I was going to send you all to another “NO ONE HERE IS RACIST” tea party apologia at Reason magazine (Michael C. Moynihan drew the short straw this time- I wish I could find his archives from the early 90’s, but they have all gone missing), but it just gets so tiresome I figured why bother. You all know what the drill is- someone will have overstated the racism somewhere or made an over the top statement, and thus that means, to the glibertarian mind, that there is no racism at all at the tea parties. Besides, as DougJ has proven, all the signs are a forgery. Those were probably liberals carrying all the monkey signs and emailing Obama photoshopped as a witch doctor.
Again, this may be an artifact of my political movement, but I do not remember libertarians being such complete shitheads under Bush.
jibeaux
Right. That is because they are Republicans. It’s just that even Republicans don’t want to call themselves Republicans.
fastandsloppy
I, for one, do remember libertarians being such complete shitheads under Bush.
r€nato
Press “1” for hot chat with underaged Congressional pages. Press “2” if you have a wide stance. Press “3” if you like to wear diapers. Press “4” if you’re wearing two wetsuits and a dildo up your ass, and Rush Limbaugh will be you shortly.
scav
Those are all plants in the RC church too.
Tom Hilton
@fastandsloppy: This. Two words: Glenn. Reynolds.
gwangung
Generally, racists don’t admit that they’re being racists.
Nothing new here.
Chyron HR
According to the prior thread, liberals MADE the teabaggers carry those signs also, too.
Jody
Libertarians have always been complete and utter shitheads, to my experience.
Generally they’re a bunch of geeks with Mad Max fantasies and a complete lack of empathy. They want to deregulate everything because they have a vastly overinflated opinion of themselves and they’re sure they’ll prosper in the new lawless era.
Edit: This is often due to the fact that they tend to own a lot of guns, and figure that will help them do things like negotiate health insurance.
Violet
They’re hardly official Libertarians. They’re Republicans, like jibeaux said. And since Republicans were running everything, it kind of took the wind out of their complaint sails.
gwangung
Oh, and for you Pacific NW people, a stage show I’m doing.
Zifnab
Libertarians were douchebags straight back to Ross Perot (and probably well before that, but I’m under 30 :-p).
The “beat your kids”, “horde your guns”, “abolish education”, “fuck the poor” crowd was ALWAYS a bunch of jackasses. I remember having a two hour argument with a guy in my debate class over the value of public schools. IN A PUBLIC SCHOOL. You’d think it would argue itself, but some people – ie: libertarians – don’t want to see the forest for the trees completely surrounding you.
Sentient Puddle
Oh, glibertarians were just as irritating back then. We just didn’t notice it much because there was some common cause in opposing Republicans, and well, allies where you can get them.
smiley
Before the Tea Party movement but, remember this?
rob!
Jibeaux is spot on. Libertarians are pussies who don’t want to be called Republicans because they know that’s toxic; so they make up a bullshit third party and call themselves that.
I mean, come on, Tucker Carlson calls himself a Libertarian; what other proof do you need?
Urza
Very much they were shitheads, even before Bush. Even as I was pointing out in 1999 when Bush made comments in a speech that lead me to say “hey, if that dumbfuck gets elected he’s going to invade Iraq” they were saying nasty things to me for it. Or hey the whole Clinton years ring a bell?
Really though, the problem is cognitive dissonance. We need a nationwide program to teach people what it is. They really do believe you can’t love the country unless you’re like them. They really do believe its ok to abuse the brown people over and over and they should thank us for helping them on the road to democracy. They really don’t comprehend why people don’t think like them, while also knowing in their hearts that those who don’t must be wrong.
Teaching the country the ability to notice when they’re holding contradictory ideas would be an amazing step forward for our country and the world.
MobiusKlein
Well, some fraction of any group will be shitheads.
( look at this site – I’m here, right?)
I don’t know what to do about it – ignore them and their attention seeking ways, or ridicule them and shame them in front of an audience.
edit:
on second thought, almost all libertatians I have know have been asstards of some nature.
Ever since college, meeting some ‘Objectivists’, I vowed that any book that captures the minds of folks like this must be crap, so should never be read.
The Populist
John, me neither. Like the SEIU member that was shoved to the ground and called the N word BUT because a black republican was part of the crowd yelling at the man he claims he was hurt by union “thugs”.
The libertarians are a funny bunch. Even Dr Paul, who would call out Bush every chance he got, never got as worked up about W as he does about Obama. See, W is tolerable because on a lot of issues Dr Paul cares about (Abortion, tax cuts, etc) they saw eye to eye. But Obama, my oh my does the vitriol come out.
