income.
The Mrs and I are VERY interested. We have English (me) and Art and Design (her) degrees, and years of experience in marketing/PR, with her doing so in the non-profit field.
But … we also have a son with autism and, most likely, Tourette’s Syndrome, two dogs we won’t leave behind or in quarantine for months on end, and less than $50 in savings thanks to $4K in medical bills (and we have insurance).
So, um, yeah. Know of any openings for folks in that situation?
ditto!
I’m still partial to Bernie Sanders, since he has a bit less personal baggage than Russ does.
But fuck yeah — we need SOMEONE to pull the left back … well, left.
And I’m willing, as is tsam, to be called an extremist if that’s what it takes.
I have no idea. “Wherever they can” is a good answer for when things get bad enough.
What’s your point?
i believe the point is that the anti-mexican’s are always yelling that the ILLEGALS ARE TAKING JOBS AWAY FROM AMERICANS!!!
I’ve done that work. And I imagine many people on this thread have done as well.
most of the school kids in the town(s) i grew up in would do this type of work in the summers…the kids now? nope…there’s probably 3-4 in each class that maybe work for a farmer…
you do make a point that it is impossible to raise a family on this type of wage, which speaks, of course involve a multitude of issues that need to be solved…so were do we begin?
bbkf – well, the ciggie fund will help, but I’m sure the move is gonna involve sale of the house. Fortunately, we didn’t take a hit here on real estate values, though the market still isn’t back to where it should be (still lots of housing stock on the market).
As for where I’m gonna go, as someone asked upthread, I have no freaking idea. I love Italy, so maybe there, if I can figure out how to support myself when I get there. But who knows. I’m not at a point where I have anything approaching a plan, just the decision that life is short and I’m not going to spend what’s left of mine on a sinking ship surrounded by idiots who fist-pump and cheer at seeing it go down, because they find it entertaining.
I’m not going to get too torn up over this bit of “news” today until I see what it actually entails. If it does indeed involve slashing the programs we all rely on in old age, the only way I can see to stop it is general strike. And of course, that’s not going to happen, because for all their blather about being tough guys, Americans are big, soft pussies who won’t take on anything that requires even some momentary discomfort.
I’m not going to wade too deeply into this here, because I think I need to really flesh it out and post it over at my place, but seeing as how we’re just a few days past the 4th and how it’s all about “patriotism” and “love of country” I’ll for now just say this much: how, and for how long, am I supposed to “love” a country which shows every day, in ways large and small, that it doesn’t love me back?
but i also think the work is also a big turn-off…
Jennifer said,
July 7, 2011 at 20:58
i think i love you…
My point is that the legislators in Georgia shouldn’t be shocked that American citizens are not willing to do that kind of work for those kind of wages.
Of course those legislators are pushing very hard to create an America where American citizens will have no other options and will have to work at those kind of jobs for those kind of wages.
Speaking of baggage, you DO realize that Sanders formerly called himself a Socialist, don’t you?
What are you qualified to do? Start sending out resumes. Employers don’t give a shit about your families or debts, just whether or not you can do the work: after all if you’re after health care it’s just not their business if the government pays for most of it anyway. Extended coverage is between you and your employer.
In Canada – note that autism treatment options vary wildly across the provinces – this is a good resource:
http://cicic.ca/385/working-in-canada.canada
Markus – I’m dead serious about wanting to leave. Any info you can offer would be greatly appreciated. I’ve got experience in multitudes of areas – construction, sales, management, writing & etc. so there has to be somewhere I’ll fit in.
Mark D. and bbfk,
I can’t speak to your personal health care issues, but here in Taiwan(not dissimilar in other East Asian countries), all health care needs are heavily subsidized by the mean ol’ gov’t.
You can enter the market as an English teacher(minimum requirement: Bachelors Degree in any subject) and obtain a Resident Visa.
From there, the world is your bivalve mollusc!
A colleague of mine just got promoted to “Training Manager — Asia Pacific” for an international auditing company.
So, what the FUCK.
If you are really sincere about leaving, the social support system here is a fuck ton better than the USA
Markus
The baby Jeebus goan shoot meh wid hiz rusty ol’ shotgun fo’ bad mouthin da U S a fuckin A
tactfully submitted lots of testimony
Submitted in the wrong language…I see what’s going on here.
Jennifer
Have you looked into countries that have a “right of return”. I’m on generation to old to return to Ireland but I recently discovered I can gain citizenship in Luxembourg because of a change in L’bourg law.
Jennifer,
Are you serious?
I can hook you up right now with a full-time position making US$2000-3000 a month.
Only one requirement — a college degree(any field).
My school/consulting company is desperate for teachers right now.
Please, for the love of gourds! somebody come here and take a job!
Seriously, I’m exhausted.
What you do with your residency in the future is your business.
I would recommend Australia for a place to go and live. It has most of modern life available and Cricket. What more does one need?
Me too, Chris. How about we get behind someone like Feingold who, while he has no chance of winning, might push the Dems to the left, much like the teatards have pushed the Reps to the right? Just a thought.
Love the thought. But Dems are only half the problem, as mentioned before, the problem’s also that the center is much more receptive to right wing rhetorical lunacy than the left wing kind – at least that’s how it seems to me.
Getting the message out beyond traditional Democratic constituencies (e.g. making them more receptive to a Democratic party that moved left) would be the real trick. As stated numerous times before – not sure how.
The Applications. The applications are a military invention. There is many applications, the games and quizzes on Facebook, applications on Ipods and Iphones, and on other cell phones and electronics. The applications are like VLT’s, they send subliminal messages that brainwash people. The strongest impulse that they encourage is of course, further time spent with the games. It encourages people to be apathetic, people who are normally procutive find themselves spending hours ‘zoning out’, less aware of their surroundings, and less likely to take positive action. There is so much data being collected on people that personal information is encrypted everywhere. It’s encrypted in the applications as well, as well as details of the nazi agenda. The applications have been around for many, many years now. Now, the nazi’s attempt to create distractions, so as offenses aren’t overheard, and while they do so, they use virtual reality equipment that helps facilitate murder, and torture. Using calibrators, the ‘virtual reality’ person guides the criminal, and makes death and destruction precise. The nazi’s (and I do use this term generally) have been calling it ‘fragging’. There is prisoners wordwide being forced to participate in sexual abuse, torture and murder. There is plenty of nazi’s running free, that are the most dangerous of criminals. The ‘fragging’ or ‘assisted murder’ as I have heard it referred to is based on applications.
“Just stating facts, guys,” Lekha began, as we scribbled notes, “Australia is known as the dumbest continent. Literally, college was unknown there until recently. So speak slowly.” Next to me, a young man in a turban wrote No college in his notebook.
.
So, there is brainwashing on the radio. People have subliminally learnt a musical morse code, there is so many songs, most of them encouraging people to go out have a good time, drink, be promiscous, encourages the objection of women, and forget one’s worries. There are the ‘don’t care’ songs, musical clones popping up everyday. The most notable of these is “I don’t Care’ by Apocaclyptica, it has nazi sentiments, and for those who don’t agree, it instructs them to look away, be apathetic. The nazi’s have been informing their ‘ilk’ of the next strike through the radio. The songs overlap, the same song playing multiple times at once on different stations. Since the nazi’s are so fond of their information being on the radio, we have encrypted information regarding premeditated murders and assaults, on Rock 102.1, one such evening being last evening July 6, 2011, into the morning of July 7, 2011. There has been a leak regarding this information. This is evidence that needs to be protected, and/or analyzed before it is destroyed.
New to me, but not necessarily new… fully-interactive floor/medical technology (I am for seriously here, you guys…); mmm, call it a stun gun, the outdoor version (camping is not the solution), electricity pointed with some sort of blue lazer, slowly gathers in the ground around a person, electrocution, plus intent is to ccause unconsciousness. This is a new technology, it seems that some of the stun guns have insufficient battery packs, and so it is best to concentrate on remaining conscious as long as possible, in order to avoid an ambush, assault or attempted abduction. Stomping on the floor vigorously may induce tender legs and weakness of the limbs, but it does temporarily displace the charge… beware of high voltages.
