Perhaps the GOP just wanted to celebrate P.T Barnum’s birthday as the true father our Country.
How else to explain this appeal to the suckers who were born every minute over the last few decades who still might believe in the greatness of George W Bush.
The price is a dead give away that this is excellent snark.
$27 is the crazification factor at work and a direct appeal to the neo-Confederate hive animating the long dead corpse of what was once the Republican Party.
As the Party of Lincoln is now little more than an army of White Walkers (emphasis on the “white”), this kind of amusing sucker bait is not a surprise. 27% of their base will surely pay $27 to proudly wear a shirt that confirms their stupidity for all to see.
Such a bamboozle is a wonderful way to celebrate P.T. Barnum’s birthday.
I’ve been on a long walk-about which has taken me far from regular blogging, but that’s another story for later.
Good to be back.
How about an open thread.
Cheers
Southern Beale
RW moneybags Richard Mellon Scaife has died.
If you can’t say anything nice …
Flukebucket
Welcome back!
Jewish Steel
Hey, hey!
Good to see your face around here again.
dance around in your bones
Hey, Dennis G. – was wondering where you went off to! A walkabout is a fine excuse.
I’d buy that t-shirt only if it had the ‘Happy Birthday, P.T. Barnum’ inscribed across it. Then see how many people put 13.5% and 13.5% together. Ha!
raven
Missed you, I forgot to ask Frank how you were last time I saw him.
ruemara
@Southern Beale: I can say something nice. It’s good to breathe air that he is not capable of. Adieu and may he have found his reward.
Welcome back, Dennis! It’s been too long.
Dennis G.
@raven: Ah Frank, nobody can rock a cowboy hat like him.
As Maryland will be just fine, I’m considering where to go this fall to GOTV.
Georgia is on my list. I’m also considering Michigan and Iowa. Sort of depends on where I think I could make the most difference come the fall.
They sell that Terrapin beer now in Baltimore and I must say that it is quite good. I wonder if Ort is out there as an official taster…
Citizen_X
Welcome back.
SiubhanDuinne
So good to see you back! Many of us have missed you and asked about you.
Hope you will be a regular blogger again — your posts were always readable and thought-provoking.
Cheers.
skerry
I just lost a old friend to ovarian cancer. She fought it for 10 years. Cancer sucks. Leaves behind a husband, an adult child, her mother and multiple siblings, nieces and nephews.
Cancer sucks.
SamInMpls
Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Like so many other blogs from that era, I really miss Kung Fu Monkey.
SiubhanDuinne
@Dennis G.:
Between Michelle Nunn for Senate and Jason Carter for Governor, there will be a lot of GOTV activity here. Whatever can be done to turn Georgia blue is very welcome.
Cckids
@Southern Beale: Come sit by me!”
Isn’t that how it goes?
Cacti
Which part of W’s eight years are supposed to look better in retrospect?
The 9/11 attacks?
Iraq WMD?
The Katrina response?
Or the collapse of the national economy?
Mike G
It should say, “I miss W. Then I throw other shoe, but that miss too.” with a picture of that Iraqi hero-journalist.
Gin & Tonic
@skerry: Odd how different things can be. My mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, treated, and lived for another 35 years.
Hill Dweller
@Cacti: W was/is white.
mdblanche
$27 tee-shirt doubleplusungood refs unperson reweave fullwise upsub antefiling
Seriously I thought the GOP line was to consign any reference to W down the memory hole.
Dennis G.
@SiubhanDuinne: It seems to be an exciting race shaping up in Georgia. And Jack Kingston was one of the congress-critters doing the bidding of Jack Abramoff back in the day. When it came to protecting the Chinese owners of sweatshops, Team Kingston met with Team Abramoff more than any other member of Congress–and he sat on the committees writing legislation that could or could not benefit Jack’s pro-labor abuse and human-trafficking clients. Abramoff somehow got everything he wanted that year and Kingston helped. It would be fun to GOTV against that little weasel…
Tara the Antisocial Social Worker
@skerry: So sorry to hear that!
Hugs and good thoughts to you.
OldDave
This is perhaps a stupid question, but that’s never stopped me before. I noticed a local movie house – a chain owned 20-plex – is showing D’Souza’s “2016: Obama’s America”. Didn’t this tripe come out just before the 2012 election? Is it in re-release for some unexplainable reason, or is this a local anomaly?
