...about recent developments in climate change, and the rightblogger response -- which seems to lean more heavily toward "get used to it, we're never going to do anything anyway" than I remember. Maybe I was blocking it out.
UPDATE. In comments, I think hellslittlestangel speaks for us all when he says "the only thing that will stop climate change is a good guy with a gun."
We're warmists? Damn! I'm so getting that t-shirt.
ReplyDeleteClimate-change denial and its massive supporting network of right-wing blogs, websites and news site is corroding out the whole conservative movement world-wide.
ReplyDeleteWho'd have thought that it was the grim political realists who would be unable to cope with the wide-open freedom of the internet?
This has been coming on for a while. I guess some of the righty brethern are tired of people pointing and laughing. And this allows them to claim the mantle of REAL realist (unlike the bubble-headed enviroqueers who want us to suffer with wimpy light bulbs during 20 year droughts.)
ReplyDeleteBesides, we all know that only Elitist Gay Negro Cities will be flooded when the ice caps melt.
Godswill librals!
Simple formula:
ReplyDelete1) It isn't happening
2) If it's happening, we didn't do it
3) If it's happening and we did it, it's either good, or it's too late to change it now
I CAN HAZ KOCH MONEY NOW?
Look at the bright side: Limbaugh's "Central Command South" is in Palm Beach.
ReplyDeleteThen again, shit with that much fat in it definitely will float in salt water.
And all three lines get paid... even when spoken by the same person in the space of 90 seconds.
ReplyDelete... and which state will get its own FARK tag, after?
ReplyDeleteI have decided that, no matter how large a disaster strikes in a Red State, I won't donate one thin dime to a relief effort. They get more of my federal tax money than I do, and they are the cause of their own victimization.
ReplyDeleteFuck the South.
*snif*
ReplyDeleteSilly, that's Gayzilla, which will be released in September.
ReplyDeleteDon't worry dude, you can move into a small room over my garage, and play the "Fonzie" role as long as you greet me with the phrase, "Ayyyyyy, Mr B!"
ReplyDeleteI say you move here and help in the struggle to convert these heathens. It's not the "easy" setting.
ReplyDeleteThe Sandy aid still hasn't materialized in large part. I'll take care of the people in my geographic region.
ReplyDeleteMaybe some of those fuckers who vote for guys like Gohmert and Brownback need to suffer the consequences of their bad choices. Like I said, my tax dollars already pour into those regions.
"As Godzilla's large, powerful tail brutalizes the surrounding city, who among us wouldn't be put in mind of, uh...excuse me a minute."
ReplyDelete"challenge accepted!"
ReplyDelete--jonah goldberg
I dig where you're coming from, but the problem is that there's no way to avoid collateral damage.
ReplyDeleteRelevant?
ReplyDeleteMy elected representatives don't block aid to those parts of the country.
ReplyDeleteYeah, 100% of people who live there voted for those guys, and 100% of them are there because they absolutely want to be, not for job or family obligations. And tornadoes and hurricanes are always thoughtful enough to check your voter registration before they pulverize your house. Even Old Testament God would have not destroyed Sodom if he had found ten good people in the whole city, and I know you're less bloodthirsty than that guy.
ReplyDeleteSorry, but this is bullshit. When I hear "let them suffer", "not my problem", "they deserved it", and "I only care about my own group", I don't care who I'm hearing it from. Bullshit is bullshit.
It's the "Christ, what an asshole" of rightblogging!
ReplyDeleteI see them as the equivalent of addicts who need to hit "rock bottom" before they seek help. The warnings have been sounded for decades, and they would prefer to put the pedal to the metal even though they're headed for a cliff, whether out of spite or out of their eschatological yearnings.
ReplyDeleteThat's fair enough when you're talking about the rump-end 27%-ers who have no motivations but spite or eschatological yearnings. But we're not talking about them, we're talking about anyone and everyone living in the path of a hurricane or tornado.
ReplyDeleteJoplin, Missouri, is about as red territory as you can get, dominant-culture speaking. Yet 28% of people there, over one out of 4, voted for Obama in 2012. More than that voted for McCaskill or Jay Nixon. It got its ass kicked by a tornado a few years back: 116 people died. So what should one do here if we're trying to punish people for their votes? Only donate 28% of what I would have? Earmark it by census tract? Eventually this just gets ridiculous, and way too close to the conservative method of using generosity and charity as a stick to beat the 'undeserving' with.
(We wonder if this means Rubio will now resign from the Republican Party.)
ReplyDeleteThat would be sort of like Weyoun leaving the Founders. They'd just open up the tank and another one would pop out. [/geek]
They've already received more of my tax dollars than I or my neighbors, or the people in my state, and they vote for people who don't even believe in the legitimacy of the government that is spending my tax dollars to benefit them. I don't believe in charities, because they are usually scams. They don't believe in government largesse, but they are the recipients.
ReplyDeleteI'm through beating this dead horse. We'll just have to disagree on this one.
Eh, they're only concerned with the Northern part of the state, anyway.
ReplyDeleteIt is a variation on a well-established formula:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTbgsoHDc24
From a purely practical point of view, I want to make the 27%-ers home states as livable as possible, or they'll do what they usually do--show up here in California.
ReplyDeleteIf you're going to sign something "S. Lee", you might consider ending it "Excelsior!" or "'Nuff Said!"