Markus – I am serious. I don’t know that I could make the move right away – there is stuff to be wrapped up, including sale of or winding down a business and putting a home on the market. But I could probably swing it by the end of the year or early next year.
The other thing is…what are living expenses like there? For example how much of that $2000 – $3000 per month could I expect to pay for housing, food and that type of thing?
The college degree’s in hand – Bachelor of Architecture, plus most of the hours required for a Master in Secondary Ed. (I bailed on the practice teaching because of a good job offer).
Official policy of the Pacific Army, item 1. we do not answer to nazi’s. item 2. the deal is, (anyone, everyone) there is no deal.item 3. we are based 100% on volunteerism.
An INGO from the Middle east has been kind enough to take photographs, and collect evidence here in North America, in order to help facilitate peace for North Americans. There has been a request for reciprocation, as the situation there has become critical. We, as a United front, are asking people from all continents to take action, and help bring the ongoing injustice to an end. This is now on the table. Sincerely, The Pacific Army
All right, so they’re dumb. But curiously endearing. And there’s Cricket
felixmoronia – right of return is a dead end for me I’m afraid. The latest immigrant ancestor we’ve found anywhere in the family history is a guy who came over from Germany in the 1760s. The earliest were a couple of women on the Mayflower. We’re pretty much American WASPs through and through.
item 4. no poofters!!!
All right, so they’re dumb. But curiously endearing. And there’s Cricket
but what about shrimp on the barbie? is there really shrimp on the barbie?
At the inception of our INGO, The Pacific Army, there was several hundred people already involved in the peace process, from the Middle East, join our organization, numbers are growing daily. There are many individuals that have over the years collected information in order to counteract violent regimes. We are calling on these people to come forward now, and share their information. I have heard some word that our message is spreading to other continents, and their is increased interest by the moment. I have prepared this statement for easier translation.
All right, so they’re dumb. But curiously endearing. And there’s Cricket
More importantly there’s footy. Only problem is I am loathe to change my name to Bruce. I have an annoying brother named Bruce and don’t want to be confused with him.
The problem is that there is no dispersion apparatus for the left wing kind, and so nobody ever hears it. Americans are besieged by right wing talking points spouting from every orifice of our famously “left wing media.”
If the “center” were ever actually exposed to left wing ideas as viable alternatives rather than as things-to-demonize-as-soshulizm, and were ever allowed to think and talk about them without being ostracized as being “other”, they might find that those are very much the policies they’d like to see implemented. Polls often show that if people are asked about policy specifics without political attachment, “progressive” ideas tend to be quite popular.
Employers don’t give a shit about your families or debts, just whether or not you can do the work:
i get that, it’s the funding to get there and set up a household that seems insurmountable…
Jennifer,
The cost of living here is fairly low. A bowl of Taiwanese beef noodles can be obtained for less than $3.00US and a simple meal at a buffet restaurant is about $2.00US.
Rent in Taipei can be high — I pay $300US for a small place in the heart of the city. If you’re willing to commute, a nice American style apartment can be rented at the same rate.
I don’t know what you expect. This is Asia. It is what it is.
If you live like a local, life is good — excellent even.
If you want to live like an American. Stay home.
Markus
If you can’t come now…no worries. There’s always lots of jobs for people who can offer something.
I’m not sure if the center is more receptive to rightwing rhetoric (no matter how full of lunacy), or are just exposed to it more often and, thus, seem to be receptive to it.
I say that due to polls on actual policy. For example, most Americans don’t like the health care law — but they do like most of what it does.
That disconnect is due, IMHO, to:
1. A lack of message discipline amongst Dems — This is an issue that Dems have struggled with since pretty much forever, and I have no clue why that is. Maybe they’re more independent in thought, have a lousy PR team, or even too interested in actual policy rather than soundbites. I honestly don’t know, but wish they’d fix it.
2. The media shuts out left voices — Studies of the Sunday Bobblehead shows proves this to be the case, as the left (and note, not Dems, but actual lefties) is never truly or accurately represented. McCain or Newt is on damn near every single fucking week, while the media treats assfaces like Harold Ford as “the left.”
Until those two things change, the center will seem to lean right, whether or not they actually do.
Now, on to personal matters:
Well … that depends on if you mean “qualified” or “able.”
😉
I can write my ass off (have won several awards, in fact), can do some graphic design, a bit of basic IT help desk stuff.
I might be able to pull off teaching English and/or writing, but they’d have to be advanced students since I suck at learning foreign languages.
And I haven’t sent out resumes, even though we’ve discussed moving out of country since we first got married in early 2000 (so it’s not due to Bush, nor Obama, nor the Teatardaloons). I also had no clue how it all works — Do I need a visa first? How do they do interviews? How do we pay for moving costs? What is the cost of living compared to my salary—will it be comparable to what we make now? Etc. etc. etc.
Quite frankly, I give props to anyone with the balls to move to another country. There’s a lot of shit folks don’t consider that h
The problem is that there is no dispersion apparatus for the left wing kind, and so nobody ever hears it. Americans are besieged by right wing talking points spouting from every orifice of our famously “left wing media.”
If the “center” were ever actually exposed to left wing ideas as viable alternatives rather than as things-to-demonize-as-soshulizm, and were ever allowed to think and talk about them without being ostracized as being “other”, they might find that those are very much the policies they’d like to see implemented. Polls often show that if people are asked about policy specifics without political attachment, “progressive” ideas tend to be quite popular.
how come you can say all the things that i want to but can’t figger out how to?
…I can hook you up right now with a full-time position making US$2000-3000 a month….
are you some sort of nigerian prince? if so, count me in baby!
Fixed that for myself …
Markus – in other words, the cost of living is LOW. $300 for rent is unheard of here, even in economically-depressed Arkansas. I’m not looking for a big place – I’ll have to get rid of most of my stuff to move anyway, so it’s just a matter of not re-accumulating. And if I didn’t have to have a car, that would be most excellent.
You’ve given me some food for thought. Any links to company websites or other that I should check out?
You all know I take great pride in my title as Mr. Positive.
In that grand tradition of clouds found in every silver lining, let me just point out to those thinking of moving to Europe that there’s not even a slight shortage of racists and right-wing fucknozzles over there either. Italy, which Jennifer mentioned – Berlusconi’s fiefdom for almost the last two decades. France – Sarkozy seems determined to be the local Nixon, law-and-order-platform-to-steal-the-far-right’s-votes and all. Britain – those who visit Balloon Juice have heard many people bitch about it.
The governments there are still a leg up on the U.S. in the sense that none of them (that I can think of) are half-composed of lunatics who literally think economic suicide is a good bargaining position. Big difference being, IMO, that the center right and the far right are still two different things, and often at odds with each other – as opposed to here where they share the same party.
But still. I thought it was worth bringing up.
Along the same line as Markus, I know a bunch of people who’ve taught in Japan. Most of those gigs don’t seem to pay much for the lifestyle lived there – although health care health care health care – but good lord do they seem to take a lot of long holidays.
You don’t have to take off with a clean slate, all debts settled.
Agree with Hogeye and Mark D, btw.
Oh, just one question to Jennifer – are you fluent or conversational in any foreign language? I don’t have much advice to give, but thought it might give other readers ideas if they knew what foreign countries you can get around in (opens up a whole host of other options if you already speak the language when you get off the plane).
