Thursday, January 31, 2019

Empty Suit Throws Hat Into Ring



Has any political candidate ever been more of a non-entity that Howard Schultz?

Who does he think his constituency is? I consider myself reasonably well-informed, but until he announced his mindless quixotic presidential bid, I had no idea who he was. I had never heard the name Howard Schultz. Why would he think he could make the slightest ripple in the 2020 campaign?

Oh, right. Because he's a billionaire, so the media will fall all over themselves to build him up into some kind of legitimate statesman.

But seriously, he doesn't even have a platform. He has zero ideas of what he would want to do as president other than not tax billionaires.

Here's something he actually said on 60 Minutes as if it were a selling point:

 I don't care if you're a Democrat, independent, Libertarian, Republican. Bring me your ideas, and I will be an independent person who will embrace those ideas because I am not in any way in bed with a party.


So, I'm running for president - just tell me what you think would be good and I'll run with it! Even if your idea is the worst Libertarian drivel, I'm all ears!


He does, apparently, believe in something he calls "comprehensive tax reform," by which he means. . . you know, tax reform that is comprehensive.


Via NPR:



INSKEEP: President Obama's theory was that you reduce the deficit in small measure by raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans. President Trump's theory was that you reduce the deficit by cutting taxes on the wealthiest Americans. You're smiling. Which, if either of those, is true?

SCHULTZ: Can I say it in my own words?

INSKEEP: Please.

SCHULTZ: So we are in dire need of comprehensive tax reform, which would include a significant level of infrastructure developments.

INSKEEP: Is it safe to say that the wealthiest would have to pay more? Whatever the rates become, however the reform is structured?

SCHULTZ: What I would say is that we need comprehensive tax reform.

So he either doesn't know, or doesn't want to say, whether marginal tax rates would go up or down under his "reform," but rest assured, this "reform" is exactly what America so desperately needs at this time.




SCHULTZ: . . . I think there are a number of areas here that need to be addressed. And I'm not trying to dodge any question. I just feel like, you know, what we have today is an unfair system. 


Unfair in what way? Well, why does that matter? Look, whether you think that your tax burden is too high or too low, whether or not you think the wealthy and the corporations should be paying more or less, none of that matters. Because REFORM! COMPREHENSIVE!


. . . what we have today is an unfair system. However, when I see Elizabeth Warren come out with, you know, a ridiculous plan of taxing wealthy people a surtax of 2 percent 



You're right, Howard. 2% is ridiculous. Anything less than 10% is insufficient!


However, when I see Elizabeth Warren come out with, you know, a ridiculous plan of taxing wealthy people a surtax of 2 percent because it makes a good headline - or sends out a tweet when she knows for a fact that's it's not something that's ever going to be passed, this is what's wrong. 



Okay. Good. Now we're getting somewhere. We've identified the problem and that's a start. The problem with the United States tax code is. . . Elizabeth Warren tweeting! Wait. Are yiu sure aboiut that?



INSKEEP: But I'm just thinking, you've got trillion-dollar annual deficits now in good times. Getting that down calls for some specific, painful-sounding things - drastic cut in military spending, at a time when the United States is confronting China and Russia and who knows who else, changes to Medicare and Social Security, tax increases on somebody. Are you going to do that?

SCHULTZ: Well, you haven't talked about growth. So...

INSKEEP: You think you can grow your way out of a trillion-dollar deficit?

SCHULTZ: I don't think you can - no. No. I don't think you can grow your way out of a trillion dollars. 
Oh my God, then why did you bring it up?


But I - remember, I've been an entrepreneur for the last 40 years. I view things a little bit differently than, certainly, a traditional politician. And I have a 30-year-plus record of being able to solve complex problems in unique ways.

Oh for fuck sake. Maybe, MAYBE, you could have trotted this out prior to 2016. Maybe. Bur America has had two years now to see what happens when you elect a "billionaire" businessman with zero political experience to the highest office in the land. And I don't want to speak out of turn here, but we ain't too happy.


Also, that's your pitch? Imagine being two years into the tRump administration and thinking "Now's the time America is ready to gamble on an outsider businessman!"

You know, it seems like every election cycle there's at least one. There was Ross Perot, there was Steve Forbes, There was Hermann Cain, and Carly Fiorinna. And none of them came close, except Orange Julius Caesar who was the most famous businessman in the world and also a reality TV star that for some reason a lot of people found charismatic. (I will never understand why) But sure, the guy who used to run Starbucks, who is nowhere near a household name, and has zero charisma is the perfect candidate to win as a third party candidate!

Especially with specific, precise policy goals like this:






Oh, opportunities! Oh my God, I think you're on to something! No political candidate has ever offered vague, nebulous promises of "opportunity" before! in 2020, when you've got the candidate on one side of you shouting "Vote for me if you hate Mexicans and Muslims" and the other promising to give you a pay raise and let you go to the doctor when you're sick without losing your house, voters are sure to be drawn to the guy in the middle saying "ahem, I believe Americans should have opportunities."
Yeah, forget "policies and promises!" Those things don't help anyone. What we need is the amorphous gossamer of "OPPORTUNITIES!"

