(Matt Davies via GoComics.com)
One last look back at the RNC panderfest, because when you’ve lost Maureen “Queen of the Mean Girls” Dowd, your “Cruel Masquerade Ball” is losing the Media Village:
MESSAGE: They care. Republicans care deeply. They really do.
They care deeply about making us think that they care deeply.
That’s why they knocked themselves out producing a convention that was a colossal hoax….
… It was fitting that David Koch was the beaming financial god presiding over this Orwellian makeover of Republicans as generous communitarians who care about grandmas, cherish immigrants and defend Medicare, so movingly described by the vice presidential nominee who tried to turn Medicare into a voucher system as “an obligation we have to our parents and grandparents.”
Koch leads the Orwellian movement of oil billionaires playing grass-roots activists. The industrialist ideologue wants to use his money to shrink government the way those vacuum sealers on infomercials suck the air out of plastic bags stuffed with clothes until they’re a mere sliver — shriveling all the social services, environmental regulations and taxes on the wealthy.
Koch, who infuses gazillions to build up the Tea Party and tear down the president, was a member of the New York delegation. On Tuesday, he was in the hall, sitting in what had to be one of the most expensive single seats that anyone ever bought.
The stage show looked like America, but the convention hall did not. The crowd seemed like the sanctuary of a minority — economically wounded capitalists in shades from eggshell to ecru, cheering the man from Bain and trying to fathom why they’re not running the country anymore. The speakers ranted about an America in decline, but the audience reflected a party in decline….
The convention rebranding as compassionate conservatives is encouraging in that it shows that Republicans feel they are at a disadvantage with their Ayn Rand disdain for altruism, their Kempian trickle-down economics stripped of the humanity of Jack Kemp, their worship of the wealthy as the engine of economic prosperity….Ryan’s lies and Romney’s shape-shifting are so easy to refute that they must have decided a Hail Mary pass of artifice was better than their authentic ruthless worldview.
***********
Apart from waiting for the next dispatch from the Excellent Adventure in Charlotte, what’s on the agenda for the start of the shortened work week?
raven
Ugh, staying up till midnight to watch the Hokies win in OT is not the best way to start a week. A loss would have been worse!
EconWatcher
Sitting up with my dad, who’s dying of a brain tumor, and thinking about the fact that I’ve got the greatest kid in the world. My daughter, who will turn 5 in a few weeks, is the sweetest, most compassionate person i’ve ever met. She is so concerned about her grandpa. She instinctively understands he needs cheering up, and does something every day to make him laugh. The only good thing about this awful process is that I’ve gotten to know my kid in ways i never would have. But i’m dreading having the talk with her about what death means, especially since i’m an agnostic and don’t have any straightforward answers (i do envy religious people in this situation). My kid is really too nice for this nasty world; i worry all the time about that. Anyway, that’s my early Tuesday morning before work.
hep kitty
Well, the Charlotte DNC festival looks fun! What a difference from the RNC convention. They are saying the security is not as oppressive as in Tampa. People sure look like they were having fun and feeling hopeful instead of being bitter and angry.
JPL
@EconWatcher: Your daughter has a good role model.
hep kitty
@EconWatcher: I’m so sorry to hear that. It’s got to be an incredibly draining and painful experience. Kids certainly have a way of shifting your perspective on things. Don’t have kids but I certainly understand how that works.
My dad’s health is failing and feel I should go home more often so I can get used to the idea of it, so it won’t be a shock if I wait too long. It’s almost impossible to me, it can’t happen to the strongest man in the world.
I’m truly sorry, it’s a terrible way to go,, but I’m glad you have your daughter to give you solace, even when she doesn’t realize it.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
Well, I got an email last night to pack to spend the week in Chicago for work. So I may be headed west on I-94 in a couple of hours. The new work routine begins, earlier than I expected.
hep kitty
Awful wkd, awful awful, filled with tears. It’s hard to let him go, to watch him fade away this way. I will have my hydrangea bush he planted for me in front of my place to remember him by. I must feed it this spring so it will be beautiful and bushy next year. It did not do well this spring. But I’ll make sure next spring it will be pretty and filled with blue flowers.
Bless the internets ppl, the only friends I have. Well at least they tolerate me anyway.
R-Jud
@EconWatcher:
I am so sorry about your Dad.