ReplyDelete"ignorant journalists taunt politicians for their ignorance," he said, "but have no argument beyond an appeal to authority"
ReplyDeleteI bet he even typed that with a straight face.
Also too, I am once again befuddled by the 'toon o' the week, but I have a feeling that's a permanent state, so pay no mind...
A scientist character "believes that the ecosphere will heal itself, will restore its own balance,"
ReplyDeleteIt undoubtedly will. H Sap, however, is not guaranteed a seat on the teeter-totter...
Damn, I didn't know they made closets that big...
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't recommend converting them to pet food, on account of the prions.
ReplyDelete"Being a victim was the goal of every Liberal," he said. "And not just
ReplyDeletebeing a victim mind you, but being the biggest victim, or at least a
member of a victim group."
Er... actually, having spent much of my life around liberal blogs, I can see what he means. If you're a victim - and in particular, if you are a bigger victim than anyone else in the discussion - it means that you get sympathy and attention, not to mention a certain amount of authority since you are expected to Share Your Experience while everyone else listens in respectful silence. That really does breed a certain kind of culture where your status is determined by how much pain you're in. So... he's not entirely wrong about that part?
On the other hand, considering how many conservative wails of "help, help, I'm being oppressed!" you hear just on this exact topic, he could stand to take the damn beam out of his own eye before going around looking for grains elsewhere.
He's wrong, of course -- we really want to
increase the number of abortions, and bring about the dictatorship of
the proletariat.
... that sounds good, actually. Why don't we want to do that?
Do not interrupt their bad attitude or their
pity parties man. They do not want any good news, pessimism rules with
them.
Oh, shush, person who predict dire consequences if we do try to become more green. I'm really fucking optimistic! I predict that nothing bad will happen if we switch to cleaner energy, irrespectively of what will happen if we don't!
It used to belong to Roy Cohn.
ReplyDeleteI did stare at the Santa Claus cartoon for a very long time.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, if he was a shade browner, I'd have assumed they were going
for the "dastardly Muslim is dressing up as Santa to lull America (or
possibly Israel, given all the sand and the camel) into a false sense of
security but stoopid libruls see this as more evidence of their cultlike religion of Global Warming... BENGHAZI!"
Really, aside from that, they've hit on an argument that is salient technically and politically --a nationalistic national readiness campaign with massive investment in infrastructure would be something a cronynist (but I repeat myself) and jingoist (again) right could invest in. Some sort of tripartite campaign platform of crushing the illegals (brown people), creating cushy energy jobs for hardworking Americans (white people), and letting the ragheads (ragheads) sort out their own problems in the Middle East... though we might occasionally bomb them because Freedom.
In a way, I suppose their Keystone tsuris is a variation of that strategy. Perhaps the real battle for the soul of the Republican party (stick with me here, soul is used loosely as a heuristic reification) will be to what degree they'll embrace infrastructure maintenance and upkeep and building (to weather the impacts of climate change, even if that is not their stated intention) instead of running on mealy-mouthed Confederatism.
There's surely enough kickback and potential slush-fund cash in the trillions we need; and conservatives don't really give a shit about the deficit. The main thing they'd have to ensure would be that the wrong kind of places (cities, mostly) don't get "disproportionate funding" or whatever codeword they'll come up with.
That and think of the possibilities of pairing some sort of American renewal campaign (even more ethnically coded than right now) to an *increase* in American military funding, for all the resource wars climate change will put a pressure on the United States to undertake. I know those of us on the Left take it for granted that only a state, or interstate-based solution will solve global warming, but I think the Right will realize that. They're canny enough in their moments of lucidity. And their horribleness means they'll pervert those ideas in quick succession: multilateral resource stewardship and international solidarity will be turned into unilateral resource grabs and international solidarity will exist only to the degree that rightist (and possibly some centrist) interstate elites collude to hoover up more wealth in the ongoing disaster that climate change is likely to be, though even that cosmopolitan show of synchronized predation would likely be consumed by bloodthirsty nationalism.
I take issue with a great deal of Naomi Klein's work, but I can't help but feel that these next few decades should we continue on our set path will make Earth into a giant petri-dish for her political insights. That's one of my biggest political fears: a neutered Left can only stand by passively whilst a kleptocratic Center and a sanguineous Right vie for supremacy amidst the ruins.
I also think Bryan Cranston wouldn't have died so early in that Godzilla movie (belated SPOILER) if it weren't for Obamacare (that's a free one to righties looking to incorporate that meme back in time for the midterms.)
You keep using the word "they" in a way that completely ignores the numbers Spaghetti Lee just laid out for you.
ReplyDeleteYou're just hanging around the wrong liberal blogs.
ReplyDelete1. I gave you back the kettle undamaged;
ReplyDelete2. The kettle was already damaged when I borrowed it;
3. I never borrowed it in the first place.
ignorant journalists taunt politicians for their ignorance," he said, "but have no argument beyond an appeal to authority
ReplyDeleteAh, yes--quoting people to actually know what they're talking about = "appeal to authority." As opposed to publishing the rants of Prof. Otto Yerass who has studied climate change by watching the commercials on The Weather Channel.