Also, I'm not sure Schultz really understand how American elections work.

Here he is on CBS This Morning:


"I think Republicans are looking for a home. If Republicans have a choice between a far left liberal progressive candidate on the Democratic side or President Trump, President Trump is going to get reelected.


Well, yeah. That would be true, if only Republicans voted. If you offer Republicans a choice between tRump and a progressive Democrat, of COURSE tRump would win. But, it may surprise you to learn that, desoite Republicans' best efforts, Democrats and Independents and Green Party and Libertarians and DSA are all allowed to vote in our elections. And according to the Washington Post:

More Americans now identify as independents than as members of either political party, according to June data from Gallup. In fact, only about a quarter of the country identifies as Republican, and about 3 in 10 identify as Democrats.
So, yes. In a two-candidate race in which one candidate is a Republican and the other is a Democrat, the Republican candidate would win the votes of that quarter of the electorate. Not sure how many of them would be peeled away by a moderate centrist who, up until 10 minutes ago, was a lifelong Democrat.


"We will be on the ballot in every state, all 50 states. And this is so vitally important. In the last presidential elections the only thing that matters is about eight states, battleground states that define the race, if I enter the race I'll be on the ballot of every state in all 50 states. Everyone's voice would matter."



Oh my God. Does he think that the reason the battleground states are so important is that major party candidates are not on the ballot in every state? Does he think that Hillary won in California because Trump wasn't on the CA ballot? Or that had there been another CEO douchebag on the ballot in California, that she wouldn't have won there?



Either way, the "battleground" states will still be the "battleground states." California  and New York will go Blue, Alabama an Mississippi will go Red whether any third party candidate is on the ballot or not. And Ohio, Pennsylvania, Colorado, etc will still be the states that are up for grabs.And those swing states would be the only states where Schultz could possibly hope to make any kind of a difference.  Is Schultz the only person in America who doesn't get this?


He also doesn't seem to understand the Democratic Party.

"I'm not a Democrat," Schultz told the 'Morning Joe' panel. "I don't affiliate myself with the Democrat Party who is so far left, who basically wants the government to take over health care, which we cannot afford, the government to give free college to everybody and the government to give everyone a job, which basically is $40 trillion on the balance sheet of $21.5 trillion. We can't afford it."


First of all, how many Democrats are pushing for single-payer healthcare? Last I heard, only about 1/3 of Senate Democrats were on board. Also, we absolutely can afford it. Why do you think Canada can but we can't. How come the U.K. can but we can't? Is this guy really so dense that he doesn't understand how Medicare-for-All would be funded? Maybe. Because here's what he had to say on the subject in his NPR interview:

SCHULTZ: Free Medicare for all, government-paid, free college for all - first of all, there's no free. I mean nothing is free.

Yeah. We know that. We're not stupid. We get that single-payer would be paid for with our tax dollars. We get it. We understand that, instead of having money taken out of our paycheck by Aetna or Blue Shield, we would have money taken out of our paycheck by Medicare. The difference is, we'd get a much better product.

And, I don't know whether Howard Schultz knows this, but state colleges used to be tuition-free. At least they were ion California. Before they elected Reagan governor.

Scrubs Mistake GIF - Scrubs Mistake Opera GIFs
(Joke stolen from Dana Gould)


So, this "raidcal" "leftist" idea of tuition-free college, is actually pretty retrp. It has been done and could certainly be done again. In fact, Bernie Sanders has aplan to pay for state colleges with a transaction tax on Wall Street. It would be pretty much completely painless for John Q. Taxpayer.

So, in conclusion, Howard Schultz has no ideas, no platform, and no policies. And he doesn't understand the Electoral College, how things get paid for, his opposition, or the zeitgeist.





Sure, Howard.
Sure ya are.




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Tuesday, January 29, 2019

People Who Won't Go Away



So this guy is still around somehow.






You'd think after Mr HeMan Ladykiller was discovered to be a sad little manchild living LITERALLY in his mother's basement, he would have slunk shamefully away into well-deserved anonymity. But no. Apparently, there must still be some people who want to hear what this pathetic little cloaca of a man has to say. Even if it means listening to sex-talk from a man who refers to his genitalia as a "Benis?"

So, apparently this little simpleton has gotten the idea that if one was to indulge in anal intercourse with a woman, then that person would, I guess, just go "hey, butt-sex is fun. Who else has butts? Oh, right. Men do!" and then just become all gay or something? I don't know. But I guess he thought that this was an insight that needed to be shared with the world. Between long awkward sips of coffee. As you do when you've gained enlightenment that must be promulgated.

He states unequivocally that he has never had back-door sex. Well duh! I can't imagine he's ever had sex of any kind in any door. Who would let this self-impressed worm get anywhere near her boudoir?

He says he has had a couple of women ask him if he wanted to try it. I do believe that. I just assume that the offer was immediately followed by "cuz that costs extra."

He also seems to think that showering daily is something to brag about, not just a part of any normal person's routine. And that showering makes him not want to do butt sex, because that's where poop comes out. (No one tell him about what comes out of vaginas! Or maybe do tell him. Maybe that will be enough to put him off women entirely, for which the women in whatever town he lives in would probably be eternally grateful.)