These are not libertarians. A true libertarian is Barry Goldwater who didn’t seem to have issues with homosexuals, did not want religion anywhere NEAR government and was against the war on drugs, a lot of our foreign policy and other things. All Barry wanted in his old age was a balanced budget.
Yes, Barry was no saint, but looking back he’d be labeled a liberal if he were alive today. It’s sad that Barry’s supposedly libertarian son is a big supporter of Dr Paul’s.
The Populist
@rob!:
Tucker is as much a libertarian as Lieberman is a liberal. It just ain’t true.
The Populist
Oh and Ayn Rand can suck it.
arguingwithsignposts
Maybe if we could get all the Libertarians to go Galt to Guam …
freelancer
Love Mah Prez:
Zifnab
@rob!: Nah, it’s not quite that simple. Libertarians and Republicans do have some significant philosophical differences. That’s what always makes Ron Paul sound so sane when he calls for closing foreign military bases or amending the Constitution rather than just passing an Act or otherwise arguing the nuts and bolts of policy.
Libertarians – the good ones – do tend to go after spending of all sorts all the time. It’s just hard to find a “good” Libertarian to get into office that won’t cave the moment Republican leadership looks at him crosswise. Or one not completely bought and paid for by the local religious congregation.
But there are significant difference between the two. Just like there are differences between the Dems and the Greens.
It’s just one of the flaws of the two-party system that leave the more exotic belief systems off the table.
slippy
I remember hanging out on Slashdot and talking to glibertarians. They seem to be drawn to that place.
Almost uniformly ignorant, illogical, and immature. I also knew a guy where I worked who was a staunch libertarian. What drove me nuts about him was that we worked at a healthcare company. One that largely serves long-term patients on Medicare.
His inability to connect the fact that he even HAD A JOB with the fact that Medicare provided the funding for it was when I first started realizing that I couldn’t respect the opinions of Glibertarians. Someone that short-sighted deserves to fucking starve to death because of their own stupidity.
I tell ya, if I ever run across a libertarian in distress (say, Help I fell in the water, or help I got stuck in a burning building) I’m gonna KEEP WALKING. Let Mr. Fucking Galt just pull himself out of trouble with his own bootstraps.
Mark S.
@smiley:
Geez, that’s about the worst photoshop I’ve ever seen.
Lowkey
@arguingwithsignposts: KaBLAM! Cross-topic tie-in win.
Karen in GA
It’s an open thread, and I’m suddenly worried about the job I’ve been offered, so I’m going to ask if anyone knows about this stuff:
The company that offered me the job is going to do an employment verification check, which they said will go back 10 years. I have a temp agency for the last six months, and one employer before that for 11 years — so the company said they might go back one more previous employer.
Just to be safe, I called that previous employer, where I worked from January ’97 to August ’98. Their records show I started there in April of ’97, not January. Then I remembered I was probably there as a temp-to-hire for the first three months, which is why their payroll records show the April start.
The guy I worked for, who no longer works there, said today that he’ll verify my January start if the hiring company wants to ask him. Of course, he’s not, and never was, part of the personnel department at the old place.
Will this matter? Everything else will check out, including the date I left that job and the start/end dates at the other two places.
Oh, and the guy in that picture is a moron.
SpotWeld
Those were probably liberals carrying all the monkey signs
Okay… not to attempt “balance”.. but weren’t there a lot of “(in)Curious George” and “Bush – Monkey” signs during the anti-war protests?
Sentient Puddle
@Zifnab: I think there’s more to it though. When Republicans started getting hammered in ’05-’06, many Republicans tried to typecast themselves as libertarians. Worked for some, but for the most part, it was just a matter of Republicans trying to aesthetically scrape the bad label off of themselves. Not to say you’re wrong about the fundamental disagreements those two factions have (because you aren’t wrong), but more often than not, the cynical way of looking at it was the most accurate.
ETA: Since you mention Ron Paul, he’s also apparently one of only three Republicans in the House requesting earmarks. I say “apparently” considering the timing of this story.
Lowkey
@Karen in GA: I seriously wouldn’t worry. Many places start their full-timers as interns or temp-to-hires. They count that. Employers are almost always far more interested in your punctuality, the veracity of references, and whether you dipped out of petty cash, than the specificity of your employment status.
Oh, and no, the guy in that picture is a moran, not a moron. A moron-in’s too good for ‘im! Larf.
bago
@Karen in GA: You’re fine, it’s not like you’re applying for the FBI.
