You talkin’ to me?
By DougJ, Head of Infidelity November 21st, 2011
So it’s hard to see how we get out of this, unless some third force emerges, which wedges itself into one of the two parties, or unless we have a devastating fiscal crisis — a brutal cleansing flood, after which the sun will shine again.
It’s weird what counts as civil and polite and what doesn’t these days.
David Brooks: We Must Destroy America
November 21st, 2011 at 11:36 pm
Let the Bush tax cuts expire, get out Afghanistan/trim the defense budget, and go to single payer health care. Problem solved.
November 21st, 2011 at 11:37 pm
Anybody have a spare Ark they’ll part with on the cheap?
November 21st, 2011 at 11:38 pm
Because the little people haven’t suffered enough.
November 21st, 2011 at 11:38 pm
It’s funny because if a “brutal cleansing flood” followed the impoverishment of America, David Brooks would most certainly be drowned and then his body hung to dry on a fence somewhere
November 21st, 2011 at 11:40 pm
Apparently the hope for disaster springs eternal at the Times. I’m interested in figuring out what inspirational speaker they went to hear over the weekend.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11.....ndex.jsonp
Richard Cohen
November 21st, 2011 at 11:41 pm
It’s always the lip-licking reptiles, the inhuman and soulless, who determine that the 99% must suffer, belly-crawling snakes like Bowles and Bloomberg and Brooks
November 21st, 2011 at 11:41 pm
I honestly think these people are irredeemably evil and would serve society best on a work gang somewhere
November 21st, 2011 at 11:42 pm
Dude’s got issues. I’d say his post was typed one-handed, but I don’t want to really contemplate that, at all.
To sate Bobo’s bloodlust, what say we all pitch in to make a revenge flick about Michael Bloomberg gunning down Congress and putting himself in charge? Nicolas Cage to star, and Tarantino to direct.
November 21st, 2011 at 11:42 pm
Sounds like one of Hitler’s beer hall rants.
November 21st, 2011 at 11:43 pm
You heard it here first: the Village 1%-ers will go all in behind Paul Ryan for President as soon as he runs, whether 2016, 2020, or whenever – he’s the only vacuum-cleaner salesman on the Hill to satisfy their dual desire for smarmy facial expressions and “brutal cleansing floods”
November 21st, 2011 at 11:44 pm
@Jenny:
That’s about right.
What is wrong with these people?
November 21st, 2011 at 11:45 pm
Shock doctrine, anyone?
November 21st, 2011 at 11:46 pm
Like all coffee-house revolutionaries, Brooks has no idea what a tumultuous reorganization of society looks like, what actually happens when the bottom falls out of a bankrupt state, who lives and who dies
November 21st, 2011 at 11:48 pm
Well, it looks like the race to be “first up against the wall” has a new front-runner.
November 21st, 2011 at 11:48 pm
@Nutella:
This is more like suggesting that we start sacrificing children to Moloch.
November 21st, 2011 at 11:49 pm
Wha?
What’s he talking about… sounds like mebbe an enema administered w/ a garden hose…?
November 21st, 2011 at 11:51 pm
He’s talking to his own Alice B Toklas about special brownies.
November 21st, 2011 at 11:51 pm
How quickly things turn.
Less than four months ago the wingers were celebrating the debt ceiling deal, with Boehner saying he got 98% of what he wanted. Progressives were freaking out and calling for the President’s impeachment.
Tonight, a progressive authority no less than Robert Reich hailed Obama for his “tactical brilliance” and Bobo is left to dusting off his Einsatzgruppen uniform.
November 21st, 2011 at 11:52 pm
David Brooks is definitely talking about a lot of people suffering and dying so that the government can run itself “like a household” (not his)
November 21st, 2011 at 11:52 pm
Radio Bobo will start telling the Villagers that they have work to do.
November 21st, 2011 at 11:53 pm
@Jenny:
Those aren’t “progressives”, they’re Republican plants
November 21st, 2011 at 11:53 pm
You know what they say: a brutal, cleansing flood lifts all boats.