Oh, and speaking of people who will not just go away, please for the love of God just go away:


Milo Yiannapoulos Loves Jesus, Hates Mammon, Is Stealing Gospel Songs Now

Robyn Pennacchia
January 28, 2019 04:59 PM







For some bizarre reason, Milo has recorded a Gospel song. And there is an accompanying video which, for as long as I could stand to watch, contains zero pictures of Jesus, or the Bible, or a church, but dozens and dozens of pictures and video clips of Milo making an ass of himself in various ways. There's Milo pretending that reporters are following him around. There's Milo pretending to beat up ethnic criminals. There's Milo standing behind an Israeli flag because, sure, I guess Yianopoulos is probably a Hebrew name. Then the first time the song mentions "a Savior" we see a photo of Milo kissing Donald Trump's star onm the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Subtle!
then he sings about how much he likes Jesus over a video of thong-clad women gyrating while wearing some sort of head-covering/veil type of thing because ooh, he's so edgy, he's really taking it to those Muslims and their concepts of modesty!

Wonkette fills us in on some of the background info:


If you are anything like me, your first thought upon listening to this was "Oh there is no way that Milo Yiannopoulis got that many black people to sing back-up for him." And if you did think that, you would not be wrong! Because the entire backing track was straight up lifted from the version of the song recorded by Kirk Franklin, the gospel singer who originally sang it.
God, why won't these halfwit assholes just go away?




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Sunday, January 27, 2019

Weird Stories in the News

Weird story # 1:



Casey Hathaway, missing 3-year-old, found alive - CNN - CNN.com


At first glance, this story doesn't really sound weird so much as uplifiting. This lost child has been found and returned to safety. That is a 100% positive story.

Here's where it gets weird:

Hundreds of people joined in the search to help find him, including some 600 volunteers and members of the FBI, NCIS and US Marine Corps.
After days of desperate searches for the little boy, crews on Thursday night responded to a report of a child crying in the woods and found Casey "about 40 to 50 yards in the woods, tangled up,"
Okay, the boy wandered out of his grandparents' back yard and into the woods. So you have a starting point to begin the search. And you have 600 people searching for this kid, presumably fanning out from the known starting point. And for what, two and a half days, no one can find him? And he only got 40 to 50 yards into the woods?
 And these weren't a bunch of random idiots doing the searching. There were FBI agents, the local sheriff's department, Marine Corps servicemebers and N.C.I.S.

Photo Credit: NCIS/CBS Image Acquired from CBS Press Express
One of these days, we're going to have to have a serious talk about NCIS. But not today.

How do 600 people spend 2 days looking for this kid who is shouting distance from the place he was last seen and not find him?


Now it gets weirder.

Casey is in good condition and resting, Dr. Nicole Check of the CarolinaEast Medical Center said Friday morning.

Casey’s aunt, Breanna Hathaway in a Facebook post said her nephew was “healthy, smiling and talking” following his return late Thursday.

Doctors at Carolina East Medical Center spent Thursday night examining Casey, who was left mostly uninjured from his time in the woods aside from a few scrapes and bruises. They said Friday that he was “in good condition and will be released later today or tomorrow,” WBTWreported.



He's fine. A three-year-old boy spent three nights alone in the woods, and he's fine?

And it's not like he was out there on warm summer evenings.

"What he survived out there -- temperatures in the 20s, low 20s, the rain, the downpour that almost put our search on a standstill," Craven County Sheriff Chip Hughes told ABC New Bern affiliate WCTI Friday morning. 


So, had he maybe spent some or most of this time indoors? Maybe in the home or the vehicle of an abductor? Nope!

"By his condition it was pretty obvious that he had been out there for the time," the sheriff told ABC News Friday.
The Craven County Sheriff's Office has not found any evidence of criminal activity surrounding the disappearance of a three-year-old who miraculously was found safe 55 hours later, according to a press release.
. . .  law enforcement, who are still unsure how Casey remained mostly healthy in the woods for two day without food or water.

So this is all pretty weird, right?
Ready for it to get weirder?

North Carolina 3-year-old Casey Hathaway says he hung out with a bear after he vanished from his grandmother's backyard
 


Okay, fine. He's three. three-year-olds have vivd imaginations. And being soaking wet in sub-freezing temperatures while dehydrated and hungry could make anyone imagine or dream or hallucinate some pretty wild stuff. 

But. . . 

If there's  no bear, how did the kid not freeze to death? A nice fluffy furry fuzzy bear could certainly keep you warm enough to survive. I honestly think the bear story is at least plausible. A mother bear might see a small human cub and instinctively want to care for and protect it. I've seen enough Animal Planet to know that stranger things have happened.


Kangaroo And Dog


Deer And Kitty



Cat And Lil’ Birds




You know what this is, right?

This is a superhero origin story.

There is virtually no way that this little boy does not grow up to fight crime as Grizzly Man or Bear Boy or something/


Image result for superhero bear

Or, if things go wrong, a supervillain.