Chris – I’m not fluent in any foreign language, but I do have kind of a gift for picking up languages. I took 3 years of French in high school and have studied some Italian on my own – which I find has also helped me understand Spanish, at least when I read. Also, I’m able to understand some Danish & German when I read and I would guess I’d find the same with Dutch. Visiting France 5 years after finishing up my high school studies I was amazed at how much of it came back and how quickly. USAF recruiter who talked me into taking the foreign language aptitude test right after college almost cried when I ultimately decided not to enlist and attend the language school in Monterey. They said my aptitude was such that I could study whatever language I chose, including Korean (which apparently is one of the harder ones?) Anyway, right after I took the test the whole Tailhook thing hit the news, and I pretty quickly decided that the armed forces were not female-friendly enough that I’d be willing to sign over the next 4 years of my life, and so….
In any case, I’m not really worried about picking up another language – like I said, if I went to Italy I already have some familiarity, and if I go someplace like Taiwan, I know I’d pick it up relatively quickly via immersion.
oh snap…it is raining again…
Jennifer at 15:31: Where do you want to go? Southern hemisphere looks like its gonna get really HOT in the nearish future. Europe: being sold to the Banksters even more quickly (and openly) than the US.
I’ll call them center-left extremists if that seems more accurate. It’s not the extremity of the ideology that defines the problem, it’s the partisanship. And just because the entirety of the US body politic is becoming more and more anti-progressive doesn’t mean that the likelihood of there being a majorities on any actual policies is greater. It’s not ideology, it’s partisanship. It’s still a problem that bi-partisanship is toxic to most politicians, and while the Democratic leadership is not nearly as bad at causing it as the Republicans, they are still part of the problem. Since Bernie Sanders is never going to become president with a supportive majority in both houses in the foreseeable future, I don’t see the point in pushing that as a solution. As a practical matter, there are good reasons that the strongest environmental policy changes happened under Nixon or that the last time the budget was balanced was under Clinton. As politicians, their ideology is nothing to admire, but as a roadmap to policy goals, maybe. I fully expected Obama would disappoint a lot of people from an ideological standpoint, but really never this way. So perhaps I am wrong to believe in a centrist approach, bt but then it doesn’t sell on putting the in the furthest left politician that can be practicably elected because, well just because.
At this point, I really think an asteroid the size of, oh, Des Moines or so, would be the best thing for our species…
Oh, I’d settle for a smaller one to hit DC- just the capitol/congress area. But even in pretend imagination I feel sorry for the innocent people there. I’m sure there are a few, janitors and maids and shop-clerks.
Níðhöggr–
Great points, and I understand better from where you were coming. So thanks for that clarification.
I would like to note a few things real quick (quick for me, at least):
1. I know Bernie doesn’t have a chance in hell, but a guy can dream, can’t he?!? 🙂
2. I’m not so sure partisanship, as it’s usually defined, is a problem with Democrats. Show me where they filibustered things under Bush they should have, but were afraid to be called partisan if they did. (In fact, I remember even discussing the filibuster being called “an assault on the will of the American people.”) Show me where they drew a line in the sand and refused to negotiate. Show me where they haven’t all but given the GOP every single thing they’ve wanted, time and time again.
This isn’t to type that there aren’t some partisan Dems out there, particularly in the House. But to say that there was some huge problem with partisanship on the left just doesn’t match reality. It just hasn’t been a problem.
So, again, will have to respectfully disagree with you on that one.
3. You might want to check some polls, because the body politic is NOT becoming more anti-progressive. In fact, once the Boomers start to croak, I think we’ll see a really large rise in progressive action since many younger folks are solidly on the left on most issues. The GOP knows this, which is why they try to appeal to the older set on issue after issue as much as they can right now — they know time is NOT on their side.
Anyway, thanks again for the clarification and great discussion!
KWillow–
I know, I know … no need to throw the baby out with the bathwater and all that.
Maybe a set of smaller meteorites that just strike the offices of GOP Congresscritters and governor mansions … ?
Perhaps that’s a better solution.
Well, time for me to head to the Lake for a weekend with The Boy full of swimming and fishing.
Have fun, kids!
You might want to check some polls, because the body politic is NOT becoming more anti-progressive. In fact, once the Boomers start to croak, I think we’ll see a really large rise in progressive action since many younger folks are solidly on the left on most issues. The GOP knows this, which is why they try to appeal to the older set on issue after issue as much as they can right now — they know time is NOT on their side.
i think you are correct on this…our son was home for the long weekend and so we had a chance to listen to him and his friends…this is indeed what they are saying…
It really depends on what you wanna do and where you wanna go. Teaching English in Asia is a popular choice among folks I know, and it is sometimes the case that rootless males just fly someplace and try to set up shop. A lot of governments are cracking down on that kind of behaviour – Korea makes a big show of deporting people without the proper paperwork – but it might be easier than you think to pursue the teaching route regardless of the kinds of degree you and your partner have. As for other jobs, the route into a country in your case pretty much has to be a result of a hiring: you need the income. Google “jobs abroad” and you’ll get some ideas about starting.
And keep up the sleuthing Jennifer. No slight on Markus, who I am sure agrees with proper vetting, but one friend of mine recruited another and friend #2 wound up doing friend #1’s shit work for not a lotta money. Businesses still want employees for low pay wherever you go.
Wait a minute–who says Bernie doesn’t have a chance? Have a look at the current crop of psychos surrounding PawPaw and Mittney. Those are the “moderates” in the bunch–the rest of them are hopelessly fucked up.
The fact that a Michelle Bachmann can poll near the top of that field is indicitive of a pretty hard right turn in the Republican party. The way they’ve done that is with shaming. Remember after the 2008 election, when any time a Repig would break reactionary orthodoxy, he would find himself apologizing to Rush the very next day?
Don’t think for a second that this isn’t doable. Unfortunately we would have to get behind some distasteful people (Ed Schultz?), and push push push until we get some motion. It can be done. Who knows, maybe I need to get my blog going.
Everyone chill the fuck out. I got this.
In other words, turnabout is fair play, right? How the fuck are we going to do this?
Question tsam – are you still using your e-cig?
oops – gotta run. If you see my question, tsam, I’ll be back in about 20 min.
Jennifer- Surely, with a degree in Agriculture, there would be a lot of up-and-coming countries happy to have you live there?
You who I am worried about? My generation. The one who were about 12 to 18 when Reagan ran for Pres. Most of the really irrational fundie/teatards are in my generation. They comprise a large number of the elected teatards and we’re not going to die anytime soon, alas. Reagan really got in our heads at a impressionable age. The compete lack of empirical evidence anything he did had any of its own, claimed positive effect there towards the end, will persuade us. (Yes, the arms treaty with Gorby there towards the end was of much benefit, but that’s what will make my generation put their fingers in their ears and say “lo-lo-lo-lo”) Well, a lot of us. I know the grumpy old white guy is the poster boy, but I’m telling you, don’t trust anyone over 40 and under 50. In 2010 progressives stayed home and these guys came out in droves to vote.
tsam: I’d vote for Sanders. When I explain to people who screech about “EVIL Socialists” what socialism is, they calm down quite a bit.
Hey all! Long time no post. I thought I’d bring you the gift of killfile for anyone who needs to deal with threadshitters.
http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/53593
Enjoy!
I cannot even understand my own post – I’ll try again
You know who I am worried about? My generation. The ones who were about 12 to 18 when Reagan ran for Pres. Most of the really irrational fundie/teatards are in my generation. They comprise a large number of the elected teatards and we’re not going to die anytime soon, alas. Reagan really got in our heads at an impressionable age. The compete lack of empirical evidence anything he did had any of its own, claimed positive effects will not persuade us. (Yes, the arms treaty with Gorby there towards the end was of much benefit, but that’s what will make my generation put their fingers in their ears and say “lo-lo-lo-lo”) Well, a lot of us. I know the grumpy old white guy is the poster boy, but I’m telling you, don’t trust anyone over 40 and under 50. In 2010 progressives stayed home and these guys came out in droves to vote.
Question tsam – are you still using your e-cig?