Steve Balboni dba T.R. Donoghue
Shameless plug but I’ll be on The Young Turks tonight talking militias and right-wing violence. 7:20 ET
rob!
@Zifnab:
Maybe. I could be just shooting from the hip (on Balloon Juice? Really?), but I know a bunch of people who were “BUSH IS BEST PRESDIENT EVAH!” until around 2007, and then all of a sudden they’re Libertarians. Yeah, right.
Cris
Oh god, do we have to rehash this again?
SpotWeld
Just had a great idea (too late) for an April Fool’s Day joke ad.
Survivalist Seeds are now available in a special cylindrical soft plastic containder design specifically for “hiding in the last place someone would search your person”.
All it would need is a screen cap of Walkin from “Pulp Fiction” and the tagline:
“Survivalist Seeds are your Birthright. Don’t let the socialists take that away.”
SpotWeld
@Cris: Nah… I can drop it.
Cris
That’s cool. As a regular reader of Pandagon comments, I’ve really had enough of that conversation.
Violet
@Karen in GA:
I can’t imagine that the company would take away your job offer based on your recollection of the start date of a job you had over a decade ago varying by a few months. You did work there and it will check out that you did.
Just to be sure, is there any way to clarify the temp-to-hire situation and give them your former boss’s contact info? That way your January ’97 date will check out, and you won’t have to worry.
You’re lucky the places you worked still exist. I worked for a relatively large company – offices all over the US and international – and they don’t exist anymore. I have no idea what I’d put for contact info for them.
Davebo
Head on over to Reason and search for all their articles and blog posts decrying state sanctioned torture or indefinite incarceration without charges over the years.
Not so much. I guess they aren’t civil libertarians so much as Republicans with enormous egos and really cool leather jackets.
LuciaMia
Over at NewsHounds they mention a Fox promo for Sarah Palin’s new show airing tonight.
“Sarah Palin profiles these real Americans who have given back, given all and have never given up.”
Is it possible to exist in such a total irony-free zone?
Karen in GA
Lowkey, bago, Violet, thanks. I kind of figured everything was all right, but I’ve never been through a check like this — the company’s given me a tentative start date, but the hiring process, background check, etc. is outsourced to a recruiting/placement company. This is new to me — I’m used to going on one or two interviews with an employer, and hearing a couple of days later, “You got the job,” and starting the following Monday.
But this? Ugh. A three-week process consisting of two phone screens, two on-site interviews with seven different people, and a verbal offer with the written one to be Fedexed, which will include paperwork to be filled out and returned ASAP. I’m feeling a little beat up and intimidated, and just waiting for something minor to derail the whole thing.
My former boss offered today to act as a reference if I need it, and said he’d confirm the January start if they ask. So I’ve covered that base as well as I can — nothing more I can do.
Violet, you have my sympathy. If they were to go back any farther in my background, they’d find a couple of places that no longer exist.
I’m just going to stop thinking about it now. (Yeah, right.)
And a correction: it’s not moran, it’s maroon. /Bugs
Mark S.
Frank Schaeffer:
The whole article is worth a read.
Seebach
@LuciaMia: Yes. I think America is becoming an irony-free zone, if it has not already become one.
ellaesther
As it is an Open Thread, and the last tagline I saw was “Obama Akbar” I feel the need to tell you all the following:
At a ceremony at the Cave of the Patriarchs (traditionally considered the grave site of Abraham and thus holy to Jews and Muslims alike) in Hebron (aka: deep inside occupied Palestine and also the site of Baruch Goldstein’s massacre of 29 praying Palestinians some years back), a Likud member of Knesset improbably named “Ayoob Kara” (an odd name even in Hebrew, I assure you) had the following to say:
And some folks wonder why I don’t live in Israel anymore.
Also, too: Perhaps I’ve found a new home for the teabaggers!
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@LuciaMia:
It seems to me that Sarah has never given up on her ambition to be world class grifter. In fact you’d have to admire the tenacity with which she has pursued that particular goal thru thick and thin, if it were pointed in a more benign direction. It isn’t her fault that others have misunderstood what she is after.
latts
Of course they were shitheads under Bush; they were just cheerful, relatively straightforward shitheads. Now they’re craven,
equivocatinglying shitheads.Omnes Omnibus
@The Populist: That’s what Greenspan said.
[rimshot]
Makewi
Darwin was a racist yo.
Rafterman
Just got back from seeing Obama in Portland ME.