Mike G
@OldDave:
Convicted felon Dinesh D’Sousaphone’s smug mug is in my banner ads promoting his latest hatchet-job film, imaginatively called “America”, perhaps on the premise that his mouth-breather demographic will pay to see anything with the word “America” in the title to prove they are such better patriots than us evul libruls. Perhaps that is it.
dww44
@Dennis G.: IMO, Nunn’s chances would be improved by a Kingston run-off victory against Perdue, altho Perdue is apparently ahead. Perdue will campaign as an outsider, a successful businessman and since he’s from the same part of the state as she will peel off possible cross-over votes from Republicans who remember her Father kindly.
I am working GOTV efforts in her local campaign already. But what is really needed at this stage is real money to get lots of folks registered. That’s where success lies. But, we need more boots and money, preferably from the national Dem Party which hopefully sees an opportunity it shouldn’t pass up.
Dennis G.
@dww44: Your lips to the ears of DNC. Now is the time when they should be spending freely for registration, We can’t GOTV without it…
OldDave
@Mike G:
Bingo. The link Google first gave me for the theater in question listed “2016: Obama’s America” as currently showing, but just now I went to the theater’s website and it lists “America”.
The question I was actually trying to answer was what local houses are showing “How to Train Your Dragon 2”. :-)
PaulW
For anyone who cares, I have a link to the bit in the movie 1776 where John Adams complains about being left out of the history books: http://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2014/07/for-4th-of-july-ill-do-my-best-to.html
⚽️ Martin
@mdblanche: It’s damning with faint praise. The only meaning that could come from the shirt is that they didn’t like Bush, but Obama is so horrible that they would gladly have him back now.
WaterGirl
Great to see you here again, dengre! Did we conjure you up when we were wondering last week where you’d gone to and wishing you’d come back?
Mike in NC
Great to see you back here!
Higgs Boson's Mate
@skerry:
My condolences. I’ll keep you in my thoughts.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@dww44:
What? The national Dem Party rarely sees an opportunity that it won’t pass up.
Sir Laffs-a-Lot
welcome back, mate!
Hal
@OldDave: D’Souza is a prolific and imaginative film maker. Now he has a new, America: Imagine the World Without Her, which I believe is about that white woman he cheated on his wife with.
Frankensteinbeck
@Cacti: and @Hill Dweller:
This, but even more. Obama isn’t just black. He’s persistently, aggravatedly black. He’s actually in charge, and he keeps doing things. Instead of failing badly, admitting he’s in over his head, and letting white people take over like a good negro that knows his place, he just won’t stop being in charge. Obamacare worked, even. A whole lot of people are mildly racist, where looking at Obama bothers them at a gut level, but they wouldn’t ever consciously think that blacks are inferior and one shouldn’t be in charge. To that mindset, every time Obama does something right, it feels like he did something wrong because he’s supposed to lose. The halcyon days of an utterly incompetent white president seem better than this constant parade of horror.
WaterGirl
@Frankensteinbeck:
Frankensteinbeck
@WaterGirl:
That’s what I just said!
Higgs Boson's Mate
Miss W? Hell yes! Without it we couldn’t spell wingnut, or whackjob.
srv
YAY!
You have been missed.
Karen in GA
@Dennis G.: Yes! It would be a lot of fun! Hint…
On an unrelated note, I got Iggy the Wonder Schnauzer a new ID tag today. His reaction was… um… interesting.
Mike in NC
@Frankensteinbeck: You must be reading Bill O’Reilly’s mind. Such as he even has one.
BGinCHI
Wow. It’s like the Second Coming, but with more Dennis and less Jesus.
Great to see you.
Frankensteinbeck
@Mike in NC:
O’Reilly is an interesting example, because he’s an overt racist who’s convinced himself he isn’t one. He’s a master of ‘I’m not a racist, but…’ dialog. I’ve heard him do it about women, digging and digging for reasons that don’t look sexist he could use to claim that a woman should not be president. The key is to dig up some undeniable fact that sounds bad, and then pretend it proves everything else. I saw him doing this with two female FOX anchors, no less. Megyn Kelly looked horrified.