But don’t worry about not having straightforward answers for your daughter. My own Dad, also an agnostic, had this “talk” with me when I was seven, after his father died. He admitted that he doesn’t know what happens after people die, and doesn’t think we can ever know.
Then we talked about some of the things people believe happen– heaven, hell, reincarnation, etc., and why they believe that, and whether we agreed. We ended (I think) sharing memories of Grandpa, and having a bit of a cry.
EconWatcher
@hep kitty: My dad was a very strong man, too, a superman, and i think that has made the vulnerability and helplessness of dying more humiliating for him. I wish you the best. You do learn some things in this process. One is that being human is not dignified, particularly when your body falls apart, but maybe dignity is overrated. The second is that striving for status in life is such a waste of time. Yeah, it’s good to make enough for some material comforts (and to afford health care!). But it doesn’t matter if you won the Nobel Prize, you end up the same as everyone when your body turns on you. The only thing worth a damn is the human connections you’ve built.
EconWatcher
@R-Jud: sounds like a good approach–thx!
bemused
I can’t remember the last time I’ve read an entire Dowd piece and I’ve never sent one on to friends until now. She nailed it with this one.
A friend started a blog and her first post after the intro post is about poo, farm animal waste to be specific, accumulated on her sister’s hobby farm from llamas, horses, donkeys and rabbits to use as fertilizer. “got to do something with all that poo”. I’m going to see if I can get some llama poo from them next spring for my gardens. It sounds like you can just scatter their pellets around yours plants and it doesn’t have to be “aged” like cow or horse manure.
@EconWatcher:
I’m not a religious sort and will never belong to a church but I don’t think we are just gone after death. I have had some interesting experiences concerning relatives or friends that have passed and I know people who have had those experiences including from those who were near death. I have no idea what this is or what it means but it feels damn real when it happens. I don’t think the living can ever “know” despite the churchy folks who think they have all the answers.
Aimai
@EconWatcher: I am so, so sorry for what you are going through. When my 5 year old experienced the sudden death of her nine year old cousin we talked about death a lot. There are many wonderful books for kids that age like ” miss rumphius”. Your daughter sounds wonderful and you and she will get through this. She will grieve but you will hold each other up.
priscianusjr
I always knew MoDo can write if she actually wants to. Every once in a while she allows herself a column that actually means something.
Reading this column I am reminded of those quaint days back in 2009 when an online Playboy article by Mark Ames and Yasha Levine first alleged that the “spontaneous” Rick Santelli rant on CNBC — you know, the one that astroturfed the Tea Party into its present configuration, was actually staged, and that the Koch Bros. were behind it. And that was the first time I had ever heard of the Koch Bros. Over the next few days the RW poutrage and talk of libel was so severe that Playboy took the article down. And yet . . .
http://exiledonline.com/victory-gloat-ames-levine-serve-santellis-head-to-daily-show/
Now here we are 3 1/2 years later, and even Maureen Dowd is writing columns about how the GOP has become a fully-owned subsidiary of Koch Enterprises.
So journalism may not be well, but it can still show signs of life here in the good old USA. Maybe some day we will have Rmoney and Lyin’ Ryan to thank for this. There are limits, after all.
TheMightyTrowel
@Aimai: goodness I love Miss Rumphius. I think about it everytime I see lupins at the side of the road.
I guess my fallen catholic, half jewish atheist perspective on these things is that we never really go away – we live on in memory sure, but our bodies feed the plants which feed the animals and our atoms migrate outwards. Just like we are all made of little bits of former stars, future stars (and deer and trees and people) will be made of us. We only have temporary possession of our atoms and on death we pass them on.
AHH onna Droid
@EconWatcher: your child is a little too young to really fear or understand death in all but the abstract, but religion doesn’t provide answers and offers precious little comfort. At best it’s a placebo.
What a child understand s (and what hurts) is separation from those they love and who love them. Religion has no magical formula to change that. ( also, kind of big cultural assumption to link afterlife belief with religion-not all religions have this) Our Western religion says your grandparents are watching over you in heaven. Our secular humanism says they never really die if w keep them alive in our hearts.
AHH onna Droid
@hep kitty: :::hugs:::
Older_Wiser
Just when it looks like MoDo is actually thinking, she ruins it all by saying this, without even mentioning the Republicants’ obstructionism of this President, and goes on to quote Chris Shays (Chris Shays, for crissakes):
“Given the president’s lackluster performance and the listless economy, Romney should be killing it.”