Comrade Dread
Latest update: I am now a liberal because I believe unemployment insurance should be available and should be sufficient enough to let people cover enough expenses so they have time to find another job before getting thrown out of their house.
Also, because I believe that the current system is better than making more people beg on the freeway off ramps.
Hard to imagine that just 7 years ago I was a conservative in good standing.
Because they’ve found an angry audience of disaffected Republicans for their gospel of Rand. (“Blessed are the rich for theirs is completely self attained and those ungrateful leeches deserve to f***ing starve if their exalted betters decide to lay them off to make more money.”)
silentbeep
Well I can name about three libertarians that I actually have no issues with reading, and have significant overlap with liberals (on some issues): Will Wilkinson, Brink Lindsay and Julian Sanchez. Brink did a bloggingheads recently talking about how lonely he is though politically, cause he’s a leftie-libertarian: those peeps are rare.
Oh and David Weigel can be really cool.
Cat Lady
@ellaesther:
Yikes. Would that we could put them all in the cave together, seal it shut in commemoration of Easter, and let the rest of us live our lives without religious and ideological whackadoodles shitting in our punch bowl.
russell
Actually I think they kind of were.
That’s pretty much why anybody who is a liberal, is liberal.
Welcome aboard.
bloodstar
Let me take a shot at this. I personally, have less beef with Obama than I did with Bush. I’m a Libertarian. I think Obama isn’t going fast enough on DADT, Gay Marriage and a host of other issues, I also think that he really really missed the boat with the whole Warrantless wiretapping. He’s not perfect, but he’s still a damn slight bit better than McCain would have been. (I voted for Barr, even knowing his history of idiotic stances (after all, I’m from Georgia))
What I think you’re seeing is an example of ‘the squeaky wheel gets the grease’ After all, the people who shout the loudest, get the most attention, and in this case, the people that you call ‘glibertarians’ are mostly made up of disaffected Republicans who figure that the libertarians are the ‘cool’ crowd right now.
It’s just that when you have a relatively small group like Libertarians, it’s very easy for another group to have a disproportionate impact when they decide to come to the cool place to be.
Damn you Ron Paul for attracting all the neo-Constitution party types, along with the racists, and the people who think Libertarian means that we’re even more right wing than the Republicans.
Sigh
J.W. Hamner
I continue to be amazed at how successful conservatives have been at making the charge of racism to appear more offensive than actual racism.
Brachiator
@Makewi:
You win the “Absolutely pointless non sequitur of the day” award.
Congratulations.
Bob L
@bloodstar:
The gilibertarians won that battle against the civil libertarians back in the late ’90s when the Libertarians started supporting the whole cut and spend policies of the Republicans because it would “starve the beast”. No one could have seen that would just lead to bigger deficits,…
arguingwithsignposts
@silentbeep:
Wow. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of such a thing? Is that even possible?
kay
I think there are images that become a sort of visual shorthand for broader movements or ideas.
I just don’t think that inevitable process is going very well for teabaggers.
I don’t know that they want the iconic image of a tea party to be a stupid racist sign with a grinning fool standing next to it, or masses of contorted angry faces (always open-mouthed) but those are the images that are going to stick.
matoko_chan
@LuciaMia: lawl.
Do the teabaggers know TOBY KEITH IS A REGISTERED DEMOCRAT?
Joyner: It’s no accident, apparently, that the show debuts on April Fool’s Day.
Paging Allahpundit.
:)
kay
@matoko_chan:
I love that he said “registered Democrat”. Could he put more distance between himself and Palin?
“I have never been to Alaska, and I swear I don’t know her last name”.
matoko_chan
@kay:
You forgot the WHITE part.
Its hilarious the contempt the leadership has for the low-information republican base.
They actually think screaming WE ARE NOT RACISTS at the top of their lungs is going to negate those visuals.
scarshapedstar
“Objectively Pro-Saddam”
“They’re not anti-war, they’re just on the other side”
“Dhimmicrats”
Wile E. Quixote
If only this wasn’t just another brilliant bit of satire in The Onion
U.S. Government To Save Billions By Cutting Wasteful Senator Program
This quote is the best:
Of all of the fake news organizations in the United States, Fox, CNN, the Kaplan Post, the New York Times, The Onion is the most consistently brilliant. I don’t know how they do it, I just hope that they keep on doing it.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@bloodstar:
I agree with this.