November 21st, 2011 at 11:54 pm
No offense meant to the esteemed Mr. Brooks, but when are we going to storm these Village people’s houses and take all their shit
@Comrade Luke:
Nice.
November 21st, 2011 at 11:54 pm
@Jenny:
11 dimensional chess. Played against a posse of clowns. checkmate
November 21st, 2011 at 11:55 pm
Alternately, we could have a devastating crisis wherein the peasants actually revolt. It has happened in history, just either too long ago or too far away to be noticed by Bobo.
November 21st, 2011 at 11:56 pm
I don’t want to read too much into Brooks’s “brutal cleansing flood” statement, but it’s hard not to see the similarities between that and certain kinds of fascist rhetoric.
November 21st, 2011 at 11:56 pm
Note that David Brooks says we have one chance to avoid all our well-deserved deaths (not his): we just have to elect Michael Bloomberg president and accept a cabinet full of Wall Street crooks who will fix all this “government” nonsense.
Really, what he’s saying is that the election part is optional.
November 21st, 2011 at 11:57 pm
@Jenny:
I didn’t freak out over the debt ceiling deal, but I’m not ready to celebrate yet. There’s still a lot to be played out here.
November 21st, 2011 at 11:58 pm
@Linnaeus:
Well,
David Brooks is a fascist.
November 21st, 2011 at 11:59 pm
That column started off kind of trippy: when the moon is ruling in the House, and centrism aligns with Mars, will there be peace across The Village while cash controls the stars?
This is the dawning of the age of the serious—austerious! (He’s serious!)
November 22nd, 2011 at 12:01 am
Shorter Bobo: “Arbeit Macht Frei”
November 22nd, 2011 at 12:01 am
Serious question.
There are SO MANY people that rant about David Brooks being an idiot. Is there any chance at all that if enough people complain, he’ll lose his NYT job?
I’m assuming no.
November 22nd, 2011 at 12:02 am
@Jenny: You know who serves beer? Applebee’s.
November 22nd, 2011 at 12:02 am
DougJ, ca. 10:01pm:
If “reading David Brooks” qualifies as “fun“...
November 22nd, 2011 at 12:02 am
The real SMH part is that David Brooks, without any depth of knowledge of any discipline, trade, or really anything under the sun, believes that this conclusion comes from Incredibly Serious Objective Thinkin’
November 22nd, 2011 at 12:03 am
@Comrade Luke:
There is a group of people who love what he has to say and make sure he has every chance to say it. You may know them as “the 1%”
November 22nd, 2011 at 12:04 am
@AA+ Bonds:
I’m not ready to go that far yet, but Brooks is far too right-wing even if he isn’t a fascist.
November 22nd, 2011 at 12:04 am
@Anne Laurie:
I’m a masochist, you know that. Right?
November 22nd, 2011 at 12:06 am
@Linnaeus:
The narrative of this column is that American democracy has failed and must be replaced with a new order made up of Brooks’s ultra-wealthy friends.
If this does not happen, Brooks promises a “brutal cleansing flood”, which we deserve for practicing democracy.
It takes a lot to make my stomach turn but this has done it.
November 22nd, 2011 at 12:06 am
David Brooks most certainly represents the “Third Way” promised by Mussolini and his Blackshirts
November 22nd, 2011 at 12:09 am
@Linnaeus:
There is always something to play out in governing, but for this particular episode, the SC has declared failure, And Obama has issued a clear and profound veto threat to any attempt at undoing the trigger. The only way for this to change is the wingers suddenly getting enlightened that tax cuts for the rich are a bad idea, politickally, and as policy.
Therefore, it is totally authorized for Obama fervent supporters to celebrate a victory, and a shoutout to a very good president. addendum – a very good president that deserves better supporters overall.
November 22nd, 2011 at 12:11 am
Greece and Italy have just had their managements reshuffled by the head office. Can we pretend it can’t happen here?