[Sigh]
gnomedad
I posted the Magritte painting downstream, but now I recall the iconic image that Cole’s face-covering reminds me of.
Steeplejack
@EconWatcher:
So sorry. Will say a prayer for your father. And bless your daughter.
Brachiator
@EconWatcher:
For what it’s worth, I am an agnostic, but never much worried about having straightforward answers.
But it seems like the love and concern you have for your father and your kid, and your kid’s kindness and helpfulness are valuable now and hopefu for the futurel. As one of the Great Wise Men once sang, love is real, not fade away.
My best to you.
hueyplong
The only part not nailed in that column was the phrase, “trying to fathom why they’re not running the country anymore.” Looks to me like they’re still running it, just as they were still running it a couple of terms into FDR’s tenure. What they whined about then and whine about now is any hint that someone other than them will ever catch a break of any kind.
FridayNext
It’s only a shortened work week if you have a job. I’ll be spending my shortened work week much like I spent my lengthened weekend. Looking for work.
raven
@EconWatcher: We lost our 96 year old aunt Saturday. She was the last of that generation in our family and it brings back so many memories. Best you and yours.
Ash Can
So MoDo isn’t buying into the Romney Experience either, eh? I guess if you push the newsies around enough, they’ll finally start biting back.
@EconWatcher: Condolences to you and yours. What a wonderful little daughter you have. Maybe, when the time comes, you can explain to her that while Grandpa isn’t coming back, he isn’t in any pain anymore either, and you can talk about all the great memories you both have of him. All the best to you.
mai naem
I’m watching Morning Ho. I cannot stand Scarbo but he’s making some good points about the Dems. not fighting back enough. In the past month I have had two people tell me they didn’t realize social security and medicare was brought to you by the Dems(one thought Nixon signed them,no joke.) Seriously. I have to say there’s something to Grover Norquist and the deification of Reagan. The Dems never deified FDR and LBJ. Maybe I’m wrong but does FDR have anything beyond the dime? And LBJ doesn’t have crap. Remember, they were talking about changing the dime to Reagan? If OBL was gotten rid off under a Repub prez, you would never hear the end of it. You would have toys, collectibles, songs and bumper stickers. But, under a Dem, we are supposed to not only take credit for it, we are supposed to give credit to the previous Repub president.
jibeaux
I’m going to pick a little nit with Chris Shays here:
1. Not by a long fucking shot was that your biggest crime, nor was Clinton by a long fucking shot the “one” president trying to work with you, and
2. You didn’t TRY to impeach Clinton, you DID IMPEACH HIM. Do I have to send your former congressional ass back to ninth grade civics?
Lojasmo
I mentioned it up thread, but mrs. Lojasmo and the prog and I went to my biological father’s spread for his 70th birthday party. I met him once when I was in my teens. We went ice fishing for a weekend, then we never talked again.
I have been in touch with my sibs on that side, mostly through the book of faces, but my eldest, a good liberal, and I have been meeting in person. She mentioned in passing that my family should meet hers, and I mentioned that the boy had expressed some interest…well, lo and behold, a birthday celebration was planned.
Good times were had.
As far as this week, the boy turns 16 on Thursday, and Mrs. Lojasmo leaves to South Africa the same day as part of a “young political leaders” delegation. She is traveling with the US state department. This is her first overseas trip, her first time in the southern hemisphere, and first time away from the boy and me, for more than a few days.
WereBear
@EconWatcher: So sorry about your dad.
It never hurts to tell the truth to children. So tell her people believe all kinds of different things. And that you are still trying to figure it out.
For what it’s worth, both Mr WayofCats and I have had people come back and say “It’s okay, I’m not really gone.” And so, that is what I believe.
jibeaux
And now that I’m done doing that, my heart goes out to EconWatcher. We lost my wonderful mother in law to a brain tumor too young at 69. Some people in the family had told her that if there was any way for her to send back a message from the other side, that they wanted to hear from her. The next morning, first thing, without anyone ever saying boo about it, my six year old daughter, who was named after her, drafted a note to her dad telling him not to be too sad, that she would always be with us in our hearts. Whatever that means, I think young ones can understand a lot sometimes.