It seems to me that Obama has been done a pretty good job of governing in a manner consistent with the priorities he put forward during the campaign: jobs, health care, energy. His first big legislative push in spring of 2009 was the economic stimulus act. After that came health care reform. Now we are hearing about energy. Those were the three areas of policy that he talked about the most during the campaign – not coincidentally they were the 3 main themes in his big 30-min long TV commercial near the end of the campaign.
So we can complain until the cows come home about how he has done a crappy job of executing what he promised to bring about on one or more of those three issues. Or we can complain that his priorities have not been our priorities. Or we can complain that he has been too narrowly focused on a few issues and has let other things lay fallow. I think all of those criticisms have some validity to them. But the man has done a pretty good job of sticking to the things which he told the American people were most important to him back in 2008, which would be first in line for attention, and on the basis of which folks back then decided which lever to pull in November.
It is sort of refreshing to have a leader actually do that. Most of the Presidents in my lifetime haven’t even come close.
silentbeep
@arguingwithsignposts:
lol. It’s called liberaltarian. Brink Lindsay wrote about it here:
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6800
That bloggingheads where Brink is lamenting the plight of the liberaltarian here:
http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/26945
Will Wilkinson has written quite a bit about left-libertarianism on his blog too. I’d just go on his page and do a liberaltarian keywoord search to get all the posts on the subject.
Here’s the bloggingheads Will did with Jonah Goldberg, defending and explaining what a left-libertarian aka liberaltarian is, and why Will is interested in such a thing:
http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/18066 (aptly named Liberaltarianism Showdown)
fyi many liberals and libertarians have bashed the idea of a true left-libertarian (ex. ed kilgore thinks it’s crap and so does matt welch).
Whatever. I’m kind of leftish/libertarianesque myself. I always vote Democrat though.
kay
@matoko_chan:
I don’t think the images work for the “oppressed, silenced minority” bit they try to pull either, actually.
They seem to be assembling with impunity, and the only role police play is putting in some overtime observing them.
I haven’t seen a single image that would buttress the claim that they are being silenced, or mistreated, by a state entity. I mean, we know what that looks like. Fire hoses and batons and mounted police. Those are iconic images.
Nope. That doesn’t work either. I’m not seeing a lot of evidence of any state interference in their right to yell and scream.
Sentient Puddle
@kay: It’s a little-known fact that Toby Keith is actually a Democrat. Of course, he’s also a Democrat in Oklahoma. So…hard to count for much.
Bill Section 147
One thing I have never been able to figure out with Libertarians is, how is it a political entity. If I know better how to use my money – what candidate other than myself is worthy of a donation. Why would a Libertarian ever give their money to someone else? It’s like, who should an Anarchist vote for?
It is a slippery slope. Any time you try to pool resources with someone or cooperate you aren’t going to be in control. Eventually any effort will lead to some form of government that will by its size and nature become less connected and less controlled by the will of those whom it represents. Sooner or later someone will need or want a road that doesn’t serve everyone.
Isn’t Somalia really the ideal. Not that Libertarians want Anarchy and violence but wouldn’t that always be the result. If you are the smartest, toughest and best you win. You get more. You get your fair share. And with the best and brightest in charge wouldn’t it end up keen? What if you are a Libertarian Sociopath? Or if you are a Libertarian and develop scizophrenia? How is Libertarian Society going to handle people if they have little or nothing to contribute?
I haven’t met a Libertarian yet who did not believe that they were better than the average person. And I don’t mean better as in more worthy of grace but as in smarter and harder working. But they always seem to equate their skill, or luck, or good fortune to be of their own making. As if they were hatched in a vacuum.
I wish Libertarians could go Galt and form a commune or something. I would love to see them take a piece of nothing and create Libertarian Utopia so they could show us how its done. All toll roads and private water companies. But they always seem to want to start their Libertarian ideas in my infrastructure.
RedKitten
Note to MattR: No luck finding the mittens today. Will keep looking.
kay
@Sentient Puddle:
Oh, don’t say that. I like him more for that. I’m a registered Democrat in a 70% “R” county. You have to be tough :)
I’ve gotten to where I completely enjoy my minority role. We try harder.
Midnight Marauder
@Sentient Puddle:
A registered Democrat in Oklahoma?! And this man is a successful country music artist?! In the United States of America?!
If anything, I say that tidbit earns him mega bonus points.
kay
@Sentient Puddle:
So, what’s the sort of scuttlebutt about her trying to use these people? Did she not know they expect to be asked, that they sell their images just like she does, or is she just dumb as a fucking rock?
She’s a (poorly marketed) product herself and she doesn’t recognize that these people survive on and sell a total image?