November 22nd, 2011 at 12:15 am
@AA+ Bonds:
What always gets me about this canard is that the government can borrow practically unlimited amounts of money at an interest rate less than 1%. Every fucking household I know of would be borrowing money by the truckload at that rate. I know this because they’re already doing so at over 30%!
If we’re supposed to run the gov’t like a household, then let the borrowing commence!
November 22nd, 2011 at 12:19 am
Brooks: “Republicans on the supercommittee supported progressive tax increases”.
But they supported that with one hand and another tax decrease for the wealthy on the other hand. Even the Republicans on the supercommittee aren’t standing on that hill to justify themselves.
November 22nd, 2011 at 12:21 am
@General Stuck:
Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying this is a defeat at all. It’s pretty shrewd. It’s just that my recognition of this is tempered by some anxiety about what comes next.
November 22nd, 2011 at 12:22 am
Hmmm, nothing like a good cholera epidemic to help everyone to get right with Jesus
November 22nd, 2011 at 12:23 am
Shorter David Brooks:
November 22nd, 2011 at 12:26 am
“. . . a brutal cleansing flood . . . .”
Floods are cleansing much in the same way that Bobo is insightful.
November 22nd, 2011 at 12:30 am
@Linnaeus:
Relax, what comes next is the wingnuts continued efforts to destroy life as we’ve known it on planet earth, or at least in the USofA. I would hope at some point, liberal worryworts would finally get the message that Obama doesn’t really go in for that sort of thing, selling the ranch, and while glad handing the wingers, it’s all done with a wink and a nod, and they end up with mostly a pig in a poke, like now, all over again.
November 22nd, 2011 at 12:32 am
@General Stuck:
Since Obama has promised to veto any effort to bypass the trigger, this is very bad news, since it means that Obama won’t veto any such attempts.
As we know from Obama’s record, he always does the opposite of what he promises to do, so this means we’re all in very deep shit.
November 22nd, 2011 at 12:32 am
Why do people say shit like this? It brings to mind all the so-called liberals who long for just one more Republican presidency so that America will “finally wake up”. What is with all these people? Is Real America just a bunch of S&M addicts or what?
November 22nd, 2011 at 12:32 am
Brutally Cleanse Wall Street
November 22nd, 2011 at 12:33 am
Flood David Brooks’s Mouth With Brutal, Cleansing Semen
November 22nd, 2011 at 12:34 am
@mclaren:
This is some weak ass troll shit, mclaren. If you can’t up your game, then we will just have to call The Institute on you, again.
November 22nd, 2011 at 12:38 am
@AA+ Bonds: This won’t work. Nothing stymies an orgasm like the sight of an open-mouthed BoBo Brooks.
A nice, cleansing flood of piss might do the trick, though. And when I say nice I don’t mean nice. I mean asparagus is on the menu.
November 22nd, 2011 at 12:42 am
@General Stuck:
Fair ‘nuff, though I’m not especially worried about what the president will or won’t do. The problems in this country go much deeper than that; I hold the Republicans largely responsible for that, but the Democrats aren’t blameless either.
November 22nd, 2011 at 12:42 am
@General Stuck:
No, the wingnuts aren’t doing that, it’s technology + exponential population growth that’s destroying life as we’ve known it on planet earth.
Don’t believe me?
Scientists predict all seafood will run out by 2050 at current rates of overfishing, The Daily Telegraph, November 2006.
New research says Peak Oil may hit by 2014
Also see: “The End of Oil is Closer Than You Think,” The Guardian, John Vidal, April 2005.
[The Guardian, op. cit.]
Also see: “A Jobless Recovery…and a Jobless Future?” Martin Ford, The HUffington Post, 2 February 2010.
Also see: “World Headed for Irreversible Climate Change In Five Years, IEA Warns – If fossil fuel infrastructure is not rapidly changed, the world will ‘lose for ever’ the chance to avoid dangerous climate change,” The Guardian, Fiona Harvey, 9 November 2011.