I wonder what these people do when confronted by their doctor with health advice? "Look, Doc: You say I need to start walking a couple miles every day and stop eating fried fast food. But that's just a theory, and you can't make me knuckle under to a liberal diet just by appealing to authority!"
It's interesting that some of the brethren have actually accepted climate change as real, even though they're banking on being able to make a fast buck out of it rather than try to, you know, alleviate the effects. This strikes me as heretical and I wonder whether these voices will be shouted down or, as those effects become more pronounced, such POVs will become more widespread. My guess is the latter; you just know that ALEC is working on it as we speak.
ReplyDeleteYes, director Gareth Edwards says:
ReplyDelete"As we got into it, the message of Godzilla turned into, 'We should let nature take its course and shouldn’t try to control it.'”
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/14/director-gareth-evans-says-godzilla-is-a-god-protecting-mankind-against-climate-change.html
Indeed! Insurance companies have contingencies. The Department of Defense runs war games on changing climate scenarios. Rich people are buying up land near Hudson's bay and squabbling over oil and gas exploration leases in previously iced-over Arctic waters. The only people who don't believe in global climate change are the chumps in the Republican base who supply the votes, and who think Jesus will send an air conditioner if it gets too hot.
ReplyDeleteYou know--Rod Dreher never disappoints. He always finds the cloud of self pity behind the sun of knowledge. Just when you think he has scraped the bottom of the barrell he dives right through to a new low. So the overall model is first they laugh at you, then they rage at you, then they acknowledge you are right but point out that you convinced them too late so its all your fault anyway that nothing can be done. Is that about the size of it?
ReplyDeleteSo: comic book thinking before comic books included Alan Moore?
ReplyDeleteIsn' that the message of The Thing?
ReplyDeleteI see the issue from both sides. Sometimes when you are reading about the Bundy types you really do wish that the great hand of the market and of climate change would just crush the shit out of them. But then I remember that Nevada has other people, people just working hard and trying to survive, and I don't wish that fate on all of them. No one learns any lesson through fear. People just learn to fear more and they withdraw more. So though it seems salutory (salutary?) it is really just counterproductive. But since a wish is not the same as the deed I think BBBB and I can both be forgiven our occasional descent into hyperbole.
ReplyDeleteOh lord, won't you buy me
ReplyDeletea color tv
dialing for dollars
is trying to find me
I wait for delivery
each day until three
so lord
won't you buy me
a color
tv
By "challenge accepted" he means "singlehandedly alter the atmosphere's methane levels".
ReplyDelete4. Why don't you come over so we can discuss this like neighborly neighbors?
ReplyDelete5. INTRUDER IN MY - AT MY - ON MY WALKWAY BUT DEFINITELY THREATENING ME!! [SHOTS FIRED]
6. In Wayne We Trust.
The original movie was all about scientists using their brains and resourcefulness to kill the monster with electricity.
ReplyDeleteI don't remember the remake awfully well, but I think the overarching message was that Kurt Russell was some kind of badass.
Then again, BBBB isn't asking for the entire population to see the light, just enough people to get the morons out of office.
ReplyDeleteThey'll purge Dade County voting lists, come hell or high water.
ReplyDeleteSo in other words, Breitbart.com will be adding "Godzilla" to its list of the best conservative movies?
ReplyDelete"Look, Doc: You say I need to start walking a couple miles every day and
ReplyDeletestop eating fried fast food. But that's just a theory, and you can't
make me knuckle under to a liberal diet just by appealing to authority!"
Doc: OK, Mr. Limbaugh, go ahead and have another helping of deep fried breaded lard...
It won't stop climate change, but it might stop a few climate scientists.
ReplyDeleteIN A WORLD
ReplyDeleteWITHOUT ICE CAPS
ONE MAN
WILL KILL
EVERY CARBON DIOXIDE MOLECULE
ONE BULLET
AT A TIME
"This is more akin to the way scientists like Galileo and Copernicus
ReplyDeletewere persecuted," added Teach. "...the climate change movement certainly
acts more like a repressive religion, the way the Catholic church was
during a time."
OK, Bill...I guess it might possibly be akin to that, if you overlook the fact that Galileo and Copernicus were right...
have no argument beyond an appeal to authority
ReplyDeleteWell, yeah, nothing beyond the so-called scientists and the evidence they've put together over many decades. Dude apparently wouldn't look up a phone number in the phone book because IT'S NOT THE BOSS OF HIM.
Finally a task he can handle without reader assistance!
ReplyDeleteThe shuttle from the Galactic Concordium's mothership met the United Nations representative at Black Rock Desert, the spacecraft touching down on the playa gently while seeming to hardly disturb the air--gravity manipulation? the UN rep wondered. A hatch irised open on the side and the extraterrestrial stepped out; it seemed to consist of two upright ovoids of light, the shorter above the taller. "Greetings, earthling!" it announced cheerfully. "On behalf of the Galactic Concordium, we--" It broke off suddenly, and the upper ovoid tilted a few degrees to the left.
ReplyDelete"Problem?", the UN rep said, trying to be casual.
"Well, er, don't take this the wrong way, but we've been monitoring your audio and video transmissions for quite some time, and, well... we were expecting primates."
"Oh. Them," The UN rep clacked her mandibles together and averted her antennae in embarrassment. "Those must have been some pretty old transmissions. They were assholes, anyway. Now, dinosaurs, they were cool..."
