US Politics, January 2022 — a pro-God, pro-family, pro-bitcoin state

Waiting for God! Out!

“So, I mean, people say things.”

They do, they do

They open their mouths and certainly, words pour forth

It's the pride that grates me most. Some guy at the gym last week was loudly complaining that he had been told to wear a mask and he was like, "everybody thinks I'm an asshole, but guess what? I don't care! I'm a proud asshole!" and I thought "how can people even talk to each other when the starting point in a conversation is 'I don't care what you think, the more you disagree with me, the better I will feel about myself!'?" That is Trump's psychosis writ large across the Republican party. There's no ideology, it's just feeling good about pissing off anyone who disagrees with you.

OTFM. Trump just gave them license to be the assholes polite society said they shouldn't be.

Because this destruction was emanating from such an inept source, who seemed (at that time) merely comically thuggish, who seemed to know so little about what he was disrupting, and because life was going on, and because every day he/they burst through some new gate of propriety, we soon found that no genuine outrage was available to us anymore. If you’ll allow me a crude metaphor (as I’m sure you, the King of las Bromas de Fartos, will): a guy comes into a dinner party, takes a dump on the rug in the living room. The guests get all excited, yell in protest. He takes a second dump. The guests feel, Well, yelling didn’t help. (While some of them applaud his audacity.) He takes a third dump, on the table, and still no one throws him out. At that point, the sky has become the limit in terms of future dumps.

--George Saunders, "Love Letter"

its also the extent to which these guys just brazenly lie about everything, even when they know they're on video doing the exact opposite. Trump even floating the possibility of just saying the Access Hollywood video was faked. who gives a shit, there's no consequences

the sky has become the limit in terms of future dumps

Maybe we could have George Saunders just write all our new thread titles, paid by crowdfund

how incredibly fucking stupid many people are in the United States

I said something very much like this to my (liberal/progressive) dad after I'd been a reporter out in the world for long enough to see the abundant evidence of it. I remember he accused me of being an elitist. lol

I was just saying to a friend last week that if anything chases me out of journalism for good, it will be the relentless exposure to dumb people. I go to local government meetings or watch legislative hearings, and it's just a parade and a cavalcade of idiots, supported by idiots, sometimes getting yelled at by other idiots. Nobody fucking knows anything, nobody does the tiniest bit of homework, it's just morons all the way down.

That's not even an ideological objection, though I have lots of those too. It's just about the level of knowledge and understanding of anything.

tipsy, I've tons of respect for your work and fortitude.

Who benefits from a completely uninformed electorate?

Thanks. One a these days I'm gonna chuck it all and open a cocktail bar.

Frank Luntz: We’re going to do a word and phrase for the Democrats and word or phrase for the Republicans. Scott, give me a word or phrase to describe the Democrats.

Scott: Cohesiveness. The anti-hate. Calmness, I would think.

Don: Revolution. Revolutionary.

Dickie: Fair.

Jim: Sometimes too liberal, but together.

Alice: They’re more, like, people-oriented.

Travis: Sneaky.

Janet: He stole mine.

Tenae: Crazy.

Azariah: Sweet talkers.

Kristine: Chaotic.

Mark: Radical.

Julia: Going toward socialism.

Nick: Smooth talkers.

Jules: Currently intolerant.

Frank Luntz: OK, now give me a word or phrase to describe the Republicans.

Jules: Very loud.

Nick: They don’t represent everybody.

Julia: Have to regroup.

Kristine: Wrong direction. I can’t think of one word.

Mark: Weak.

Azariah: Ruthless.

Tenae: Inconsistent.

Janet: Uncivil.

Jim: Dishonest and cowardly.

Alice: More business-oriented.

Travis: Arrogant.

Dickie: Capitalistic.

Don: Unnecessarily divisive.

Scott: Chaotic.

a Le Tigre song

Tipsy, you already know I expect to get a fucking phone call if you do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaDhY2OpeR0

you know it WmC

"Trump just gave them license to be the assholes polite society said they shouldn't be."

Which is why I wouldn't support Trump even if I 100% agreed with all his "positions". Just the worst possible role model.

One of the few consolations I'm hoping for is that some of these ding-dongs learn the hard way that saying "lol no" to a subpoena doesn't work quite the same when you are Joe Magaman from middle Nebraska, despite what Trump and his craven cronies think.

