Perhaps it is the product of the Manichean way in which partisan fights such as this one encourage people to think. Perhaps it is a morbid fear of being accused of “false equivalence.” Perhaps tempers are just so frayed at this point that none of us can see straight. But whatever it is, few progressives appear willing to acknowledge that, regardless of where the blame lies for its arrival, the White House has not reacted to the shutdown well at all.Similarly, few conservatives will admit that they're a stupid moron with an ugly face and big butt and their butt smells and they like to kiss their own butt. O tempora O mores!
My favorite part:
“Reality has a liberal bias,” one of my less original Twitter stalkers told me nervously earlier in the week in the course of manfully pretending that nothing was awry.Cooke could tell the guy was nervous by the sudden awkward shift in his data transfer speed.
Cooke's overall point seems to be that the world is being a jerk and will one day admit it was wrong and Cooke is right. That's often the subtext when rightbloggers talk about Obama, but lately it seems most of them have it floating right on top.
Pwn the thread.
ReplyDeleteHmm. Yes, the Beltway is literally overflowing with people with "a morbid fear of being accused of 'false equivalence.'"
ReplyDeleteJaysus, this one's a high-functioning imbecile.
As for Obama's reacting badly, this from Judd Legum puts it in perspective:
Can I burn down your house?
No
Just the 2nd floor?
No
Garage?
No
Let's talk about what I can burn down.
No
YOU AREN'T COMPROMISING!
Apparently the worst thing a liberal can do is let a Republican suffer the consequences of his own actions. Why won't Obama save them from their own stupidity? It's just peevishness.
ReplyDeleteSays the man who complained that vampires are liberal because they think they are so cool.
Pretty good, but I do think it should read "Can I burn down *our* house?" That's the extra crazy part. Supposedly, everyone in congress cares about the full faith and credit of the United States.
ReplyDeleteA FB friend of my wife is griping about how Obama won't let the NIH proceed with cancer research just because of his arrogance and Obamacare. She's one of the people who demands we use everyone's tax dollars to find a cure and then only let some people have access to it. See she just wants to help sick people.
ReplyDelete"Could these people be more out of their minds?"
ReplyDeleteYes. Compared to what's coming, this is just a hissy fit.
My best guess is that they are about 12% of the population imagining they are a strong majority (their ability to remain inside the bubble has long been noted), so, right now, they are reacting as if they are the majority that's had its will thwarted by the minorities, with Obama as the titular head of the minorities (they really do think, unaccountably, that that's the extent of who Obama represents).
They've been told they can't have everything they want. This has produced the kicking on the floor, holding breath in Walmart tantrum we're seeing right now. Obama is coming up to the edge of telling them they can't have anything, so the next phase is going to be even uglier. We've already seen calls from the fringes for a military coup. The millennialist evangelical wackos are praying again for Armageddon, There's been an increase in the number of calls for secession lately (and South Carolina is back to passing laws nullifying federal law).
Yeah, I think it can get a lot crazier.
But whatever it is, few progressives appear willing to acknowledge that, regardless of where the blame lies for its arrival, the White House has not reacted to the shutdown well at all.
ReplyDeleteHe's actually making progress- a year ago he would have laid the blame squarely on the Democratic Senate.
The Adelsons, Kochs, and other oligarchs are going to have to sink even more cashola into the various races, and they will.
ReplyDeleteThe key for us is to make sure that there's no repeat of 2010's "stay at home" midterm election disaster.
but now that they've bought into Ted Cruz's hostage-taking method of negotiating changes to already enacted legislation, they are poised
ReplyDeleteto retain the House and still possibly capture the Senate.
Sure, people are upset at them right now. But (1) they were upset at them last November, when Obama was re-elected and Congressional Democrats gained in both chambers, and that's counted for precisely fuck-all; (2) unless they rinse and repeat a year from now, this will be ancient history, just like the last time they threatened to blow up our Full Faith and Credit; and (3) the hopelessly fucked-up nature of our 'representative democracy' makes popular will largely irrelevant. West Virginia is flipping R no matter what. Ditto South Dakota. Montana will be an uphill slog. Arkansas is looking extremely iffy. Alaska will be close if Lt. Gov. Treadwell gets the nomination. Landrieu has breathtaking survival skills in Louisiana, but it's never a slam-dunk. Even Colorado becomes a fight if former gov Bill Owens gets into it for Republicans.
So when you start at -2 for certain, and have to play defense in so many places, it's hard to be optimistic. I mean, where are the pickup opportunities to offset all of this? We'd have to flip Kentucky and Georgia just to cancel out the sure things. And while "generic Democrat" is currently doing well in the House polls, it's still way too early, and Steve Israel's collection of mediocrities and passed-over challenges will underperform "generic Democrat" substantially.