Sarah Palin has showed up to two CPAC speeches in a row with a Big Gulp of soda in hand, so yes.
ReplyDeleteBillionaires as the Founders, teabaggers as the Jem'Hadar... hey, it works.
ReplyDelete"Let them fight!!!
ReplyDeleteIt's not really quite as stupid as holocaust & evolution denial, but it's getting close.
ReplyDelete"Listen...to the warm...."
ReplyDeleteI was thinking that B^4 has a dog: they'll eat anything. My cats are total fussbudgets.
ReplyDeleteAwesome. If it wasn't for the conservative bias, it'd win a Hugo for sure.
ReplyDeleteFeel free to nominate me anyway, just to stick it to The Man.
ReplyDeleteThat was my aunt's line to her doctors the entire time she refused to change her lifestyle to mitigate her diabetes. Even after they cut off one leg below the knee.
ReplyDeleteI missed the laughing part.
ReplyDeleteIt was pretty sneery, so you may not have recognized it as laughter. e.g.:
ReplyDelete(Snow reported in Buffalo in January)
"So much for global warming, haw haw"
Oh, no. I'm sorry to hear that. The same thing happened to a local celebrity here in Salt Lake City - rich jerk, basically tried to tell his doctors - and his disease - "don't you know who I *am*?" the same way he did with everyone else. He was stubborn enough that it killed him.
ReplyDeleteC'mon guys, don't give up! Collective action problems are for collectivists!! Fuck that shit!
ReplyDeleteThat's more or less the plot of Iain Banks' Complicity, if one looks at it a certain way.
ReplyDeleteI've long been a proponent and fan of honest graft. It veers a little close to kleptocracy, of course, but in infrastructure, it's a necessary money funnel (which make the banking and defense graft not "honest"). Like the Big Dig. Were there overruns? DUH! A lot of working guys got a whole bunch of extra hours and money. Cops doing time and a half, union guys, contractors, political hacks etc. Sure a lot of the slush fund went to rich folk, but it was plastered around town. Better yet, the end result is spectacular overall. It works fairly well, it's given the city of Boston an entirely new feel and the bridge is gorgeous. It was an impressive feat of engineering and the kind of project America used to do a lot.
ReplyDeleteIt would seem to be the perfect time — with banks pretty much giving money away for free — to do massive projects, chock full of honest graft. Green infrastructure stimulus could both be a great works project, a world-altering necessity, a money funnel and smart engineering. It would cost trillions, trillions of which would go to cities, towns and people across the country. It's truly amazing to me that the conservatives who ADMIT global warming is happening think that there's nothing to do about it anyway and that we shouldn't try. It would be a boon to America to try, but since these are the worst people on Earth who combine blinding stupidity with pure maliciousness, their party will NEVER sign on to the blindingly obvious, massively lucrative and sensibly important infrastructure rebuild that would take a couple of generations to do.
I want to evolve with this comment over limitless oceans of time.
ReplyDeleteFrom the Onion: "450-pound man didn't go to his doctor for a lecture." http://www.theonion.com/articles/450pound-man-didnt-go-to-doctor-for-a-lecture,31625/
ReplyDeleteActually, the real next challenge for American conservatives will be coming up with someone to whom they can compare the next Democratic president. After all, Obama has been characterized as worse than Hitler, and he's been denounced as being ultra-extreme left--far to the left of Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot combined.
ReplyDeleteSo what will Rush and the rest do if Hilary wins in 2016? I guess the only thing left is going to be claiming she's even more extreme than Obama, who was worse than Hitler, Mao, etc.
Yeah, and the fallacy is "appeal to improper authority," as in a tv weather personality with a degree in kinesiology trying to talk about sophisticated climate models... Legitimate authority, or, in the devalued argot of the past, expertise, is perfectly okay.
ReplyDelete"In comments, I think hellslittlestangel speaks for us all when he says
ReplyDelete"the only thing that will stop climate change is a good guy with a gun."
Oh sure, that's what a liberal would say. They never want to do anything interventionist, anything manly and effective, cause somebody might get their feeling hurt!
Well, listen up, libs, you can't stop climate change with a gun. Everybody knows the only thing which can stop global warming is a nuclear winter! So, bombs away!
"That really does breed a certain kind of culture where your status is determined by how much pain you're in."
ReplyDeleteWell, up here in Warshington State, where everybody has a medical pot permit, we call that disability chic.
Well some people get good advice and change their mind, and others double down on the stupid. My aunt was always stubborn, and it killed her.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of "status determined by how much pain you are in", ever been to a real, rolling on the floor, speaking in tongues pentacostal service? The more pain/depravity of your pre-born again life, the more points you get in Jebus-land, and the more often they'll remind you of their prior fallen state since it gets such copious community attaboy's. For some reason the constant whining of the conservatives about climate change discussions reminds me of this.
ReplyDeleteI suppose the only way we'll get another huge infrastructure push will be because there is an R in the WH, so their party can take credit and make sure all the contracts go to sufficiently plutocrat-supporting construction firms. I wonder how long it would take to re-tool Halliburton into a bridge & road company?
ReplyDeleteThe Great Depression gave us some incredible infrastructure, but without the credible threat of rioting in the cities, version 2.0 didn't get the same governmental response. The economy keeps barely limping along while the righties in political office keep whacking it with a stick in order to keep it that way.