Martian Buddy
@Bill Section 147: Bob the Angry Flower did a great sequel to Atlas Shrugged.
Chuck Butcher
I remember it from a lot farther back than that – of course I am older than you…
Bill Section 147
@Martian Buddy: Thanks. : ).
`If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, none other of my race,’ returned the Ghost, `will find him here. What then. If he be like to die, he had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.’
Scrooge hung his head to hear his own words quoted by the Spirit, and was overcome with penitence and grief. `Man,’ said the Ghost, `if man you be in heart, not adamant, forbear that wicked cant until you have discovered What the surplus is, and Where it is. Will you decide what men shall live, what men shall die. It may be, that in the sight of Heaven, you are more worthless and less fit to live than millions like this poor man’s child. Oh God. to hear the Insect on the leaf pronouncing on the too much life among his hungry brothers in the dust.’
kommrade reproductive vigor
[deleted due to redundancy]
The Populist
@SpotWeld:
Argh (shakes head) if you want to call Obama a dummy or say he’s clueless go to town. Monkey + black is really a sensitive thing when you are an African American.
It’s not the same thing. If you want to make fun of the way Obama speaks, stares off when thinking, whatever, please use that if it floats your boat. Wanna even call him the S word? If you wish…
I would think most people would understand that calling a black man a fucking monkey is a bit evil as well as insensitive. Bush is a white man in a country still run by whites, so I don’t know what else to say here.
The Populist
@Comrade Dread:
Welcome. For 20 years I was a card carrying con until Bush was installed as President and I started listening to my liberal friends more instead of turn off to their viewpoints. Today, I feel invigorated and glad I am truly free of the sheep infested GOP.
jl
I would not lump all libertarians into one group. And when I criticize libertarians, I like to single out what I call ‘extreme’ libertarians, who usually think they have all economic, social, interpersonal and political wisdom and truth wrapped up in some libertarian wondertheory.
And, as for those people, they end up getting through life by using wild ex post rationalizations, by any means necessary, of any circumstance that seems to contradict their philosopher’s stone.
So, with that in mind, my response to the last sentence in Cole’s post can best be approximated by ‘yes, they have always have been’.
Tim (The Oher One)
Thanks for the visual…
Jason Sonenshein
@Davebo
http://reason.com/blog/2007/11/02/torture-vs-warrantless-surveil
http://reason.com/archives/2005/04/01/the-pentagons-secret-stash
http://reason.com/blog/2008/03/13/bob-barr-on-torture
http://reason.com/archives/2005/02/01/soundbite-torture-and-defeat
http://reason.com/blog/2008/11/13/the-aftermath-of-guantanamo
http://reason.com/blog/2006/10/20/because-habeas-corpus-is-soooo
http://reason.com/archives/2007/12/12/restoring-habeas
http://reason.com/archives/2005/01/01/civil-liberties-and-enemy-comb
http://reason.com/archives/2006/03/01/torturing-logic
Batocchio
They were always shitheads; they just complained a bit less then.
tenkindsofgrumpy
@63 I soooooooo agree with you, but my wife always holds her breath when I click over there. She is afraid I’ll have an aneurism laughing so hard.
Little Dreamer
@Karen in GA:
Sorry, I wish I’d seen this yesterday and I hope someone already answered it for you (correctly) – I used to do background checks for employment verification and the time you started the job is not going to be all that important. What they are going to look for is if you have any criminal history or civil (forcible detainers or judgments that are unpaid) suits against you.
I wouldn’t worry about the January start date.
Good luck with your new job!
Little Dreamer
@Karen in GA:
Also, don’t be worried about the ten year history. Some agencies go back as far as fifteen to thirty years. Seven is the most common, but ten happens quite often too. I’ve done my share of ten year histories, quite a few fifteen and a few thirty year checks. Don’t panic!
Exhale and smile, you’re going to be fine!
russell
Doesn’t matter if they’re asked, it doesn’t matter if they did the interviews or not. It doesn’t matter what the reality is.
She is not interested in any of that. She is interested in the instrumental value of having put the representation of them supporting her point of view out there.
Fling some turds against the wall. Some will stick, some won’t.
It’s a total falsehood, but the impression she wanted to create will remain.
I recommend Frankfurt’s “On Bullshit” as a necessary primer for all political discourse, but especially Republican political discourse nowadays.
It’s bullshit in the classic Frankfurt sense. Whether it’s true or not, and/or is demonstrated to be true or not, doesn’t matter. The point is to have said it, for whatever desirable result that creates.