Wait, or was that Hannity? Damn it, FOX, stop hiring so many friggin’ bigots! They all look alike to me!
⚽️ Martin
@Frankensteinbeck:
Racist.
Comrade Dread
Well, most of them also believe in young Earth creationism, climate change denial, supply side economics, and neoconservatism, so sure, yeah, why not believe that W. is the greatest president America has known since St. Ronald went home to the big ranch in the sky?
BillinGlendaleCA
WB Dennis.
Frankensteinbeck
@⚽️ Martin:
You saw what I did there.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Comrade Dread:
That’s dispiriting because it’s true.
A Humble Lurker
Hi Dennis. Been a while.
rikyrah
@Frankensteinbeck:
You are so on point.
rikyrah
Glad to see you posting again, Dennis
Don’t wait too long before you post again.
Higgs Boson's Mate
The tone of the times has afflicted me at last; I considered that the t shirts may be the beginning of a campaign to rehabilitate The Lesser so that JEB! can run in ’16.
sharl
Woo-hoo! Welcome back Dennis G.!
Violet
Dennis, good to see you! We were just talking about how we were missing you. You must have heard us!
BillinGlendaleCA
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: Might work with the GOP establishment, not the base and not the rest of the country.
Elizabelle
Woo hoo! Dennis G sighting! Exciting. Now to catch up on thread comments.
Welcome back, DG.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@BillinGlendaleCA:
I believe that a few pictures of JEB! with a rifle and a few speeches peppered with references to his strong Christian beliefs and the GOP base will be willing to turn out. They turned out for Mitt.
amk
Every time I read that 27% crazification factor post, I lmao.
amk
And welcome back, Dennis.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: But JEB! said immigration is and “Act of Love”, I find it hard that the base will be able to get past that. Though the evangelicals got past Mitt’s religion. I’m sure there were some clothespins affixed to noses in the voting booth.
Mary G
Glad to see your “Cheers” again, Dennis!
amk
@BillinGlendaleCA:
The ‘base’, including teahadists, will turn out for a pig as long as it has a (R) stamp.
Ash Can
Dennis! Don’t be such a stranger!!
Ash Can
@Mike G: I am so stealing this. :)
Villago Delenda Est
I miss the deserting coward as much as I miss all those hanged for war crimes after WWII.
Not at all.
GregB
Mitt really must believe the whole Mormon prophecy shtick and think it applies to him because he seriously is considering a third bite at the apple.
Chomp away fella.
P.S. Tune in to your radios on Monday for the new and improved Opie and Klanthony.
Joel Hanes
@Cacti:
Which part of W’s eight years are supposed to look better in retrospect?
For a movement conservative, W’s first term was like Disneyland.
Hard-edged triumphalism, ruthless disregard for humanity and the environment, open disdain for rules, standards, and reality, hippies stomped, cowed media, billionaire cronies cleaning up on DoD services contracts, Congressional Democrats in a fetal crouch, terrists gettin’ tortured AS GOD INTENDED, continual WE’RE #1 BOO YAH SUCK IT LIBS. And Jeebus.
Good times. Good times.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@BillinGlendaleCA:
I was under the impression that changing their most deeply-held beliefs was mandatory for Republican presidential nominees.
Hal
I’m shocked Romney is really considering a third run. It’s like watching someone on American Idol singing horribly and feeling second hand embarrassment for them. Last time around the most people could say was at least he’s not Obama. This time around, what does he have to offer? How is he going to navigate Obamacare, a law that was inspired by the MA law he signed and supported? He won’t have Obama to run against again, and if it is indeed Hillary, what’s he going to focus on there? I have a feeling Romney will be terrible running against a woman.
amk
@Hal:
Guess mittbot’s pack of lies hasn’t run out yet.
Benen. You’ve been warned.
Elizabelle
@Mike G:
I’d pay $27 for THAT!
askew
@skerry:
Sorry for your loss. Cancer does indeed suck.
Brandon
I don’t want to raise alarm bells, but the top story right now on Google News U.S. is shark attacks. Does anyone remember the last summer of the shark and what happened next?
GregB
@Brandon:
Oofah!