That's an expression that will take on a whole new meaning over the next hundred years or so.
ReplyDeleteWhen the profit potential becomes apparent, the POV will change as needed. Let the Free Market speak!
ReplyDeleteI rewatched the Kurt Russell version recently and it is quite good. Arguably it's message is, Do NOT fuck with Antarctica.
ReplyDeleteIt would fix the economy while that blah guy is office; we can't have that now, can we? Plus Pete Peterson's Pals have their sights set on easier money: your Social Security. There's none of that messy engineering or dirt moving involved, so more of the funds stay in the 1% where they naturally, righteously belong.
ReplyDeleteVin Diesel is The Scrubber. Carbon sequestration, with a vengance. Coming to theaters February 5th.
ReplyDelete"...the blindingly obvious, massively lucrative and sensibly important infrastructure rebuild..." The Koch brothers are against it. What's your point?
ReplyDeleteYou know when their walled retirement communities and backwater swamp homesteads are actually under water, they're just going to blame the Democrats for global warming, right? "If it wasn't for all them Hollywood elites flying around the world in fuel-guzzlin' jets to give speeches calling the Bible racist, and all them scientists cuttin' up the ice to 'prove' our grandparents was monkeys, why, the ocean woulda stayed put!"
ReplyDeleteAnyone who's read their Lovecraft knows *that*.
ReplyDeleteI am in complete agreement, and Jules Feiffer was on it before us:
ReplyDeletehttp://books.google.com/books?id=iL1n3NVJ-6IC&pg=PA51&lpg=PA51&dq=%22feiffer%22+%22legalize+corruption+%22&source=bl&ots=tx8srh9d07&sig=JrLzHjaVCVcN87iq7_uaTvbav2A&hl=en&sa=X&ei=uE96U5-yLLK_sQSs6IKwBg&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22feiffer%22%20%22legalize%20corruption%20%22&f=false
I'm pretty sure I stole it from Mr. Dooley and him from Tammany Hall. But it has a long and noble history of getting shit done, while lining pockets along the way. This bullshit against fucking earmarks is one of the great self-inflicted wounds in modern political history.
ReplyDeleteDecemberwarmists
ReplyDelete"Occasional descent into hyperbole" is one thing. Arguing the point the way BBBB was doing, where he insisted on saying that the only people who mattered in those states were the Republican majority— to the point of appearing to deny that anyone else even existed— is another thing.
ReplyDelete"get used to it, we're never going to do anything anyway."
ReplyDeleteWhoa, if some of them are already getting to that state, we really are fucked. Because one of the major signs of AGW reaching the point where it's catastrophicallly unmitigable is American conservatives finally switching to "Oh, yeah ... that."
(Perhaps they're merely internalizing that it will be really, really too late by 2023, which is the earliest we'll likely be able to regain control of the House from stupid pigfucking psychopaths.)
Sell naming rights. The Kentucky Fried Chicken Turnpike is what they want anyway.
ReplyDeleteI am 85% in agreement. the other 15% still worries that US infrastructure projects are MUCH more expensive than other nations, which reduces the number of useful infrastructure projects.
ReplyDeleteI was just reading, over at LGM, about a guy named Truman who refused to move out of the way of the Mt.St. Helen's explosion. He ended up buried in 60 feet of lava, along with his pets, although he had two months worth of warning. Here's a fitting valedictory:
ReplyDeleteThere can be no finer memorial." Truman's cousin Richard Ice commented that Truman "was not only a fast talker but loud. He had an opinion on all subjects and a definite one." Ice also added that Truman's short period of life as a celebrity was "the peak of his life.
In addition his sister is quoted as not being able to believe that he actually died, thinking maybe she might need to be flown over the lava flow to kind of prove it to her. Just like he apparently believed that real death doesn't happen to people who are stubborn enough.
Insurance companies are getting very close to letting everyone know that ignoring is no longer cost effective.
ReplyDeleteYup, there was quite a bit of guffawing at first.
ReplyDeleteWell, there's an assortment of reasons. In no particular order:
ReplyDelete1. Lots of working class and even poor people would benefit. It's no longer enough for a conservative to prefer the rich; now they must actively denounce everyone who isn't.
2. If you wait until the bridges fall down, you can ram emergency no-bid contracts through that ensure your friends make lots and lots of money without the ignominy of competing for it. Struggling is for little people.
3. Jesus is coming soon, and he won't be counting how much water we saved by fixing leaky century-old mains or how many surplus hospital beds we have or whether there's a robust public health system. Well, maybe he is, and the meek will inherit the earth. Until they do, though, they can eat the shit of the 1%.
4. What's in it for a conservative? No, really: they hate the majority of American citizens, what with the ovaries and the wrong skin color and the not having enough money. They hate Christianity and its tenets, at least if you judge them by their actions. They hate the ideals of liberty, freedom, and equality put forward by the Founders, despite their rhetoric. Why should a reactionary conservative authoritarian support anything that would contribute towards the common good?