Yeah, kiddies…the world as we know it is in the process of being destroyed. But it ain’t gettin’ destroyed by wingnuts. It’s getting destroyed by runaway population growth, global warming, peak oil, stripmining, overfishing, hyperpollution, and the exponential growth of automation + the internet turning everyone’s job into a robotic chore or a database + internet scan.
November 22nd, 2011 at 12:45 am
@mclaren:
Now that’s more like it. You get a cookie
November 22nd, 2011 at 12:48 am
BROOKS TO COUNTRY: DROP DEAD
November 22nd, 2011 at 12:53 am
My comment at the NYT. Let’s see if it posts.
November 22nd, 2011 at 12:54 am
It’s more like he’s gone Andrew Mellon.
November 22nd, 2011 at 12:57 am
My wife is Russian. She and her family lived through a “brutal, cleansing flood” after the Soviet Union collapsed and the rouble became worthless. She’d like a word with Mr. Brooks. He’d best make himself scarce.
November 22nd, 2011 at 12:58 am
@General Stuck:
The Republicans never intended to bargain in good faith and the President knew it. As LO said tonight, the committee was designed to fail and the President wasn’t surprised a bit. Now those cuts are hanging over their heads and what do the Repubs want to do to rectify it? They want to renege on the deal, as usual. I’m sure that the Repubs all thought that they could weasel out of this deal when push came to shove. Well, they shoved and the President shoved right back with the veto threat.
It’s going to be interesting to see what discordant tune that the Mighty Wingnut Wurlitzer is going to spin to cover their asses this time.
I’m sure they will be quick to blame Obama for everything and the M$M will be right there, breathlessly reporting it as fact.
@Baron Jrod of Keeblershire:
Followed by a healthy dump consisting of processed egg salad & garlic sandwiches and chili.
I would advise Bobo to chew slowly.
November 22nd, 2011 at 1:11 am
@Suffern ACE:
Double fail by whatever idiot is writing in the NYT:
a) How much did the economy shrink in the quarter when the tsunami hit? I’m pretty sure the economy is still smaller than it was before the tsunami.
b) You know who spends money that gets the economy growing after a disaster? Right, the government. Why not spend that money now on infrastructure upgrade? Why does Richard Cohen first want 20,000 people killed before the government can spend any money? Calling the man a sociopath is insulting to sociopaths.
November 22nd, 2011 at 1:19 am
Brooks is clearly in favor of the French approach to this problem.
I say oblige him.
November 22nd, 2011 at 3:35 am
I’d like to see it wedge itself right up Bobo’s backside—as far as possible, though there probably wouldn’t be enough room for it to get past his head.
November 22nd, 2011 at 3:39 am
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Technically, that would be a food product, so it’s A-OK!
November 22nd, 2011 at 5:08 am
Bobo&Third Way need to be Occupied. Both are sociopathic in advocating the destruction of [actual] Civilization.
November 22nd, 2011 at 8:11 am
@Oriscus:
I’m way late to this party, but IMO this is one of the BIG glaring flaws with a pure Parliamentary system—you can have radical leadership changes without an actual election.
Our Republican system may be slow as molasses in winter, but its slowness is a feature, not a bug.
One of my long-long-term (though unlikely) fears is that things get so bad that we end up having to hold another Constitutional Convention, and get stuck with a European-style Parliament w/o a strong independent Executive. No, please, no.
November 22nd, 2011 at 10:15 am
@Librarian: Andrew Mellon advising Herbert Hoover:”liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate farmers, liquidate real estate… it will purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down. People will work harder, live a more moral life. Values will be adjusted, and enterprising people will pick up from less competent people.”
Bobo knows this piece of history, yet he still talks about a cleansing flood. Disgusting.
November 22nd, 2011 at 10:37 am
@divF: Well, sure. He thinks Mellon was really on to something there, and it’s a shame his plan wasn’t fully implemented.
November 22nd, 2011 at 12:19 pm
So, Bobo failed to note that we HAVE had a wedge group within one of the major parties AND a devastating fiscal crisis, both within the last four years. Where’s he living, in his mother’s basement?
November 22nd, 2011 at 4:44 pm