I am–not nearly as much as in the early days. Truthfully, I think I could get by without it, but I rather enjoy puffing on it at my desk. I don’t know why–maybe I’m hoping it’s making somebody mad.
How’s it going for you?
Níðhöggr:
I was 12 to 18 during that time (I’m 41 now). I think most of your teabaggers are baby boomers. The younger ones–our age are just the dumbfucks would would be Paultards if it weren’t for all the awesome poon at those teabag rallies.
The generation that needs to get a fucking clue are those motherfucking greedy selfish shitfaced baby boomers. The ones who ended Vietnam, then turned around and put Reagan in office. WTF? Now they want the rest of us to eat their greed by taking cuts in Social Security and Medicare, but DONT CUT THEIRS! I’m really coming to hate those motherfuckers. They define the Reagan Revolution. Fuck my country and fuck you–It’s all about ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME.
The 20-something idiots that think Ron Paul is anything more than a racist fucking retard also get me a little fired up.
From http://thinkprogress.org
Iowa Group Asks Republican Candidates To Agree That Homosexuality Is A Choice, Pornography Should Be Banned.
– PORNOGRAPHY SHOULD BE BANNED: Vow 9 stipulates that the candidate must “support human protection of women and the innocent fruit of conjugal intimacy” and protect them from “seduction into promiscuity and all forms of pornography…and other types of coercion or stolen innocence.”.
[“the innocent fruit of conjugal intimacy” Is merchant ivory making porn now?]
– REJECT SHARIA ISLAM: Vow 11 requires the candidate to reject Sharia law.
[Yes, Sharia is too muslimy. What’s wrong with good old fashioned Christian subjugation of women?]
tsam – still using mine, but I “mix my own” on the liquid & have been stepping down the nicotine level. I enjoy puffing on mine as well – I’ve got a yummy spearmint liquid I mixed up & it’s like puffing on a stick of gum. I’m guessing by this point I’m down to about 1/3 or so on the nicotine & getting ready to start mixing weaker yet.
In other words, those fucking scumbag Reaganite baby boomers raised us 40 to 50 year olds. And they owe us an apology. How do you go from the Sexual Revolution and the whole late 60’s counterculture to thinking a pony tail with a fucking suit is OK for anyone other than a fucking rapist cocaine dealer? COME THE FUCK ON PEOPLE.
I admit: I harbor deep antipathy for the boomers as a group. Individually not so much. But I’ve been feeling this way ever since I started college right as Reagan was slashing student aid so that yuppies could keep more of “their money” to buy necessities like food processors and pasta machines. Then I hit the job market just as those yuppies destroyed commercial real estate with the S & L business, and decided that health insurance was too expensive so they were going to find ways to get out of paying for it. And so on and so forth up until where we are today.
I know it’s not all their fault. But damned if it would have been possible without their support.
Speaking of baggage, you DO realize that Sanders formerly called himself a Socialist, don’t you?
One of Bernie’s many attractions. Cadre 18 voted for him 2008, and will probably do so again in 2012.
Mark D, tsam, Chris: Solidarity.
Mark D, tsam, Chris: Solidarity.
Well, time for me to head to the Lake for a weekend with The Boy full of swimming and fishing.
The lake may not be the best place for the boy if he’s already full of fishing and swimming
There is interest generating in Australia regarding The Pacific Army. Extensive network. Thank-you, Australia.
Wuups! That last Cadre 18 line was brought to you by the Department of Redundancy Department.
This has been a very enjoyable thread to read !
I’m looking forward to catching up again after some baseball tonight.
Human trafficking has reached phenomenal levels worlwwide. There are people being replaced, recycled, many whose memories are affected, by injection. Children are brainwashed in the schools, forced to participate in the Hitler experiments. Some schools have a harsher policy than others. Then there is “THE School” in the states somewhere, a great source of frustration that I cannot remember the location. Torture, murder, mobs, and brainwashing were the norm there. Dissidence is not met with patience. I lost the tip of my finger there, when it was reconstructed, a radar feature was an unwelcome and freakish addition. Old gps, potent.
There are many people who have taken responsibility and initiative of their own over the years, educating themselves regarding thought oppression, privacy concerns, ongoing violence and tyranny. The situation worldwide is thus. Governments, police departments and military officials refuse to take action regarding human trafficking, and all the associated criminal activity that human trafficking entails. The situation at hand is critical, and further action is required, collecting information is not enough. There is photographic evidence at different locations worldwide.
Item A. We do not condone a policy of thought oppression or dominance. To reiterate, The Pacific Army, is peaceful.
Criminy. Pissing and moaning, all serious and shit with doom and gloom. Is Brad back or what?
Then I hit the job market just as those yuppies destroyed commercial real estate with the S & L business, and decided that health insurance was too expensive so they were going to find ways to get out of paying for it. And so on and so forth up until where we are today.
Not to mention cheering like a bunch of whores while Reagan destroyed the Air Controllers Union, cleared the way for every corporation in America to deplete their pension funds (at companies their fathers and grandfathers started to give people a good living and pension) which they promptly did.
I harbor an INTENSE amount of hatred for baby boomers. As a group, they’re a bunch of selfish, whiny fucking entitled princesses who destroyed all of teh progress this nation made since the New Deal.
Yeah, I know it’s not all of them either, my parents didn’t vote for Reagan, didn’t like Bush much, knew Clinton was a fucking phony, DESPISED Bush Jr, and have given up all hope with Obama. However, they freely admit that their generation should have been gunny sacked and thrown in the river at birth.
Criminy. Pissing and moaning, all serious and shit with doom and gloom. Is Brad back or what?
YOU SHUTUP THE NAME IS SADLY, ISNT IT?
Is Brad back or what?
It’s like they ground him up into a fine powder and then released him into the air vents.
[“the innocent fruit of conjugal intimacy” Is merchant ivory making porn now?]
You forgot the first part of that pledge: “support human protection of women and the innocent fruit of conjugal intimacy.” Thus, protecting women from something non-human.
It’s Merchant Ivory tentacle porn.
The [Boomers] who ended Vietnam
Correction: the ones who ended the draft. It’s been pretty obvious that once they didn’t have to risk their asses they didn’t have a whole lot of trouble with military interventionism.
There’s almost no one on this planet I despise more than that asswipe, and maybe – just maybe – he’s starting to lose his grip, at least in Britain. Please let it be so, please, please, please.
– – – – – – –
Strange… I could’ve sworn that I’m no more warlike today than I was when I was drafted as a conscientious objector forty years and four months ago. But don’t let me interrupt your stereotyping.
It’s been pretty obvious that once they didn’t have to risk their asses they didn’t have a whole lot of trouble with military interventionism.
Speak for yourself, white eyes. I for one have opposed every military intervention except Bosnia since Vietnam (when I was drafted). The same goes for most of my friends. It is the political establishment, not the Boomers per se, that is fond of military intervention. Very large numbers of us remain deeply skeptical of it as a foreign policy tool as a result of Vietnam. It is just that nobody actually listens to us. I actually find more people under 40 who are supportive or indifferent about such interventions, mostly because there is no draft so they have no skin in the game.
when I was drafted as a conscientious objector forty years and four months ago.
We must be the same age. I was drafted about 40 years ago, as well. I do not remember when I got the induction notice, but my physical was in August (thankfully flunked the sucker). I wasn’t a CO, since in Oklahoma they were almost impossible to get and completely impossible for unbelievers like me.
In other news, Barry needs to get in touch with his self preservation instinct.
Why the fuck does he want to play ball with people who would love to see him destroyed?