No, I really think that's hyperbole too. I see nothing wrong with disagreeing with BBBB as SL and you have done. But complaining about shit on the internet is not really a plan of genocide and BBBB is guilty of nothing more than hyberbolic complaint about a system which appears guaranteed never to teach any political actor a lesson.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely agreed. Time was, you could get a certain kind of Republican to see that they could grab a piece of the action too, but, mystifyingly, they'd prefer to let it slide to the no-bid, disaster capitalist.
ReplyDeleteSome of that price differential is self-inflicted, and some of that is inherent in building in North America. We tend to have bigger temperature swings than Europe, and need different asphalt compounds and larger expansion joints and whatnot. The west coast also has seismic requirements that much of the world can ignore. (Well, not Japan. Now there's a place with pricy infrastructure.)
ReplyDeleteThe self-inflicted part would be our neglected rail system. Because more of our bulk cargo moves by truck, our highways need to be massively reinforced. If we eliminated heavy trucks, our interstate maintenance budget would drop by 90%. Or we could build the same size roads and bridges for half the price.
The first comment was hyperbolic complaint. Going on after that— without acknowledging that there is anything hyperbolic about it, and then saying "agree to disagree" as if those are two equally reasonable positions one might argue from— is just being an asshole. Of course no one said anything about a plan of genocide, that's a ridiculous strawman.
ReplyDeleteSometimes people just need to vent. Its not the same as plan of action.
ReplyDeleteI don't know where you're getting this "plan of action" stuff, I never said any such thing, but if BBBB was just venting he's perfectly capable of saying so himself.
ReplyDeleteThe Kochs and their ilk are the Founders, the GOP politicians are the Vorta.
ReplyDeleteIf I were concern trolling, I would say something about how this kind of argument is counter-productive because it'll turn people against Democratic alicublog commenters or whatever. I didn't say that, did I, I just said it didn't make sense for you to say you were "agreeing to disagree" with Spaghetti Lee when all you had done was ignore what he said. And you're being an asshole, and I don't know why. I can't even tell if you're just venting as aimai says; you sure seemed to be insisting that you had a serious point.
ReplyDeleteIsolated spots in Massachusetts are also good to avoid.
ReplyDeleteDamn. Just when I thought I was going to change my name to Sunny Bunch, I learn of Dick Ice. How excellent: Dick Ice, Warmist
ReplyDelete4. Why did you force me to take your stinking kettle anyway?
ReplyDeleteThe original (i.e., without Raymond Burr spliced into it) was about the hubris of humanity pouring energy and pollution into the ecosystem and awakening forces of nature far beyond our ability to control and with zero concern for our continued survival. That destroys coastal cities.
ReplyDeletePerhaps I'm not being fair to the movie. I have enjoyed John Carpenter's work before.
ReplyDeleteI should watch it again.
Now I'm imagining the aliens landing at Black Rock during Burning Man and getting a, um, non-representative idea of human society. Then showing up at the White House wearing nothing but body paint and dust, bearing gifts of glow sticks, bottled water, and ecstasy.
ReplyDelete(Original Godzilla (Gojira) that is. Not The Thing.)
ReplyDeleteThe picture:
ReplyDeleteReminds me of a bumper sticker from the Reagan administration: "Nuclear War: Let's Just Get It Over With."
ReplyDelete(Not sure if said sticker ever existed, actually. But it should have.)
Are you saying that someone who has their house tornadoed in Alabama shouldn't accept private financial assistance because Alabama is a red state? How does that work? What am I missing here?
ReplyDeleteHowever, and I don't know how else to say this, and it isn't just directed at you, but I think it would be a really good thing if people stopped saying "But taxes!" in these situations for like ... Ever.
I realized today it gets on my tits like you would not believe.
For one thing, a person who thinks the worst thing that happens to federal tax dollars is they go to Georgia's Medicaid program or to maintain interstate highways passing through Indiana, that person has not been paying attention to what happens to federal tax dollars. Shit, send more money to Utah and Texas if it means there will be less money for another fucking war or subsidies for Bank of America.
For another, here's a way to tell if a bright idea is in fact awful and should be ripped up and never mentioned again because everyone involved is ashamed they even allowed the thought to form in their minds: Take the bright idea and ask - Will it cause human suffering?
I've yet to come across a scenario that involves using the U.S. Tax Code
to "show them" that doesn't result in human suffering. Often, lots of it. For some people this seems to be the entire point. They're fucking proud that their idea will cause suffering.
This is alarming.
I mean, if I came up to you and said "Let's cut truancy by nailing kids to their school chairs," you'd punch me out and feel good about it. I find it baffling that "You know what would make life better? Designing the tax code so that people living in certain states get fucked with rusty chain saws," is often seen as a jim-dandy idea.
Yes, I know, it will be done with the best intentions and is supposed to send "them" a message and ultimately be for "their" own good (I'm talking about Republican voters in Red States not kids who skip school), and some of these people would gladly set my house on fire after they nail the doors shut. (Some of them have to worry about those people but I guess screw them for living in a red state?)
But anyway, they will eventually pack up and move to Blue States (including the arsonists, joy) and those who won't are only staying put because they're stubborn and not because they live there or can't find a job elsewhere, and a bunch of other bizarre control freak shit that strikes me as childish and psychotic.
(And also blithely ignores questions like how long blue states will remain the imagined utopias when the infrastructure is suddenly taxed by people fleeing the blighted Red States and showing up without jobs or homes or ... stuff like that.)