You heard it here first. And if I were Marvel or DC, I would jump on the rights to this kid's story.

(There were a couple other weird stories, but this one ended up taking too much time.)





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Friday, January 25, 2019

Flashback Friday -- Uncle Tupelo



Do you know how good Uncle Tupelo was? Uncle Tupelo was so good that when they broke up, they split into Son Volt and Wilco! Which is especially impressive when you consider that when the Beatles broke up, they split into Wings and the Plastic Ono Band.


Chicago's Uncle Tupelo, along with Nashville's BR-549 and San Francisco's Dieselhed were the vanguard of the late 80's-early 90's "alt-country" or "no depression" movement. I don't know for sure, but I think the name "no depression" came from Uncle Tupelo's cover of the Carter Family classic.

I mena, I know the music "scene's" name came from a fan magazine entitled "No Depression," but I always assumed that the magazine title came from the Uncle Tupelo record.
Image result for no depression




Anyway, please enjoy a few selections from Uncle Tupelo.



















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Thursday, January 24, 2019

Silly Goose of the Day

Geese, as we all know, are the silliest of God's creatures. But sometimes a person can be as silly as a goose. Yes. it's true!
so who's being a silly little goose today?


Why, it's none other than South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson!


 
No, not that one.


This one:

Image result for alan wilson south carolina



Now you wouldn't think that an attorney general would be particularly silly. Especially not an attorney general who fought for a law to make it harder for mentally ill persons to get firearms and sued the Trump administration to stop offshore drilling.

But if silly is as silly does, then Alan Wilson is one silly silly goose.


SC police, doctors fighting medical marijuana; AG calls it US’s ‘most dangerous drug’




Yes. the most dangerous drug!


Image result for dramatic music gif




You want to know how dangerous? Well, the National Institute on Drug Abuse has some chilling statistics. For instance, look how people died from cocaine overdoses:


Number of Deaths Involving Cocaine

And heroin:


Number of Deaths Involving Heroin

Now compare that to the results you get by searching their site for the term "marijuana overdose."

National Institute on Drug Abuse

"marijuana overdose"
1 results

Study Links Medical Marijuana Dispensaries to Reduced Mortality From Opioid Overdose | National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)





Boy, it really makes you think, doesn't it?

Well, it does if you're not a silly goose.


COLUMBIA — Flanked by lawmakers, law enforcement officials and doctors in white lab coats, S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson called marijuana “the most dangerous drug” in America while denouncing legislation Wednesday that would allow patients to obtain it with a doctor’s prescription. 
Because there's no way for doctors to know whether a substance might be harmful for their patients!


Various speakers, which included State Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel and leaders from the S.C. Medical Association, suggested the use of medical marijuana would cause a litany of problems in South Carolina: addiction, increased traffic accidents and — without specifically citing any peer-reviewed research — an increase in the number of overdose deaths. 


Hmm, no peer-reviewed studies, eh? That's kind of hard to believe. I mean, there must be just tons of studies about all the people who die from smoking the devil's oregano.


Why, look. Here's one now!


rootsinhell


So, no peer-reviewed studies, what did Wilson list as the basis for his condemnation of Satan's spinach?

While standing in the center of the Statehouse lobby, Wilson rattled off slang describing the high from marijuana. “They use words like stoned, high, wasted, baked, fried, cooked, chonged, cheeched, dope-faced, blazed, blitzed, blunted, blasted, danked, stupid, wrecked — and that’s only half the words they use,” Wilson said. “Are these consistent with something that describes a medicine?” 


Well, that settles that! Screw your stupid "studies" and "statistics" and "knowledge" about "things." There are a bunch of slang terms that make smoking wacky weed sound bad, so ipso facto it must be bad. If the slang terms sound odd, it must be outlawed is a time-honored legal principle. Just like how in France, the "climax" is referred to as "le Petite Morte" and so no one is allowed to get off in France. Wait, is it France? I must have France mixed up with a different country. Maybe the Vatican. Anyway, it's not important. The point is, that if people talk about something using terms that make that thing sound like it might be kinda scary, then that thing is inherently too dangerous to be allowed. It's just common sense, people!


Wilson classified marijuana as the most dangerous drug because he said it was “the most misunderstood drug.” 


Well, it's hard to argue that. I mean clearly it seems to be completely misunderstood by the prominent citizens of South Carolina.


Dr. March Seabrook, the S.C. Medical Association president, focused his opposition on the lack of medical and regulatory oversight of marijuana. 

Well, yes. The government does not allow any research to be done on marijuana, so therefore there isn't a lot of research on marijuana, so therefore the government must continue to ban any use of marijuana that might allow its effects to be researched.


Comment Picture


After the news conference, the Medical Association said it disagreed with Wilson’s assessment that marijuana is “the most dangerous drug” in the country. Still, Seabrook argued the new legislation “will not improve the health of South Carolina.” 


Now let's all just forget about this ridiculous marijuana. Here, I'm going to write you a prescription for Oxycontin. That'll help you forget all about it. And you know Oxy is safe, because it's legal! I mean, if we even suspected at all that it might be unsafe, we obviously would make it just as illegal as Lucifer's lettuce!