Pretty pink pajamas. These aren’t even the same pair. He’s so dumb. There was blood all over them. Dirt. These pajamas don’t have a white top. I don’t like pink anymore. Yes, I Everyone’s name is Jenny. That doesn’t make any sense. Everyone gets renamed Jenny. That’s not true, they call me Alicia. What do you think, you’re more special than me? I am special. Your mean. “Machete, machete, machete.” “She’s crazy.” No, she isn’t. K is for knife. Snapping. Circular movements, speech that speeds up then slows down. It’s the rhythym of things. Probably doesn’t know what rhythym is. Yes, I do. They were going to send me to the music school, I can play the piano by ear, but…you were a bad girl. “I don’t know what language she speaks, we don’t know where she come from That guy he’s a mean one, machete in the vagina, little girl too. I don’t see how they;d heal up.” You have to listen carefully. it’s English. The language you speak in. Everyone but us will be leaving soon. There might be a few minutes that there is no guard by the door. Oozies. The oozies is the gun, the machete is the knife. It’s the locations, so if you get away, you can have someone come back for us. Listen. remember what I told you about being scared. The lotion is the Cochin is the margarine.
In some places absolutely no one was granted CO status unless they could prove they had been raised from childhood in a pacifist religious sect (Quaker, Mennonite, etc). Puerto Rico and Montana were especially notorious for that, as I recall.
tsam — Which e-cig system did you get?
Just picked up a disposable at Pilot, and found it perfectly capable of delivering nicotine at the dosage I need to not bounce off walls…
.
I’ve been thinking I was the geezer here. Refreshing to learn I’m only midrange, or just over. I ets’ed from Ft Benning, June 21, 1972. Worst two years of my life, and I’ve seen some real shit over the years. It leaves a fucking mark on you no amount of ajax or disco music will ever rub off. I hate fucking uniforms of any kind, even bell hop uniforms piss me off.
The entire time Casey Anthony was on trial, the voices in the media pontificating about justice for the victim didn’t seem to notice the hypocrisy of a group that gives its approbation for the slaughter of thousands every day demanding justice for the wrong suffered by two-year-old Caylee Anthony.
Even still, few would argue that the senseless death of a helpless tot isn’t heartrending. However, the larger heartbreak is that in a nation that has faithfully sown the culture of death; the idea of a mother wanting to be free from responsibility by taking the life of her offspring is not all that far-fetched.
Whether America believes Casey Anthony is guilty or not is not the issue. The issue is that no one is totally convinced she didn’t. Most believe Casey dumped the body of her dead child in a swamp and then for 31 days partied and treated herself to a “Beautiful Life” tattoo while her tiny daughter was decomposing inside a plastic bag.
A mother doing such a thing shouldn’t be surprising, because under the auspices of a woman’s right to “privacy” in 1973, with the ruling in Roe v. Wade, child murder officially became legal in America. Over the next three decades, developing fetuses were reduced to less than human and women were convinced that disposing of unwanted offspring is a commendable goal.
Lest we forget, the value of life in America has been reduced to this motto: “Every child a wanted child.” Clearly, Caylee was unwanted by someone and if Casey took her daughter’s life, she’s no different from women who justify a similar decision as being nothing more than an exercise in “reproductive rights.”
For almost 40 years, in sterile environments and with the approbation of the United States legal system, millions of little Caylees have lost their lives. The only difference between 60 million aborted babies and a little girl with brown curls from Orlando, Florida is that for at least a couple of years Caylee got the chance to color, wear a baseball cap, and swim with Grandma in the family pool.
If Casey Anthony actually did kill her daughter, she joined the ranks of 98% of the women who choose to abort their unborn children for the sake of convenience. If guilty of the crime for which she was acquitted, single party girl Casey did nothing more than take a little longer to make up her mind about how and when to buy personal freedom in exchange for the life of her child.
Twenty-four months after Casey missed the chance to submit her baby to a partial-birth abortion, the young woman may have decided that it wasn’t too late to take the situation into her own hands. For an immature, narcissistic person like Casey Anthony it’s easy to see how the lines may have become blurred. It’s possible that Casey rationalized that when a woman decides to dispose of a child, what’s a couple of months in either direction? Six months in utero, 2½ years post-partum, either way it doesn’t make much of a difference.
Furthermore, Ms. Anthony may have been personally persuaded that as long as a heart sticker was over the duct tape that suffocated her daughter, she could party hearty with a clear conscience. It could be that Casey agreed with popular opinion that human life is only fully “human” if a person can survive without depending on another. As a pre-verbal toddler, Caylee certainly couldn’t survive without her mother, and ironically, like so many others before and after her, Caylee very well may have perished because of her mother.
Since Roe v. Wade was decided, the march toward infanticide has been ongoing. It began with a first-trimester cutoff for an abortion; within a few years, women and their doctors became the arbiters of whether or not fully developed children should be granted life or tossed into an incinerator.
The next step was inevitable: partial-birth abortion became an option to get rid of fully developed, viable human beings. The brutal procedure desensitized the public to pro-choice politicians who vote against giving medical assistance and comfort to dying infants, born alive in botched abortions, to avoid “burdening the original decision” to kill a child.
In American society the value of life has eroded to the point where women now give birth in restrooms and dispose of newborns in toilets and sewers, or place lifeless infants like garbage into plastic bags and hide them under beds. Many of these murdering mothers are then acquitted, much like Casey Anthony, which is indicative of a chilling truth that a mother murdering her own child is not nearly as offensive anymore as a child being murdered by a stranger.
Casey Anthony was acquitted of murder, but her freedom doesn’t erase the fact that Caylee is dead. Regardless of who killed Caylee Anthony, her death was caused by a person who lacked respect for human life. If it was her mother, kudos go to pro-choice America, whose indoctrination has been unrelenting in its effort to convince women that mothers come before children; a woman’s life takes precedence over her offspring; and the right to choose is an honorable objective.
In the end, a two-year-old child was murdered and a mother who appeared guilty was ultimately acquitted. Also acquitted was a pro-death society largely responsible for not taking into consideration that when life is cheapened we’re all potential victims of someone’s justifiable reason for disposing of us. The sad truth is that in America a seed of death has taken root, and the murder of Caylee Anthony is just one of the many fruits produced on that bitter vine.
And comments here.
And comments here.
I was happily digesting dinner until now.
Speaking of comments, the copypasta is so bad that it gets flushed down teh toilet by Jeannie DeAngelis’ commentariat at teh Murrican Stinker.
Hey all! Long time no post. I thought I’d bring you the gift of killfile for anyone who needs to deal with threadshitters.
Installs in Chrome, but doesn’t seem to work in Chrome.
.
My fellow Americans, in regard to the U.S. presidency, please tell me we are over “the black thing.” Can we move past race and gender and simply elect the best American for the job?
Due to liberal media manipulation and guilt, America elected an incompetent black guy as leader of the free world to prove that we are not racist. Obama’s black skin has made him untouchable, the left’s dream tool to further their socialist agenda. Once America gets over “the black thing”, will the liberal media demand we elect Hilliary to prove we are not sexist?
How long will it be before the liberal media demands that we elect our first openly gay/lesbian president to prove that we are not homophobic?
I believe that the novelty of a black guy in the White House is over — been there, done that, got the historic Obama (false) Hope & Change t-shirt.
I hereby proclaim the season of Presidential Affirmative Action over!
Funny how the liberal media and their far-left buddies deal with blacks and women. You need to understand that the left’s progressive/socialist agenda trumps everything. Thus, race and gender are highly effective tools used to further their agenda.
If you are a black liberal, the left gleefully views you as a poor victim of a racist America. Quoting Obama’s pastor, Rev. Wright, “Barack knows what it feels like to live in a country controlled by rich white people”. The left demands that standards be lowered and government entitlements be gifted.
If you are a black conservative, the left views you as a stupid self hating n***** suffering with Stockholm Syndrome. And yes, the left freely uses the “n” word when referring to black conservatives.
If you are a liberal woman, you are a victim of a sexist America controlled by white male SOBs. If you are a conservative woman, you are a stupid slut.