If a Congressman’s intern ends up missing, we are in deeeeep shit.
Amir Khalid
Has our man in Portland weighed in yet on this development?
Elizabelle
@Brandon:
Oh yeah. Even the year “Close to Shore” came out. Great book.
And then we learned there are scarier things than sharks.
PS: I never realized that book’s subtitle was “A True Story of Terror in an Age of Innocence”.
Origuy
@Amir Khalid: Look! Over there! A Ukrainian with a small mustache! Nazis!
Elizabelle
Here’s the publisher’s site for Close to Home. Fun to browse.
Elizabelle
RE sharks: NYTimes story: guy hooked a 7 foot juvenile Great White Shark off the Manhattan Beach pier in Los Angeles — it’s illegal to fish for Great Whites — and while shark was entangled and agitated, a swimmer happened through and was bitten. Fisherman cut the line, shark disappeared into the murk. Beach was closed temporarily for a mile stretch. Fishing suspended through Tuesday. (I wonder if that’s more to deter sharks from the bait automat or to make it clear to fishermen that messing with Great Whites will not be tolerated.)
LA sees young Great Whites this time of year. They’re learning to feed themselves, but generally avoid humans.
30+ minutes. That’s not cool.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Elizabelle: Saw the fisherman interviewed on the 11pm news here in LA. He was a bit of a jerk.
Elizabelle
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Keep us posted. I suspect he will get in some trouble over this. It’s one thing to accidentally hook a shark; it’s another to let the shark thrash for 45 minutes.
Interesting that sharks and swimmers are otherwise coexisting at Manhattan Beach.
I don’t think you could fairly call this a shark attack, where a shark is trapped and a swimmer blunders into the shark. Not sure it’s a pure “accident” either, given the shark was on the line so long.
I liked that this lifeguard was sticking up for the shark. LA Times:
PS: glad someone else is up! Have insomnia, but tiring, finally.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Elizabelle: The jerk said he didn’t cut the line to keep the shark from attacking swimmers. There were alot of people at the beach today; 3 day weekend and it’s be warm here and unseasonably humid. He was obviously wrong and yes I’m guessing he’ll be cited. He’ll probably also be subject to a civil suit. The victim’s wife was none too amused.
Bjacques
@Southern Beale: If you seek his monument, look around you.
Nothing became his life so much as the leaving of it.
gene108
@Joel Hanes:
I remember, in 2003 and maybe 2004, right-wingers declaring Bush, Jr the greatest President ever. The wingnuts were so hyped up about the Iraq War, they were going to deify him next to Reagan.
Matt McIrvin
@Cacti: People on Facebook have actually fallen for the line about how gas prices have risen tremendously since Obama took office, which mostly indicates that they can’t remember back six or seven years in any detail (gas prices were unusually low the day Obama took office because the entire world economy had just collapsed; not long before, they’d been higher than they are now).
Matt McIrvin
@Joel Hanes: 9/11 kicked the whole country back into an exaggerated cross between Reagan’s and George Bush’s glory years. The right was back in a way they hadn’t really been since 1994, and they had almost the whole country on their side. They screwed it all up, but for a little while it didn’t matter.
tybee
@Dennis G.:
come on down. this is as close a contest as i’ve ever seen here and we could use the help.
Dolly Llama
Late to the thread, but damn if it isn’t good to see that “Cheers” at the end of a post that means Mr. G. is in the house. Hope this means you’re here to liven things up a bit. You’ve been missed, brother.
WaterGirl
No offers to put dennis up while he comes down for GOTV? Come on, you guys, step up!
Jimmi the Grey
Nope dont miss. Still have the ‘W’ that was taken from the keyboard in the oval office on Jan 19, 2001.
Dolly Llama
@Dennis G.: Is Ort still alive?
Dennis G.
@Dolly Llama: Yep, still up and running around…
Mnemosyne
@Elizabelle:
@BillinGlendaleCA:
I have to admit, my sympathies are totally with the shark and the accidental bite victim in this situation. Less of an “attack” and more of a “goddamnit, get this hook out of me!” reaction. If the fisherman had cut the line earlier, the shark probably would have just swam away.
ETA: Great Whites are on California’s endangered species list, so that fisherman is probably going to get some hefty fines from the state.