Should we continue?

Image



Okay, fair enough!
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Tuesday, January 22, 2019

Shitty Conservative Responses to MLK Day


Every year conservatives hold a contest to see who can say the shittiest thing on Martin Luther King, Jr Day.
Generally, these statements take the form of scolding today's people of color for not behaving in a way that the imaginary Republican version of MLK would find acceptable. "What would Dr. King think if he could see. . ." they tut-tut at, say black people protesting police violence. "Oh, Dr, King would turn over in his grave if he saw NFL players peacefully taking a knee in protest," they admonish.

This year, they have really outdone themselves. Starting at the top, President Cartman turned in a dismissive, flippant throw-away statement that, in previous years, might have won handily. Taking all of 30 seconds out of his busy day to drop off a wreath at the King memorial, President McCheese addressed reporters with, and I'm paraphrasing a bit here, "nice weather we're having. Thanks for coming. See ya!"


Image result for fuck you gif


That display of contemptuous, surly and ill-bred impertinence should have been the bottom of the barrel. But, as we have so often been reminded, the barrel has no bottom.

And, as if to prove the bottomlessness of the barrel, the N.R. Fucking A. chimed in with this Tweet:






Because, yeah. If Dr. King had had a pistol in his belt, he could have defended himself from a sniper firing at him from a distance.
I mean, it's not like James Earl Ray walked up to Dr, King at high noon and shouted "Draw Varmint!" Dr. King having a gun would not have done him any good. By the time he realized he needed to defend himself, it would have already been too late. That's why the Good guy with a gun theory is bullshit. The bad guy with a gun will always get the drop on the good guy because the bad guy knows there's going to be a shooting. The good guy doesn't.

Also, if the NRA actually cared about the right of black people to defend themselves with firearms, they would have said something, anything about licensed gun-carrier Philandro Castille being shot by cops for exercising his 2nd Amendment "rights." They might have had some reaction to Mareissa Alexander being arrested and convicted of aggravated assault for firing a warning shot in as "stand your ground" state. A warning shot! They should have been all over this. Had Ms Alexander been white, is there any doubt they would have brought every possible pressure to bear on Florida lawmakers to get her released? And they have the balls to come out on MLK day and claim they are fighting for the rights of "EVERY law-abiding citizen?"


naomi campbell go to hell gif

So that was monumentally shitty. But next up to the plate was a seasoned pro, Vice President Mike Pence.

here he is, defending Cheeto Mussolini's idiotic wall proposal:

. . . honestly, you know-- you know, the hearts and minds of the American people today are thinking a lot about it being the weekend where we remember the life and work of the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Junior. One of my favorite quotes from Doctor King was, "Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy." You think of how he changed America. He inspired us to change through the legislative process to become a more perfect union. That's exactly what President Trump is calling on the Congress to do.


Wow. Invoking Martin Luther King to defend a racist boondoggle. That takes some fucking brass!

Ordinarily, at this point we'd say "no more calls, we have a winner!" But this is no ordinary year.
And our next contestant is no ordinary lunatic.

Our final entry comes from the ironically-named Lori Saine.

Here she is commenting on the arc of history:


“We have come a long way on that arc since the Reconstruction, since whites and blacks alike were in nearly equal numbers lynched for the crime of being Republican,” Rep. Lori Saine, R-Firestone, said.




what spit take redlettermedia GIF


I honestly don't know what is more preposterous, the claim that white people were lynched at the same rate as black people, or that anyone was ever lynched for the crime of "being a Republican." I mean, I know white conservatives will go through the most strenuous mental gymnastics to cast themselves as the victims but holy God! Shouldn't your bullshit at least be the tiniest bit plausible?


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Thursday, January 17, 2019

Horrible person remains horrible


I thought for a second, when I saw a tweet about hate coming from him, that maybe Victor Davis Hanson had turned some kind of corner and was becoming a decent human being.


A License To Hate

by Victor Davis Hanson
Wednesday, January 16, 2019



Oh. Old V.D. Hanson is going to examine the rising tide of hate in this country? The increased incidences of hate crimes? The resurgence of racist rhetoric online and in the real world? Is he going to actually write something worthwhile?

Hahaha! Of course not!

It's Victor Davis Hanson! From the Hoover Institute!

Of course the "hate" problem he can see from his ivory tower is the "hate" that the "left" has for Trump and his supporters.


Recently on CNN, former Republican politico and now Never Trump cable new analyst Rick Wilson characterized Donald Trump’s supporters as his “credulous rube ten-toothed base.”


Okay, the bit about the teeth is a bit rude. I'll give you that. But "credulous rubes?" That's a bit hard to argue with. How else to describe people who allowed themselves to be convinced that a man with more bankruptcies than failed marriages was the "brilliant businessman" who could run the country in a fiscally sober and responsible way? How else would you describe people who thought that the man with the gold-plated toilet was going to be the champion of the common man? What term would you use to describe a group of people who bought the malarkey that this buffoonish man-child would somehow have the negotiating skills to get a foreign nation to pay billions of dollars for a structure which they didn't even want?