No way I'm leaving, some of us have to coordinate the airlifts out of Austin and Asheville.
ReplyDeleteYou should ask her why she wants government intrusion into the lives of Americans.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I agree with you that turnout is the key. I think the difference between then and now is the anger that the Democratic base feels. I'm hoping that translates into people showing up to vote, but who knows?
ReplyDeletePerhaps tempers are just so frayed at this point that none of us can see straight.
ReplyDeleteOh, let's not bicker and argue about who killed which economy!
Ask her if she's ever read the constitution, specifically the bits about how money is appropriated. Then ask her what funding measures have made it to the president's desk that he has vetoed, resulting in the shutdown of NIH cancer research and everything else.
ReplyDeleteThat's often the subtext when rightbloggers talk about Obama, but lately it seems most of them have it floating right on top.
ReplyDeleteTurds float.
They do! The markets should react warmly to the U.S. defaulting on its debt because then they'll know how serious we are about our economic conditions.*
ReplyDelete*One GOPer, I think it was Ted Yoho, actually said this, apparently taking a page from the John Hinkley Method of How to Win Friends and Influence People.
I bet by valid you mean issued by a nation with more sane people.
ReplyDeleteThat's the most bleakly hilarious part of all. If refusing to raise the debt limit is essentially turning the country into a deadbeat who can't pay its bills, the GOP's position is that our creditors will actually be thankful about it, because it shows that we're finally being responsible with our money! These people are insane.
ReplyDeleteNorth Dakota is flipping R no matter what. Ditto Missouri. Montana is looking extremely iffy.
ReplyDelete-Everyone, up until September 2012.
Well, Donald Trump proved he was a responsible businessman by declaring bankruptcy four times, so it checks out to me.
ReplyDeleteWhat people need to remember from 2012 is that money only goes so far. The GOP outspent the Dems by almost $500 million dollars and still lost the presidency, lost (completely winnable!) seats in the senate, and lost seats in the house. Part of it was that Republican voters were so self-assured that their sugar daddies would pick them up and carry them over the finish line (and were shocked beyond belief when they didn't-remember Karl Rove on election night) and part of it is that the Romney campaign was incompetent, a lot of Republican party insiders are grifters at heart, and the cash wasn't spent in, shall we say, the most efficient way.
ReplyDeleteNow, maybe you think they'll learn from this and be more dangerously efficient this time. That is possible. Republicans, after all, are so well known for their ability to self-examine, self-criticize, learn from their mistakes, and adapt new strategies.
Yes, inquiring minds want to know, how does one discern "nervously" through reading a tweet? Or "manfully pretending", either?
ReplyDeleteI wonder if at least some part of this is trying to put a burr under China's saddle. After spending a solid twenty-five years deinvesting in American industry and moving capacity and technology to China--as a deliberate policy to de-emphasize manufacturing here in favor of financial flim-flammery, they're now shocked--shocked, I tell you!--that China has amassed $1.3 trillion in U.S. debt. And they are, indeed, stupid enough to believe that we can default on interest payments to China without consequence.
ReplyDeleteHaving built, over thirty years, a house of cards economy horribly dependent upon consumer spending--in an environment where much of that spending has contributed to inexorably mounting trade deficits (almost everyone has forgotten that Keynes said that the one deficit that could not be tolerated was a trade deficit), they now think that they can default--that'll show `em!
Yes, it's all mind-boggling, but, then, these are not smart people. They're a perverse amalgam of Know-Nothings, Birchers, Neo-Confederates and Religious Loonies who think Jesus will save them, deus ex machina.
Ah, well, I guess we just don't understand Twitter fu.
ReplyDeleteI'm nervous that one year's worth of propaganda will shove this unseemly period of history down the memory hole.
ReplyDeleteBut whatever it is, few progressives appear willing to acknowledge that, regardless of where the blame lies for its arrival, the White House has not reacted to the shutdown well at all.
ReplyDeleteExactly! I mean say what you will about my son killing people and setting their remains on fire, then killing the responding firemen — my confusion and anger at his actions were REALLY inappropriate.*
*I actually once got upset because my son spilled my beer on my computer and the above was merely an example of the kind of logic Cooke employed and not any commentary on the satanic nature of my 7-year old. Please obey all "not killing people" laws.
You know, I've learned a lot over the years about the psychological phenomenon called "projection". This seems like a perfect example of the tic.