In short - I'll pass on any ideas that involve using the U.S. Tax Code as a cattle prod. They are hot fucking twaddle.
then they acknowledge you are right but point out that you convinced
ReplyDeletethem too late so its all your fault anyway that nothing can be done.There was a Noonan column a few years ago when she wrote exactly that (that was at a time before denial became official policy, when Republican propagandists could still accept the reality of climate change without becoming apostates). Scientists should somehow have made their case more forcefully, and it was their fault that party operatives such as herself had chosen to listen to well-funded lobbyists instead.
It's like the propaganda they're posting at McDonalds Doc. No way my bacon double cheeseburger with onion ring condiments is 1300 calories. I say Prove it Mr. "Scientist".
ReplyDeleteI watch it annually, give or take. It's pretty much the Gold Standard of Things. While neither movie took much more than the bare bones from Campbell's not-really-all-that-good story (much as Robert Wise did for the original TDTESS) which was probably a good thing, Carpenter kept the "Who Goes There" theme at least equal to the gore and neato FX. At the end of the movie, you really have no idea which one's Human, and which one's the Alien from Yougottabefuckinkiddinme...
ReplyDeleteThe thing is, it's blindingly obvious. Since you can't have government without at least some graft, no matter what you do, why the fuck not make the situation work for us?
ReplyDeleteIf he's on the Atkins Diet, he could cut out the bread...
ReplyDeleteI kinda wonder if he was going for "argument *from* authority", and just flat bungled it.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget the newer variation on this theme: You liberals were right, but you were right for the wrong reasons. Therefore, you were wrong! Our little Megan pioneered that one.
ReplyDeleteActually, the hot thing in conservative circles now is to build highways with public funds, then turn the highway over to a private firm so it can erect toll booths and make a profit. When it turns out that the profits don't allow for proper maintenance, the taxpayer can be called in to pay for fixing the highway while the private firm continues to collect the tolls.
ReplyDeleteIt's a beautiful system that guarantees ALL of the profits are privatized while of the risks and expenses are socialized. Which, as we've seen over and over again, is the current conservative vision of how the free market should work.
No, there will be no more big infrastructure spending under either party. Republicans have decided that they despise Ike's interstate system, except in so far as it can be privatized. But more than that, Republicans today stand against ANY public spending that is not defense or agri-business.
ReplyDeleteDemocrats have completely forgotten that infrastructure even exists--except when it's failing in dramatic and fatal fashion.
I think Chris Christie's turning back the Hudson tunnel project perfectly encapsulates the entire dynamic. Republicans cheered that this crucial infrastructure project got killed off. And Democrats barely mustered yawns before moving as quickly as possible to enable all of Christie's agenda, and then endorse him for re-election.
I think I'd have to blow up my own mailbox if something like that ever turned up in it.
ReplyDeleteDo tell: What kind of exciting fundraising letter was contained within? An appeal to help raise money to cover Hannity's speaking fee?
I would invite this comment into my bomb shelter when the big one drops.
ReplyDeleteYeah, they wanted money.
ReplyDeleteWhich means they used the Post Office (that they hate and are trying to destroy) to beg for money.
ReplyDeleteYes, or the variant "You were right about it but you didn't need to be so snotty about it! You made me feel bad when you used all those big words, or those snarky asides, or that science stuff so naturally I couldn't be expected to listen."
ReplyDeleteIronic, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteHow about Vin Biodiesel, for an even better carbon footprint.
ReplyDeleteToday's news brings a variant on this theme: the Koch's and Americans for Posterity (but I repeat myself) are pulling out all stops to torpedo the Detroit bankruptcy settlement. Why? Because the state has offered to toss $198 million into the pot to settle the pension claims so that the cuts to retirees can be limited to just 45%. AFP is threatening to ad bomb every rethug state congressperson who votes for it, even though it is a rethug governor doing the offering and who put in place the city manager who put together the deal. Because Michigan will be a much, much better place to live if they take their largest city and toss it in the toilet financially, but only as long as the pensioners get even more screwed. The future; I have seen it.
ReplyDeletePlus, I was ordered to believe you were wrong, so you can't blame me.
ReplyDeleteLiberals are just so shrill and in-your-face that the right has no choice but to avoid them and listen to Cato's Koch-fed veal instead.
ReplyDeleteMcMegan's the Queen of "there's nothing we can do about it."
I am in the unpleasant position of believing that climate change is a real problem, and also believing that we are very unlikely actually to do anything about it. The collective action problem is just too hard.
My paycheck depended on it.
ReplyDeleteThey lied to her! If only there were a way for a poor, innocent journalist to determine the truth.
ReplyDelete(Speaking of mcardle...)
ReplyDeleteWe know exactly what they will do because we saw McArdle write that her doctor told her to avoid salt but she wouldn't because it was just nanny-statism and didn't even apply to people her age. The fact that salt was bad for her immune system disease escaped her notice.
Too bad global warming will kill us too. Otherwise we could just wait for the science deniers to die off from natural stupidity.
Oh for Christ's sake. If they could bottle Megan they could use her for Ipecac.
ReplyDeleteI see, forced laughter, not the kind we experience here.