Wilson was not original in his smear of the 63 million Americans who voted for Trump. He was likely resonating an earlier slander of Politico reporter Marco Caputo. The latter had tweeted of the crowd he saw at a Trump rally: “If you put everyone’s mouths together in this video, you’d get a full set of teeth.”


Yeah, that's a bit mean.
Although. . .


Image result for trump supporter teeth




Was the point of these stereotypes that poor white working-class people who supposedly voted for the controversial Trump understandably ate improperly, did not practice proper dental hygiene, or did not visit dentists—or all three combined?
When challenged, Caputo doubled down on his invective. He snarled, “Oh no! I made fun of garbage people jeering at another person as they falsely accused him of lying and flipped him off. Someone fetch a fainting couch.”


Garbage people?
That's a bit much, isn't it?
How could he possibly refer to these people as "garbage people?'

Although. . .

Image result for t shirts at trump rally



In the released trove of the Department of Justice text communications involving the Clinton email probe, an unidentified FBI employee had texted to another FBI attorney his abject contempt for the proverbial Trump voter and indeed middle America itself: “Trump’s supporters are all poor to middle class, uneducated, lazy POS [“pieces of sh*t”].” In fact, Trump in 2016 received about 90 percent of all Republican votes, about the same ratio as won by both recent presidential candidates John McCain and Mitt Romney.



Oh, man. You're so close to getting it. You've almost figured out that Trump is not an anomaly. That the same voters who voted for the dignified, respectable McCain and Romney happily flocked to the polls to vote for Mr "Grab 'em by the pussy." You've almost figured out that your party is, actually, the political home of the worst kind of garbage people. You're so close!


Oh, and it's a bit off-topic, but when you say "his abject contempt for the proverbial Trump voter and indeed middle America itself,“ you are perfectly illustrating Rule #1 of conservatives: No conservative will ever argue anything honestly. Because it's a hell of a leap from "Trump voter" to "Middle America Itself." This unnamed FBI employee never says anything about middle America. He heaps contempt on a very specific group of people. Trump voters. And Trump voters does NOT equal "Middle America." And you know this.


Recently actor Jim Carey tweeted a picture of Trump supporters as apes, as if evolution is now operating in reverse as Trumpians descend into primate status.



Oh, now that is going too far. Comparing political opponents to apes? That is just unprecedented!

Although. . .

 


Rep. Hank Johnson (who on prior occasions had referred to Jewish residents on the West Bank as “termites,” and believed that too many American troops based on the shoreline of Guam might “tip” the island over and capsize it)


Okay, let me just stop you there for a minute. I don't know the context of the "ternite" quote, but I will tell you that the Guam tipping over line was a joke. He was making a point of some kind, I don't remember what, but he does not actually believe that islands can tip over. As to the termite quote, that sounds shitty, but beear in mind that he is referring to people who have "settled" in a land whose previous residents were forced out, whose homes were bulldozed and who are living as refugees in their own land. So I don't know how much respect these "residents" really deserve.

Please continue.


Rep. Hank Johnson. . .  recently compared Trump to Hitler

Wow, that's pretty harsh.
Where would he come up with such a comparison?


Laura Ingraham Nazi GIF - LauraIngraham Nazi Salute GIFs


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Hail Trump: White nationalists mark Trump win with Nazi salute

In the US, video has emerged of far right activists celebrating Donald Trump’s victory with what appear to be Nazi salutes.



 For former Vice President Joe Biden, Trump supporters are “virulent people” and “the dregs of society”.



That seems a bit unfair, to characterize all of those millions of voters in such a severe way.

Although. . .

Image result for trump fuck your feelings



At about the same time as Wilson’s recent smear, multimillionaire TV personality Donny Duetsch weighed in on television about the Trump supporters who favor building a barrier on the southern border to discourage illegal immigration:
“This is all [Trump] has left. That one metaphor, that one thing that talks to that 39, 40, 41% base that says: either the black man, or the brown man, or the Jewish man, or the media man, or the banker man is coming to take your wife?” According to Duetsch’s analysis, were the legions of Democrats—including Sens. Biden and Chuck Schumer—who supported the Secure Fence Act of 2006 that authorized hundreds of miles of border fencing, also worried over their virility or is just the working middle class?


Oh my god. First of all, Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden are two of the worst Democrats. It's odd that you would pick those two wishy-washy centrists as being the epitome of Democrats, like "EVEN Schumer and Biden wupported this fence bill!" Second, you want to know why so many Dems supported the "secure fence?" Because they are fucking cowards who thought they could bend over backwards far enough to appease these people:

anti_immigrant_AL_040711-thumb-640xauto-2781   Santa Monica Joins L.A. in Urging Block of Trump Order on 'Sanctuary' Jurisdictions


Both Wilson and Deutsch in the past had also characterized Trump supporters as Nazi-like.

Boy, talk about "Trump derangement syndrome," right? Where do they come up with this sort of. . . oh, right!

Nazis and Brain Cancer- A Waiting Game




Image result for trump nazi


White supremacists and white nationalists carry lit Tiki torches while marching through the University of Virginia campus on



Both Wilson and Deutsch in the past had also characterized Trump supporters as Nazi-like. Both, in lieu of any analyses of why or how Trump got elected or has found success in restoring the economy to robust growth. . .