The worst possible role model who has still somehow been embraced by religious conservatives to the point where that guy in the photo above wears a shirt with a giant Q with a cross inside it. I'll never wrap my head around it. xp

Evangelicals in 1996: "Character matters."

Evangelicals in 2016: "Character doesn't matter."

xp the moment is way passed, but Karl's MO posts earlier were a literal manifestation of "in rod we trust"

Evangelicals in 1996: We hate non-white people, and impress our own ethno-nationalist religious beliefs onto a Godhead who would totally disapprove of everything we stand for.
Evangelicals in 2016: We hate non-white people, and impress our own ethno-nationalist religious beliefs onto a Godhead who would totally disapprove of everything we stand for.

I mean I get your point, jimbeaux, but I guess anyone with any fucking brains could see through it in 96. I could, and I was 12.

I didn't notice that Luntz's focus group had a makeup designed to be as stupid and unrepresentative as possible:

The focus group was made up of people who had voted at least once for President Barack Obama and at least once for President Donald Trump.

I wonder what percentage of the electorate are Obama/Trump voters?

Reminds me of Neil Young & the Reagan Democrats, which was a real thing

I found an estimate of "6.7 million to 9.2 million" people who voted for Obama in 2012 and Trump in 2016. Let's call that 8 million. The total number of votes for president in 2016 was 137 million.

So that's about 6% of the electorate. But if you also include Obama'08-Romney'12-Trump'16 and Obama'12-Clinton'16-Trump'20 voters, then it's probably a little higher.

Or even Obama'08-Romney'12-Clinton'16-Trump'20 voters, though I would like to meet whoever that describes.

JUST IN: Kyrsten Sinema’s favorability among Democrats in Arizona has fallen to a new low of 8 percent. 80% of Arizona Democrats view her unfavorably. (@civiqs)

— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) January 20, 2022

Is this good for her future presidential run

Or even Obama'08-Romney'12-Clinton'16-Trump'20 voters, though I would like to meet whoever that describes.

https://www.rtx.com/our-company/corporate-governance

xp The phrasing of that Amy Siskind tweet about Sinema made me chuckle -- "She believes she will be running for president," like it's somehow preordained and she has no agency in the matter. The prophecies have foretold it!

The Raytheon board didn't vote for McCain in 2008?

No way Raytheon would prefer Obama over "Bomb-bomb-Iran" McCain!

just gave them license to be the assholes polite society said they shouldn't be.

new board description??

The fuck

“No mask mandates. My children will not come to school Monday with a mask on. I will bring every single gun, loaded and ready … I’ll see y’all on Monday.” - woman at a Page County Public Schools board meeting pic.twitter.com/alpEwBxdQ2

— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) January 21, 2022

Good morning!

it's the rittenhouse doctrine for conservatives, proven in court - identify who you want to hurt, claim that you're about to be hurt by them, then go hurt them, on accident of course

It's incredible that this kid has been made a hero by the right. He exercised the extremely poor judgment typical of 17 year old males, who really are just about the last people you want walking around armed.

it is kind of incredible, but not surprising anymore. jan 6 creeps are now heroes to most of the right

Rittenhouse lived out their fondest fantasy, owning the libs in the most literal way. They're not even hiding it, they're putting him up on stage. When the eventual history of our coming period of political violence is written, one of the hardest things to explain will be how anyone was even a little bit surprised by it.

they are battling for their right to have the judgment of a 17-year-old

I mean yeah, they all stopped their development around age 17 anyway.

17 seems overly generous

Absolutely

In their heads those middle aged white dudes in the MAGA hats and wraparound sunglasses think they are eternally 17, is the issue.

Well yeah they all peaked in high school

In the end it doesn't really matter why people are stupid, the problem is that too many people are stupid, many by choice, and there really is no remedy for that. I feel like we are firmly in the decadent stage of society, waiting out the clock.

People were probably just as stupid in olden tymes, maybe even more so. So far no one in the current US is inspiring a pogrom by claiming Jews threw a boy down a well or something.

An American Airlines plane travelling from Miami to London has had to turn back because a passenger refused to wear a face mask, the airline has said...

way to own the libs!

good times