ReplyDeleteThey'll go for the opposite and portray her as too weak to rule over them and go crazy with overt sexism. Every bit of resentment at gay advances will be poured into spewing anti-women garbage until it backfires on them. Then they will declare themselves victims, hi-5 each other, and predict the polls will prove them right and their candidate-of-the-week will win.
ReplyDeleteI've got the 'beetus, and part of my motivation to exercise and cut carbs out of my diet was remembering the (former) landlord who'd become a double amputee, and the friend of a friend who'd lost both kidneys and an eye before she was forty. And even then, my doctor was talking about putting me on insulin before I turned the car around; lucky for me that I hate needles. (As it is now, my doctor is slowly weaning me off of some of my meds as my numbers improve.)
ReplyDeleteAssault on Precinct 13--one of the best B movies ever.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the recommendation. I'll look it up.
ReplyDeleteI love B movies.
I envy you, seeing it for the first time!
ReplyDeleteOr if you overlook the fact that Copernicus wasn't persecuted...
ReplyDeleteWell, history shows again and again
ReplyDeleteHow Nature points out the folly of men.
Even if it were the right thing to do it wouldn't work. Remember your Atwell: taxes=n-word. States with a visible minority population will always put shafting the Other over helping themselves. They scarcely notice our horrible social services, crumbled infrastructure or homeless if they can have the satisfaction of knowing their success comes from innate merit and the poor's failures come from innate inferiority.
ReplyDeleteI've never met you but it has made my morning to read this. The thought of anyone getting gangrene makes me sick to my stomach, more so if it is the direct result of their own stubbornness. I am very happy that you are able to manage your diabetes, so that that horrible situation won't apply to you.
ReplyDeleteIt takes a lot of expensive lube for Hannity to slide his head up his own ass.
ReplyDeleteThe remake is a lot closer to the actual story (Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell), though it is way too busy.
ReplyDeleteA noble sentiment!
ReplyDeleteMaybe not so much. Heard a guy at the DMV yesterday complain about not all the windows being open. I was thinking "Dude, you voted for this stuff, what's your beef?"
ReplyDeleteUpvoted for bringing good news!
ReplyDeleteShucks, everyone knows the DMV is liberal. Of course a good Southerner would complain about it!
ReplyDeleteBut actually you are right. They complain about taxes and complain about the bad state of the roads and never connect the two.
Future shorter rightwing: "We got 99 problems and a bitch is every one of them."
ReplyDeleteYou have to understand that those pensioners were all evil government employees--and many or even most of them were union members! They simply MUST be punished for those two things.
ReplyDeleteBesides, we all know that every prosperous and properly functioning economy consists of one or two families with all the money, and the rest of the population living a subsistence existence.
It would be smart to run a woman against H.Clinton but I can't see the Republican Party getting behind that. They'll never give up that much authority.
ReplyDeleteA scientist character "believes that the ecosphere will heal itself, will restore its own balance,
ReplyDeleteWell, he's probably correct- but what "the world" considers righting itself may not be what humans will find livable. Remember "Planet Snowball"? Remember the Jurassic? All were "healed & balanced" so far as the ecosphere was concerned.
Yes, we like to imagine that insects will take over the world after we've trashed it... my daughter thinks it'll be COWS.
ReplyDeleteI saw a bumper-sticker the other day that said:
ReplyDeleteHENNY PENNY WAS RIGHT!
Gave me a faint smile.
... and Al Gore being fat and living in a MANSION.
ReplyDeleteThey aren't satisfied with a piece of the action anymore, they want it ALL.
ReplyDeleteI think "Christ, what an asshole" still applies.
ReplyDeleteIf you lop off your foot, you will fall over, restoring balance as far as nature is concerned.
ReplyDeleteCats and disease processes: Two things you can't out-stubborn.
ReplyDeleteThe worst part of it is that the rich fucks will be okay the longest. When you have depleting seas and freshwater shortages and economic stress brought on by ecosystem collapse, the Kochs will do fine because they can pay for X number of poor people to suffer if it brings them a bottle of water.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet, when scientists make their case forcefully, we are told that they have sullied the purity of science (hitherto so cherished by the Right) and denialists have no choice but to doubt. If only climatologists, upon concluding that
ReplyDeletethe world was in deep trouble, had insisted on not advocating doing something about it!
I'm a fan of radio shows of the '30s-1950s, and a lot of crime dramas of that time (Green Hornet, Mr District Attorney, etc) have a plotline that revolves around graft of some sort.
ReplyDeleteBusy or not, Carpenter kept the part that mattered most. He could have changed all the names and moved it to Egypt, and told the same story. He gets my vote as one of the few remakes that turned out not just good, but actually better.
ReplyDeleteOh much better. I was referring to the pace of the original story, which is almost laconic, compared to the pace of the remake, but that's just Carpenter.
ReplyDeleteThe original Matt-Dillion-as-Super-Carrot version has less to do with the original story than any movie this side of 'I, Robot'. Still fun (and funnier when you realize it took George Fenneman 27 takes to get his longish exposition out - the faces of the other cast members are a hoot). And I really enjoy 'I, Robot', I just would have credited as "vaguely in a round about way somewhat based on the stories of Issac Asimov'.
"Make mine Marvel!"
ReplyDeleteFor the first time in many, many years, I put a decal on my car last week. Good ol' Miskatonic U.
ReplyDeleteMakes a good contrast with my Boy Scout car license.