So, you can understand why my stomach turns when the liberal media and their far-left buddies are lauded for their superior compassion and tolerance for blacks and women.
The left celebrates liberal blacks and women while engaging in the high-tech lynching of conservative blacks and women. It is quite simple, folks. If you are a minority confident enough to be a self-starter and you love your country, you are on the left’s excrement list. Leftists embrace only victims. Why? Because it fits their desire to believe that America sucks and is the greatest source of evil in the world.
I realize that what I am about to say will make a lot of folks angry. Well, I am sorry, but it is the truth: black voters behaved like a bunch of racists in the 2008 election. Obama got 96% of the black vote with surveys proving that many blacks were clueless about Obama’s intentions and even his running mate. Some black Obama voters thought his VP was Sarah Palin.
Call me crazy, but if it “ain’t” right for whites to vote for the white guy because he is white, it “ain’t” right for blacks to vote for the black guy because he is black.
Yes, we blacks have suffered greatly in the past due to racism. But to exploit America’s original sin of slavery as a license for black racist behavior is a slap in the face to MLK and all who have sacrificed, suffered, and died to move us forward and together as a nation.
Race-profiteers love to opine about America’s racist roots and the eternal debt owed to blacks. They completely ignore the fact that decent, God-fearing Americans corrected those evils. Apparently, these race-profiteers are unaware of the Civil War. Approximately 40,000 blacks died, 320,000 whites died, and 275,200 were wounded fighting to end slavery.
So, America, despite what the liberal media and race-profiteers say, your debt to black Americans is paid in full. You elected the first affirmative action president. Rah-rah, congratulations! Now, can we please, this time around, elect the best candidate for our country?
The presidency of the United States of America is far too important to the world to be decided by silly surface nonsense such as race or gender. Never again can we allow the liberal media to select our president based on whose “turn” they think it is — Asian, Muslim, gay, lesbian, or whatever.
I am black. I want the best American leading our great country. I want the horrific assault on our freedom called Obamacare repealed! I want a conservative presidential candidate who is well aware of the evil confronting us and is boldly and eagerly up for the battle.
Folks, the left/liberal media will never retire the race and gender cards. Both cards have proven extremely powerful and effective.
The liberal media will always “blame America first.” Though powerless over changing the liberal media, we have total power in our response to them: no pandering, appeasing, or fearing them. We must simply ignore their propaganda and defeat them.
The year 2012 is not just another presidential election. It is the most important presidential election in the history of our country. Obama is destroying America, plain and simple. Four more years under the lawless reign of this divisive, evil man will land a serious deathblow to the heart of America as we know it.
We need a hero, folks. Regardless of race or gender, we need the best American in the White House — someone who is “champing at the bit” to clean up Obama’s mess!
Installs in Chrome, but doesn’t seem to work in Chrome.
Pretty much the definition of Chrome, no?
“Badges? We don’t need no stinking badges!”
From Humphrey Bogart in The Treasure of the Sierra Madres to the television comedy classic The Monkees and through the iconic Blazing Saddles, those words have signified the defiance of individuals firm of belief and with a philosophical approach more akin to Larry the Cable Guy (“Git’r done!”) than the self-absorbed pontificating of President “smartest person in the room.” And that is exactly what the Republican Party needs: the spine and steel and conviction of candidates with “immoderate” beliefs rather than the pant-pant-pant of the please-love-me wing of the party celebrated by elites both left and right. And so it is time for conservative primary voters to deliver a message: “Moderates? We don’t need no stinking moderates!”
Conservatives would do well to remember the lessons of Ronald Reagan. His success, Lady Margaret Thatcher tells us, was powered by “clear principles,” great “purpose,” and “strength and conviction.” That’s why there’s now a statue of him in London. He was as immoderate as they come, relentlessly attacking those who trespassed upon his core beliefs: the Soviets were “the focus of evil in the modern world”; the growth of government threatens “to crush the very roots of our freedom”; and President Jimmy Carter gave the nation a “litany of despair, of broken promises, of sacred trusts abandoned and forgotten.” Ronald Reagan won in large part because of his immoderation, openly mocking the conventions of the Beltway and media elites. You’re wrong, wrong, wrong, he told them, unashamedly professing deep and immoderate faith in God and American exceptionalism.
He was, in fact, one of our most intelligent, able, and immoderate of presidents. History told him that moderates — those willing to compromise and negotiate away foundational beliefs — leave broken lives and shattered dreams in their wake. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain of Great Britain was a moderate who embraced negotiation with Adolf Hitler, signing away the lives of tens of millions to a genocidal maniac and guaranteeing a Second World War. Moderate Republicans of the sixties and seventies collaborated in the large-government welfare programs of Democratic progressives and “unleashed a whirlwind of marriage destruction and illegitimacy” on the African-American community.
Ronald Reagan saw this and more. His books, his papers show a man who knew that immoderates — such as those who immoderately told King George to take his tea and taxes and go jump in the Thames — created freedom and prosperity. His grasp of history and reality told him that a stubbornly immoderate Abraham Lincoln saved the United States when he fired a series of military generals, moderates more interested in their personal public relations with the Civil War-era Washington elites than saving the union; in their place he put the hard-drinking and exceedingly immoderate Ulysses S. Grant. When the Lindsey Grahams and John McCains of Lincoln’s party kicked their spittoons and screamed, he merely looked at them and said immoderately, “I can’t spare this man; he fights.”
For Beltway Republicans, moderation is business-as-usual, participating in rather than stopping the growth of government and power at the expense of average Americans. Moderate was Republican presidential candidate John McCain, lauded by the mainstream media for refusing to acknowledge the questionable associations and corruption of then-candidate Barack Obama. Moderate is Republican John Huntsman pledging — to the cheers of mainstream media, which view him as the “best” presidential nominee for the GOP — a “mellow” campaign in which he would, under no circumstances, attack a President who has vowed to bring traditional America to its knees — after all, can’t disappoint the journalists who flock to his press conferences, “as numerous as supporters.” Moderate is Indiana governor Mitch Daniels, a flavor-of-the-month for Beltway Republicans and media who admired his willingness to call a “truce on the so-called social issues,” thereby ensuring his electability.
“Electable,” of course, is code for Republicans and conservatives who are willing not to be conservative. They are Republicans who, in their souls, are merely politicians basking in the praise of mainstream media à la John McCain. McCain recently celebrated his return to elite grace with a photo op at a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Cairo with Senator John Kerry (Democrat, Vietnam) and Jeffrey Immelt of General Electric. American taxpayer dollars — borrowed, of course, with the approval of Republican moderates — are being distributed by the Egyptian government to key insiders of that country and McCain, of course, is right back in the middle, his conservative principles as dead as New Coke or a Coptic Christian in Egypt.
Republican moderates join in the consensus of the educated class of New York Times columnist David Brooks, thinking and acting correctly. Income redistribution, expanded government, an economy ruled by regulation and politicians — none of it works. But, unlike the immoderate Reagan and his successors either joining or about to join the party’s primary scrums, the Republican moderate recognizes good intentions. And, with the best of intentions, join the president and his party — as National Review’s Mark Steyn put it — as “lifetime member[s] of the government class,” a “well-connected Latin American-style elite enjoying” their privileges while consigning the rest of us to “poorer, meaner lives.”
And so the mainstream unhappiness with the Republican presidential field for 2012 should be taken with a Reaganesque and politically incorrect grain of salt. The primaries are attracting the attention — if not yet the official candidacies — of a plethora of immoderates: Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, Chris Christie, Ron Paul, even Tim Pawlenty. The official field is strong, the potential field stronger.
And that is what’s worrying the media and political elites: that the 2010 elections signified a critical mass of voters deciding “we don’t need no stinking moderates” and the 2012 election will see the return of the immoderates…and “Morning in America.”
Stuart Schwartz, a frequent AT contributor, is on the faculty of Liberty University in Virginia.