Misterpuff
@Older_Wiser: Well the Congress did their job and set the ball. The candidate is supposed to be able to spike it. But Mitty has no ups.
ETA Obligatory White Men Can’t Jump joke.
charon
MoDo – Bear in mind MoDo is not ideological. MoDo is better than a weathervane, she is what marketing people call an “early adaptor.” MoDo, in short, tells you which way the wind will be blowing.
Steeplejack
@hep kitty:
Sorry to hear that. Hope you can spend some quality time with your dad.
gogol's wife
@bemused:
Faith does not mean that you “know.” If you knew, it wouldn’t be faith.
Steeplejack
@EconWatcher:
I’ve always liked this from Bill Hicks.
gogol's wife
@Older_Wiser:
yeah, that ruined the whole piece for me.
Ash Can
OK, I’m getting an ad in the margin right now featuring photos of empty stacking chairs in 8 different colors. Classic.
PurpleGirl
Obamacare is responsible for job creation!!!
I’m just hearing a commercial on the TV for a company hiring people to be insurance analysts to advise on and sell health insurance. Forget the company name right now but I’ve heard the commercial a few times now.
So, the government CAN create private sector jobs.
Dennis SGMM
@EconWatcher:
That has to be so tough even though it’s brought you a new understanding of your daughter. It takes courage to hold your head up under the circumstances. I’m sure that your dad appreciates the time that you two are spending with him.
EconWatcher
Thanks to all for good wishes and excellent advice. People on this site have class, and real life experience. Cole has assembled quite a community.
Nan Mccall
Nails the fact checking charade:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/09/glenn-kesslers-shameless-lie/261891/
bemused
@gogol’s wife:
So true.
It takes a lot of chutzpah for churchy folks to say they “know” what it’s all about.
hep kitty
@EconWatcher: Thank you, I will be thinking of you! At least I have time to let him know how much I love him. I never understood my dad, but and he sacrificed so much for us to be a great provider.
Funny, I’m sure, for all that effort, he thought all 3 of us children would better off than he was. But we’re not, not one of us, not even close! I really feel I let him down but he never says that. And we know he loves us and we love him.
hep kitty
@AHH onna Droid: Thank you :)
Mnemosyne
@EconWatcher:
We lost my father-in-law to a brain tumor this summer, and my niece is five, so unfortunately I know how you feel. Be glad that you’re able to be there with him, hard as it is — G was unable to get away from work until July 4th and his dad passed away before we could even get him to the airport.
The talk with your daughter will probably take place in stages over several months, because she really is not going to understand the concept of death (at least, my niece didn’t) and it’s going to take a while for her to understand that he’s gone and she’s not going to see him again. If you’re agnostic anyway, I would stick to saying that no one really knows what happens after we die, but she can help you keep her grandfather “alive” in the family’s memory by remembering him and talking about him.
((((hugs))))
Haydnseek
@mai naem: In a just America, FDR would be on Mount Rushmore.
gogol's wife
@bemused:
Well, maybe you misunderstood me. I go to church every week. But it’s one of those “liberal” churches that never gets any publicity (and has a steadily dwindling congregation because intelligent people aren’t supposed to go to church any more). We spend almost no time talking about life after death. No one pretends to “know” what that might be. We talk about what it means to live in this world as a person of faith. This week’s sermon was all based on texts from the Hebrew bible and the New Testament, and never mentioned a single current event, but if it had ended with the words “Vote for Obama,” it wouldn’t have been out of place. Those words didn’t need to be spoken.
I’m sorry, EconWatcher and HepKitty. I hope you have the support you need to get through this. Your love is no doubt helping your fathers get through it.
grandpa john
@raven: being a Clemson Alumni, I kept hoping for a way for both of them to lose.
LanceThruster
@EconWatcher:
I think you’ve summed it up quite nicely. She’s a lucky kid to be in such a close and loving family. Sorry about the pain you, your father, and your family are having to deal with.
Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened ~ Dr. Seuss
LanceThruster
A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved. ~ Kurt Vonnegut, Sirens of Titan
dance around in your bones
@TheMightyTrowel:
I had this exact same conversation with my siblings, cousins & etc after my grandfather died. I said I think we all go into some kind of molecular soup? and get reassembled from that soup eventually.
Who knows, you might have a few bits of Albert Einstein in your soup! Or maybe Soupy Sales.