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Restoring the ecnonmy. . .!


Laughing Too Hard GIF - Stanley Theoffice Laughing GIFs 
Robust growth!

Stop, you're killing me!


But seriously, as to how and why Trump got elected? Um, he first appeared on the campaign scene with his "Mexicans are rapists" speech. He promised prospective voters that he would ban Muslims from the U.S. And he promised that not only would he build a wall to keep Latinos out, he would force Mexico to pay for it. So, yeah. . . kinda "Nazi-like" way of getting elected. There, is that enough "analyses" for ya?



anyway, he goes on in this vein for a while while we all wait patiently for him to make a fucking point already! 
Then he finally gets to it.



What does all this hate speech signify?


Do you seriously not know what "hate speech" is? Saying "I hate people who are racist." or "I hate men who grab strange women by the pussy" is not hate speech.  Neither is mocking the number of teeth that a particular voting bloc has, or pointing out their similarities to brownshirts of yore.You know this.


What does all this hate speech signify?
One, there is terrible frustration among both the progressive Left (and the Never Trump Right whose luminaries have mused about replacing a supposed spent white working class with purportedly more energetic immigrants)

Who? What member of the "Never-Trump Right" has mused about the "great replacement?" That's neo-Nazi conspiracy theory garbage. No one has proposed or even hinted at doing this. What member of the "anti-Trump Right" do you claim holds this position? I mean, it should be fairly easy to figure out since the "Never-Trump Right" consists of like three people. I mean, has Bill Kristol, Max Boot or Jeff Flake proposed such a thing? No, they have not. And that is pretty much the entire roster of the never-trumpers. Oh, and Rick Wilson There are four members. But he hasn't either.


But yes. There is tremendous frustration among the progressive left. Although, to be honest, we were more frustrated during the Obama years because we thought he had the opportunity to introduce much more sweeping progressive legislation than he did, especially during the first two years of his first term. Whatever happened to card check, for instance?



So far Trump has not been stopped. His foreign and domestic agendas often find success 

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Sorry, sorry. Go on.


So far Trump has not been stopped. His foreign and domestic agendas often find success and resonate with about 40-45 percent of the American people. Much of the uncouthness, then, reflects their own frustrations and sense of alienation that millions of Americans have tuned them out.



Oh, is that where the "uncouthness" is coming from? See, here I thought it was coming from the guy who called Congressman Adam Schiff "Adam Shitt." Or maybe it was coming from the guy who took time out of a presidential debate to reassure voters that his penis was adequately-sized. Or maybe it was coming from the man who told his supporters "knock the crap out of them" at one of his political rallies. Or said that he would "bomb the shit out of them." Or maybe the uncouthness might have come from the man who said he would tell NFL owners "Get that son of a bitch off the field!"
But I see now. Obviously the "uncouthness" is coming from the frustrations of the people who oppose the man who said all those things. Oh it's all so clear now! I wonder that I hadn't seen it before!



Second, most of the slurs are voiced by elites,


Says the man from Stanford University's Hoover Institution. You know how much they hate "elites" at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.

But sure, of course. the elites always look down their noses at common folk like . . . multi-billionaire real estate tycoons who are also television stars?

Perhaps their angst is driven by class—as in how can their own superior logic and reasoning fail to resonate with 63 million voters? 


I guess they'll have to console themselves with the fact that their candidate did manage to at least eke out a total of. . . SIXTY SIX MILLION votes. (If you can round up, so can I.)

Third, cowardice plays a role. Those who slander the deplorables and irredeemables assume that they can say almost anything and expect no pushback, given the white working classes lack the romance of the poor and the supposed panache of the elite. A race to the bottom develops in which the more the hatred, the more the clicks and the media exposure.


Yeah. That's a thing that only the left does. None of the #TCOTs would ever espouse hatred and vitriol for clicks. You'd never see conservatives on social media

You'd certainly never see the right posting hateful shit on social media.

Although. . .










Minority critics expect their own identity politics affiliations to shield them from criticism. Wealthy white elites virtue-signal their disgust for those without privilege as a way of ensuring that those like themselves, who most certainly enjoy privilege, are rewarded with ideological exemptions for it.



Honestly, that is so fucking stupid I don't even know how to respond. I'm just going to leave that there and someone more clever than I can write the punchline.


Finally, we are learning that the entire idea of political correctness was never much about universal ideas of tolerance of the other, or insistence that language and protocols must not stigmatize individuals by lumping them into stereotyped and dehumanized collective groups.  What we are witnessing, instead, is that it is fine to demonize millions, from their appearance to their purported hygiene and smell to affinities with feces and apes—if it serves political or cultural agendas.


Oh waah waah waah! Oh, it's so awful that these people




are getting their feelings hurt!

And of course it's completely the same thing. Mocking someone's race or gender or national origin or sexuality is completely the same as mocking their choice of presidential candidate. It is just as bad to hurl racial slurs at a minority as it is to point out that people who voted for a racist misogynist xenophobic bigot who brags about sexually assaulting women and muses about dating his own daughter might actually be bad people.