ReplyDeleteIt took less than a year for GW Bush to go down the memory hole, he was gone by Feb 1, 2009.
ReplyDeleteHow do they know exactly what people they've never met think?
ReplyDeleteAsk her if she's ever read the constitution
ReplyDeleteWhy waste the time? "Tenth Amendment, second clause of Second Amendment, unrecognizable extremist dumbfuck 'Real True Christians only' distortion of the First Amendment."
What was the over/under on Democrats taking Dick Lugar's seat in 2012?
ReplyDeleteIt's even more disturbing when you realize that a substantial portion of the Religious Loonies are trying to force Jesus' hand so that they can get front-row seats for the End Times. Sane polities put people who try to blackmail God into comfortable canvas jackets with eight-foot wraparound sleeves, not elected office.
ReplyDeleteOh, slim-to-none. Yet Congressman Donnelly got into the race anyway, and had an amazing stroke of luck. Maybe the same thing could happen in Kentucky or Maine this time. I'm less sanguine about it helping in Georgia. And South Dakota Dems are putting up a former Daschle aide, who will either be destroyed by popular former governor Rounds or will be hoping that a whackaloon wins the primary and is too extreme for South Dakota. Elsewhere, WV Secretary of State Tennant is no doubt hoping for a Pat McGeehan upset, since she otherwise will lose to Rep. Capito. And Mark Begich would much rather face Sarah Palin or Joe Miller than Lt. Gov Treadwell. And, and, and.
ReplyDeleteSo yes, the stars could all align right in a off year when turnout is dominated by diehards in the general, not just the primaries. But the magic has to happen even more places than in 2012. And it's not going to happen just because Republicans are behaving badly right now.
"Cooke's overall point seems to be that the world is being a jerk and will one day admit it was wrong and Cooke is right."
ReplyDeleteI can't remember a time when any conservative had any other point. But then I'm only pushing 50.
Then again, people didn't miss benefit checks last year. Even if this thing is over tomorrow, it's only thirteen months to the midterms, and let's see how many angry senior citizens and vets are going to accept "Oh, that is so '13" when the shutdown is brought up next fall.
ReplyDeleteThey're a perverse amalgam of Know-Nothings, Birchers, Neo-Confederates, Gold Bugs and Religious Loonies
ReplyDeleteI am reminded of Colonel McCormick of the Chicago Tribune, once referred to as "the finest mind of the twelfth century", who held a burning hatred of Washington, D.C., and FDR specifically. So yes, we've seen this before.
I'm not so sanguine about this. Thirteen months is a lifetime in voter years. If the world is mired in Great Depression 2: GOP's Last-Dance Bugaloo, then maybe we'll see the angry seniors turning on the GOP.
ReplyDeleteMuch more likely, we'll CXhuck Todd and the rest of the Beltway Blowhards bellowing about how both sides did this to the country because Obama refused to cut off at least one of his hands--which would have been the compromise position from the Republican demand that he chop off both hands.
This is what has made me "nervously man-pretend" over the past decade--the utter lack of self-preservation in these fuckheads.
ReplyDeleteI can easily believe that there have always been rich, evil assholes ruling this country (if not the world), but their descendants are not only just as evil, they are utterly stupid and proudly ignorant.
Evil Aristocracy = bad, but sustainable
Evil Aristocracy + The Stoopid = run like a motherfucker; it's gonna get heavy real soon.
They are less popular than syphilis
ReplyDeleteCan we just have the syphilis instead? It hasn't developed antibiotic resistance yet, so a few hundred million doses of penicillin would fix the country right up. The only method I can think of for treating the nutcase Tea Party congressthings involves getting a bucket of penicillin and sticking their heads in it for ten minutes each. Maybe fifteen minutes, just to be sure.
There's no logistical reason why Democrats can't superglue the GOP to shutdown/default antics for the next 13 months. The GOP has been using Obamacare (passed in March 2010) as their primary motivator for three years now. The problem, I think, is that Democrats and liberals (and everyone else, for that matter) aren't as good at nursing grudges and staying fanatically loyal as tea partiers are.
ReplyDeleteWe know who killed the economy: Too Big To Fail banks.
ReplyDeleteAccessories to that murder were both the GOP and Democratic 3rd Way corporatists (specifically, Bill Clinton, Bob Rubin, and company).
~
Why The Republicans Shut The Government Down and Threaten the Debt Ceiling
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ianwelsh.net/why-the-republicans-shut-the-government-down-and-threaten-the-debt-ceiling/
~
Yes. I've assumed the GOP has been betting on that timing right along.