Pretty much the definition of Chrome, no?
I think Chrome kicks serious ass. Wish it worked under Android.
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I think Chrome kicks serious ass.
De gustibus…use it in good health.
De gustibus…use it in good health.
Well, it’s not a religious order, or anythang… but I do with I could get tsam’s e-cig preference on the record. 🙂
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I’ll put in a good word for the Baby Boomer era;
I was born in 1987. Thanks to the 1960s, I don’t live in a country where racial segregation is enforced by law, women are confined to their “traditional” roles as a universal standard, and personal behavior’s regulated by fifteenth-century morality. And yeah, I know how far we’ve still got to go, but we’re still lightyears ahead of where we were back in the day.
The Boomers made us worse on economics, better on civil rights and social issues. Economic paradise though they were, the 1950s would’ve driven me batshit fucking insane in every other possible way.
I got one at 7-11 called “Xhale 02”. It was cheap, it uses a refill cartridge that you snap on the little heater. It’s not the best way to go, but the starter kit was $20 and the refill pack which lasted about 10 days at first and about 20 days now, costs $16.
It worked pretty well, I like it.
That’s fair. I’m part of the echo–which I feel is a sort of lost generation because of these guys.
1987–the year I graduated and headed off to basic training at Ft Dix, NJ.
Copy/paste trolls are the worst. A little effort guys–come on now.
Jeffreham – I use a Joye 510 that I ordered online. A starter kit will run from $42 – $47 depending on where you order, but includes 2 full e-cigs, the charger, and 5 pre-filled cartridges. I’ve been ordering from a place called vaporpro, mostly because the service is awesome (my stuff arrives within 2 days of ordering) but also because they have the liquid you can use to re-fill cartridges that’s 1) USA made (for the obvious reasons, I don’t want to be purposely inhaling a chemical brew produced in China) and 2) they have a refill liquid which is a pure VG (vegetable glycerine) base. Something about the PG (propylene glycol) that most of them are using gives me the willies because, well, I KNOW what vegetable glycerine is, but WTF is propylene glycol? Plus, the PG creates a burn at the back of the throat that apparently SOME former smokers enjoy, but I do not. Also, vaporpro has tons of different flavors of the e-liquid, as well as unflavored base you can use for creating your own custom blend. A bottle of the e-liquid stuff runs from $10 – $15, but will refill cartridges for at least 6 weeks – so it’s more economical than what tsam’s picking up at the 7-11. Only drawback to the guy I order from is his price is slightly higher for the e-cig and parts, and he charges shipping, where some of the others will ship for free if the order is big enough – say over $50.
but WTF is propylene glycol?
What emits from fog machines. You’re sucking on the business end of a tiny fog machine laced with nicotine.
Copy/paste trolls are the worst. A little effort guys–come on now.
Yeah, that’s what HITLER said!
~
Speaking of comments, the copypasta is so bad that it gets flushed down teh toilet by Jeannie DeAngelis’ commentariat at teh Murrican Stinker.
No kidding! I was surprised by those snappy comments. This one I particularly liked:
“Let’s not make this more than it is. It is not about the value of life; it is about the value of the evidence presented.”
You’re sucking on the business end of a tiny fog machine laced with nicotine.
No, YOU are. My stuff doesn’t have propylene glycol in it. I’m sucking on vegetable oil.
Another plus to the glycerine-only base though – it produces more vapor, and it’s thick enough that you get this really great sensation of coolness on your face when you exhale it from condensation or whatever.
Copy/paste trolls are the worst. A little effort guys–come on now.
i am a longtime lurker. i know i shouldnt feed the troll, but the x% of the black vote went to obama, therefore blacks are the REAL RACISTS, argument is tiresome! before 2008 100% of the black vote went to white men! who are teh REAL RACISTS? why doesnt that argument get more traction?
It’s about god-damned time that a mother like Casey Anthony could stand up and free herself from one of these non-working, parasite shits who had been living for years without making one dollar to contribute. Just like Ayn Rand knew to appreciate a kidnapper ransomer specializing in child dismemberment, we have to get rid of this liberal elite latte-sipping condemnation of somebody just because they might have stuck their baby in a trunk until it got ripe. Fucking selfish little useless eaters.
I have no idea why black people didn’t flock to vote for Reagan when he opened his campaign at the Neshoba county fair in Mississippi calling for states’ rights, especially when he harshly rejected the KKK endorsement!
Obviously black voters are a lot smarter than white voters.
They’ve not given the majority of their votes to any Republican presidential candidate in my lifetime.
@newchick
Because the people who make OMFG REAL RACISTS!!! arguments are stupid fucking assholes with whom argument is an abject waste of time and energy. They only make those arguments because they really really hate not being able to be openly racist without getting publicly clobbered. Hence this little “they started it” dogwhistle.
Stop lurking and jump in.
You’re sucking on the business end of a tiny fog machine
Phineas takes a bow.
I have no idea why black people didn’t flock to vote for Reagan when he opened his campaign at the Neshoba county fair in Mississippi calling for states’ rights, especially when he harshly rejected the KKK endorsement!
HA! I forgot about this. What a fucking moron. Maybe he could have quoted George Wallace while he was at it to really drive the point home…
Obviously black voters are a lot smarter than white voters.
OMFG REAL RASISTS!!!!!!11!!!
HA! I forgot about this. What a fucking moron
RACITS!!!
Phineas takes a bow.
rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrracist…………………..
thanks for the welcome, tsam! i will do my best to meet my snark quota here!
Preach on, sister Jennifer!
i really wanted to join in during the horse cum shots posts! but i told myself, NAY! i want to be more dignified than that!
“those words have signified the defiance of individuals firm of belief and with a philosophical approach more akin to Larry the Cable Guy (“Git’r done!”) than the self-absorbed pontificating of President “smartest person in the room.” And that is exactly what the Republican Party needs;”
Well then the troll should be happy because that is exactly what the Republican party is today: A bunch of Larry the Cable Guys.
And, also, too – a large part of the reason for the differences between black and white voting patterns comes down to what each group has defined as its interests. For blacks, their interests have typically been “treat us equally and give us a fair shake.” For whites, it’s too often been defined as “fuck the n***ers.” Blacks have voted in favor of things they view will make their lives better or at least not make them any worse. Whites don’t really care if it makes their lives better, as long as it makes other peoples’ lives worse.
I say that flippantly but…one group is voting in favor of something positive, while the other views the act of voting as a punitive measure. You tell me which group is smart and which is fucking nuts.
i really wanted to join in during the horse cum shots posts! but i told myself, NAY! i want to be more dignified than that!
One of us! One of us!
And, also, too – a large part of the reason for the differences between black and white voting patterns comes down to what each group has defined as its interests. For blacks, their interests have typically been “treat us equally and give us a fair shake.” For whites, it’s too often been defined as “fuck the n***ers.” Blacks have voted in favor of things they view will make their lives better or at least not make them any worse. Whites don’t really care if it makes their lives better, as long as it makes other peoples’ lives worse.
Well, they are the descendents of the poor dumbfucks who jumped into the meat grinder so the Southren Gentility could keep their “peculiar institution”.
Irony: I’m doing it wrong
One of us! One of us!
~
I don’t wanna be a lurker no more
I just made a joke that they will go for!
One of us, one of us!
Welcome to Gay Islamic Abortion HQ… one of us, one of us … FOX bad, Soros good!
i want to be more dignified than that!
Me too – but I keep getting stiffed on the whole Species Reassignment thing.
as an egoist i will thank you for the welcome! classic film/poetry/punk rock/animation is my favorite! if only you could reference my passion: 1950s horror comics! i will do my best to snark with the best of you!
I left my dignity on a distant shore after I started commenting here…
Ah sweet dignity of youth
That left me as did truth
I took the Soros dough
and commented at Sadly No!
Dignity? I’m an architect!