You want to maybe just sum the whole column up before go?

In sum, cultural progressivism is about raw power, not principle.


Yeah. Politics is about power. The entire poiont of politics is to gain and wield power. Now, if you belong to a decent political party, you would intend to wield power in a way that benefits the common good. But it's all about power. I don't know why you think that power is something unique to "cultural progressives."

Maybe because you're a horrible person?
Oh, sorry. That was uncouth!

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Wednesday, January 16, 2019

What are conservatives outraged about today?


You know, it must be exhausting being a rightie. Having to scour the news and pop culture media searching trying to find something - anything - that you can use to gin up each day's poutrage. Then having to work yourself up into a lather over it. And to keep having to do this over and over, day after day. It must be absolutely draining!

So, what has the right foaming at the mouth today?

Couple things.

First there was a razor commercial.
I know what you're thinking "did this commercial show a gay person shaving?" No. Well, maybe. I don't know who's gay and who isn't. What this ad did was ask men to not let other men get away with being assholes.




aSo who could be upset about that? Well, pretty much everyone who makes a living being an asshole on TV or online. Like Piers Morgan, for one.






I know. My eyes still hurt from how hard they involuntarily rolled.

Anyway, Piers was the first one I saw taking umbrage at an ad that says "hey, you know, maybe we could do a little better," but not the last. And for some reason, a lot of the umbrage-takers siezed on D-day as a really terrible analogy.










Which makes sense, because when I think of the courage, the valor, the heroism of the Allied troops who stormed the beaches on D-Day, sacrificing life and limb to rid the world of the scourge of Naziism, I think "that's the kind of bravery and mettle that it takes for a man to yell 'shake it, don't break it' at women on the street."

Although, if you're going to use D-day as an analogy, the men in the video who are most not unlike the Allied troops are the ones stopping their friends from harassing women, or chasing the bullies away from the kid they're attacking. They're the ones who are stepping up to right a wrong. Everyone who is upset about this ad. . . you're the Nazis in this analogy.  Great job not understanding fucking anything.



So what else has the right's knickers in a twist?

Apparently, they have found a way to be offended by someone referring to an anti-abortion rally as . . . "anti-abortion."

No, really.



The "pro-life" movement is literally a movement dedicating to ending the practice of abortion. This is their entire raison d'etre. They oppose abortion. Yet somehow, referring to them as "anti-abortion," is offensive to them? As if it's some sort of disingenuous use of language? To point out the one thing they all oppose?

And it's not only this hack who is Pence's spokesperson or something, but other "pro-lifers" as well.










Myself and a few other people tried to get someone on this thread to explain what it was that they were upset about. No response.
I assume they don't actually know why they're offended, they just know that they are. They have to be. They NEED to be. They absolutley can not survive without their daily dosage of self-righteous indignation and being in the highest of dudgeons.


And of course, because rule number one for Conservatives remains that no conservative will ever argue anything honestly, she followed up with this nugget:






Because of course she has to pretend that the annual March-For-Life-But-Not-anti-Abortion-Just-Want-To-Outlaw-Abortion is usually ignored in the media. A quick Google search shows that this is not exactly completely accurate.






Trump's speech to March for Life marks a U-turn on abortion

By 
 
01/17/2018 01:35 PM EST
 
Updated 

NPR logo

'You Love Every Child': President Trump Addresses March For Life



Anti-abortion bill passes the House ahead of 'March for Life'



By Daniella Diaz, CNN
Updated 3:24 PM ET, Fri January 19, 2018









Published on Jan 19, 2018

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Anti-abortion activists and protesters carried posters and shouted slogans in support for the unborn on Friday, when they descended on the nation's capital from various parts of the country for the annual March for Life rally. (Jan. 19) Subscribe for more Breaking News: http://smarturl.it/AssociatedPress Get updates and more Breaking News here: http://smarturl.it/APBreakingNews The Associated Press is the essential global news network, delivering fast, unbiased news from every corner of the world to all media platforms and formats. AP’s commitment to independent, comprehensive journalism has deep roots. Founded in 1846, AP has covered all the major news events of the past 165 years, providing high-quality, informed reporting of everything from wars and elections to championship games and royal weddings. AP is the largest and most trusted source of independent news and information. Today, AP employs the latest technology to collect and distribute content - we have daily uploads covering the latest and breaking news in the world of politics, sport and entertainment. Join us in a conversation about world events, the newsgathering process or whatever aspect of the news universe you find interesting or important. Subscribe: http://smarturl.it/AssociatedPress http://www.ap.org/ https://plus.google.com/+AP/ https://www.facebook.com/APNews https://twitter.com/AP



USA TODAY



Live stream: Trump makes historic speech at March for Life 2018

USA TODAYPublished 10:34 a.m. ET Jan. 19, 2018 | Updated 12:53 p.m. ET Jan. 19, 2018



That's just from last year's march. But of course, no one who's following Mike Pence's press secretary on Twitter is going to do the 30 seconds of research required to find this out. Because if they did, they might lose out on some grade A outrage.







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