ReplyDeleteAnd, IIRC, McCormick was also the principal funder of and bugle-blower for Tailgunner Joe McCarthy.
ReplyDeleteWere McCormick still in control of the Tribune today, there's little doubt that he'd be all warm and runny over Ted Cruz.
I like to refer to them as the 'Killer B's'. Birchers, Birthers, Bigots, Bible-bangers and Boneheads.
ReplyDeleteIt's the short purposeful strides.
ReplyDelete"the White House has not reacted to the shutdown well at all"
ReplyDeleteThat's true. The White House should be much more adamant in its refusal to negotiate. I rate it only fair in this regard. In addition the White House has not done a good job at all in castigating/vilifying/ridiculing/dismissing the whole, shoddy, shopworn, shambolic GOP stunt, and the little sub stunt, featuring using elderly veterans as props and hypocritical bullying of Federal workers, at the WWII Memorial. I rate it poor in this area.
No f'n kidding! People need to get out there and vote against these TeePee assholes!
ReplyDeleteSome chick who wants to talk about sex? Thats what Ace 'o spades told me.
ReplyDeleteColorado will not be a fight. The Repubs here are now talking about a clean CR. Lot of vets in CO and they'm not happy about what's coming down. Also, too, we are just not that into Bill Owens. At all.
ReplyDeleteWhat, is Obama supposed to go on TV and urinate on a polaroid of Boehner's wife? I don't know how much more adamant the White House can be at this point without Obama leading troops into the Capitol and shouting "I say you are no Congress".
ReplyDeleteJaysus, this one's a high-functioning imbecile.
ReplyDeleteYou sure about that qualifier?
What, is Obama supposed to go on TV and urinate on a polaroid of Boehner's wife?
ReplyDeleteNow you seem to be tapping into Boehner's recurring dreams.
I'd personally prefer the Defenestration of Capitol Hill, but baby steps. . .
ReplyDeleteAnd how many of those blowhards are invested, directly and indirectly, in the stock market that will tank if the debt ceiling isn't lifted? Now it's affecting them. The teabaggers really don't realize that they've shat everybody's bed this time.
ReplyDeleteI actually think that secession is the sanest thing these guys have come up with yet. I'd love to see the looks on their faces when, THIS time, we call their bluff, and then call for the return of every dime of federal spending they've ever received.
ReplyDeleteI was mostly just kidding.
ReplyDeleteI need to cut down on my expenses so next month I plan on not paying my mortgage or student loans. That'll show 'em!
ReplyDeleteBachman came out in favor of WWIII- The Jesusening the other day. Why is she not in an insane asylum?
ReplyDeleteExcellent B4,
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely! And not just 2014: there's that long grind to get Statehouses that will draw fair and sensible Congressional District lines.
It doesn't necessarily have to be the Democrats. I wouldn't mind seeing a Southern Progressive Party come back into existence, this time without the Jim Crow. A lot of Southerners like Thomas Watson's, the olde Georgia Progressive's, line "There ain't but three things wrong with the South, Northern banks, Northern railroads, and Northern INshooance cumpnies."
A good deal of the appeal of the Tea Party is its echoes of ol' Tom Watson when he ran for President in his buckboard, and it's worth remembering that Orval Faubus's father was leader of the Arkansas Socialist Party.
Evangelicals are very largely in thrall to C Street Religion at the moment, but there's bad news waiting for them out there. Some of their kids are going to school and learning to read, so a certain percentage of them are in danger of running across the Sermon on the Mount.
Camel? Eye of needle? Koch? I think not.
Cheers,
-dlj.
B4,
ReplyDeleteMe too.
In the '12 election I was so delusional that I thought the first debate was a huge victory for candidate Obama: I sat there watching it and thinking how wonderful it was for tens of millions of people to see Mitt Romney telling lies on television.
Silly me! Wow, was I wrong!
The over-confidence of all the "the Republicans are screwing themselves" voices just appalls me. The lie that Democrats shut down the government has been running for a week now, and the dishonest meme "Democrats forced Romneycare on Massachusetts" is out there.
A lot of Republicans are honest people: they only say all that stupid stuff because they really believe it. A few are liars, but there's at least one thing to even their credit: they don't lie easily. It took millions and millions of dollars to make those Fox folks tell the lies they tell. Probkem is, the professional liars are awfully competent actors and entertainers, and the pull a lot of innocent folks in behind them.
Like you, I'm nervous.
-dlj.
Agreeing with Spaghetti Lee on the GOP's well-known ability to adapt and learn from mistakes. And I'll add, it's entirely possible that by this time next year they may well have already shut down the government again.
ReplyDelete