I sold my dignity long ago…..
dignity i left long ago
dignity is as soft as dough
Hey. I was stressed-out!
Peace protests? That’s not even a misnomer.
Regarding the motivations of those who organize mass ‘peace protests’, what is the projected result of these marches? Crowd control? Is that what we’re calling it these days? Feelings of unity and purpose? Did the world become safer after that march? Was everyone peaceful marching? Who was in their homes as they marched? Who was murdered? Did people feel complacent afterwards, as though they were a part of something important? Did the world become more peaceful? Is identifying oneself as peaceful going to achieve some desirous result? Action must be taken, and it must be taken now. The continued silence of our respective governments is unconscionable, unacceptable.
Got here late, but so what! Got an old friend who’s been living in Japan for about 20-odd years, totally integrated there. Loves it, told me that when (if) I retire, a minimum income would qualify me to emigrate and reside. The Far East (AKA not Japan) looks pretty good, also. I thought about Europe, as I was stationed there in the 70’s (I was drafted in ’72) and loved it. I don’t think they like Americans too much, right now, though. South America also calls, as I speak/read/write Spanish, and can get by in Portuguese. I don’t want to go to Israel, either- more fucked-up than the US. Africa has fascinated me, also, but still a bit too volatile. Convincing the Creaturette is the tough part. I have a lot of college behind me, but no degrees. I have a trade in auto technology, but I don’t want to schlep a ton of tools all over, and besides, I’ve been trying to get out of the car biz almost since I got in it. Not ready yet, I guess.
Bears repeating:
Did the world become safer after that march? Was everyone peaceful marching? Who was in their homes as they marched? Who was murdered?
Call me crazy
Okay. You’re crazy.
——————
New Chick: Welcome aboard the wierdo S,N rollercoaster, which always needs moar wimmins!
Nym fixxed.
Dignity is not bestowed upon a person like a reward for good behavior. Dignity is knowing completely what a weak, failed, phony, harmful, thoughtless, destructive, duplicitous, and ignorant fool one is, and accepting that it is a part of what one must deal with from others.
If one meets someone who is intellectual, mature, and kind, kill him before whatever is wrong with him spreads among the general population. Unfortunately, dignity is not contagious, while its opposite is.
if only you could reference my passion: 1950s horror comics!
We could do that, but it would be a tale calculated to drive you MAD.
Welcome Nuchik. I was a longtime lurker before diving headfirst into the pule. I don’t pipe up all that often, having two things that impair one’s abilities as a true sadlynaught–a job and a life–but I am a faithfull follower. Looking forward to seeing you develop your snark-fu!
” having two things –a job and a life–”
You disgust me.
Yes, we discussed you, and we decided you were disgusting. That’s what we like about you.
Propylene glycol’s major use is as antifreeze. And for deranging cats bt that’s more a side effect of the antifreeze gig.
@that’stheoneTHAT’STHEONE
GTFO A-HOLE. WE’RE TRYING TO BOWFLEX.
FYWP
Yawn.
Sigh.
I’m playing in a golf tournament today. I intend to get hammered and embarrass my company.
Whatchu know ’bout dat?
Fuck. You.
So, golfing in a drinking tournament, tsam?
tsam said,
July 8, 2011 at 16:12 (kill)
Fuck. You.
HOME TAPING IS KILLING MUSIC.
Has anyone gone over the rules with teh nude chick yet?
Rule 1: You may not have ever met anyone here, but everyone here has met your mother.
So, golfing in a drinking tournament, tsam?
Fuck yeah, dude. Our local plan center hosts it every year.
A bunch of contractors, mostly. Lots of bad hair, bigass fucking stomachs and really shitty jokes reminding us that there’s a nigger in the WHITE HOUSE. “Can’t really call it that now, can we? HUH HUH HUH HUH HAHA HAHA HA HA…..ah, I’m slayin’ ’em!”
That’s why I drink much.
That’s why I drink much.
You can also slice a few balls into the neighboring foursomes if they are particularly egregious. “INCOMING!”
HOME TAPING IS KILLING MUSIC.
SHITTY, UNIMAGINITIVE, SOULLESS MUSIC IS TOTALLY NOT!
You can also slice a few balls into the neighboring foursomes if they are particularly egregious. “INCOMING!”
That’s going to happen whether I want to or not. I’m really bad at golf. Don’t have the ambition to practice.
You can also slice a few balls into the neighboring foursomes if they are particularly egregious. “INCOMING!”
Veiled Castration Reference.
Thanks Jennifer and tsam — I took the plunge, and ordered this starter kit, as it rated very highly everywhere I could find people talking about it (and I got a discount). Kinda liked the idea that they are pretty anal about what goes into the product, letting you know what’s in the product, and not doing the flavors thang so as to discourage kids from jumping into nicotine addiction.
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Thanks Jennifer and tsam — I took the plunge, and ordered from thesafecig dot com (URL deleted, as it looks to have been caught in the spam bukkit), as it rated very highly everywhere I could find people talking about it (and I got a discount). Kinda liked the idea that they are pretty anal about what goes into the product, letting you know what’s in the product, and not doing the flavors thang so as to discourage kids from jumping into nicotine addiction.
.
Whatchu know ’bout dat?
Take just one club, a four or five iron, and maybe a putter. That’ll impress the hell out of ’em. Be sure to hold the club backwards and use colored balls.
How do you go from the Sexual Revolution and the whole late 60?s counterculture to thinking a pony tail with a fucking suit is OK for anyone other than a fucking rapist cocaine dealer? COME THE FUCK ON PEOPLE.
o.m.g…this is too much…i laffed out loud…again, happy i am an office of one…
I used to think that golf was a game for the very conservative, but then I found out that golfers are always playing around in foursomes and I reconsidered.
Aunt Acid said,
do you know i just *got* this?
That’s going to happen whether I want to or not. I’m really bad at golf. Don’t have the ambition to practice.
I really encourage you to adopt the habit of yelling “Incoming” rather than “Fore”.
You can also slice a few balls…
Veiled Castration Reference.
Zombies may be undead brain eating ghouls, but we’re not MONSTERS.
A mother doing such a thing shouldn’t be surprising, because under the auspices of a woman’s right to “privacy” in 1973, with the ruling in Roe v. Wade, child murder officially became legal in America. Over the next three decades, developing fetuses were reduced to less than human and women were convinced that disposing of unwanted offspring is a commendable goal.
i know i shouldn’t feed the troll, but FUCK YOU…
new thread!!!
George Wallace’s 1982 Governor’s race is the only example I can think of where black voters, seemingly, voted against their self interest. Also, I’ve always wanted to go to the Neshoba County Fair.
That is a great way to suss out which ones are really the combat vets.
The first time I have ever unfriended someone from facebook was someone who linked approvingly to a “satire” piece about how the effect of the Casey Anthony verdict was going to hurt Planned Parenthood abortion income.
The first time I have ever unfriended someone from facebook was someone who linked approvingly to a “satire” piece about how the effect of the Casey Anthony verdict was going to hurt Planned Parenthood abortion income.
if only fb had a way to unfriend by shooting flames through said a-hole’s computer…
…are pretty anal about what goes into the product, ..
I think you need to reverse that sentence
tsam said,
July 8, 2011 at 16:12 (kill)
Fuck. You.
Sounds to me like ISPs are getting too big for their diapers & deserve a good spanking – I recommend wardriving with a dash of proxy Tough-Love.
Remember: if it hurts you more than it hurts multinationals, YER DOING IT WRNOG.
Especially because Larry the Cable Guy is just a routine.
A fraudulent routine intended to scream an imaginary solidarity with the Real America little guy against the gigantic librul commie Islamo-sexual secularist conspiracy to have baristas at Starbucks sneer at them: The Republican Party.
Fun fact: Omaha is the telemarking capital of the US. Why? The non-regional accents of its denizens.