Short Erickson: Be angry, but not at me. Sure I've been chumming the water for years, but I didn't expect sharks. http://t.co/omyC23BzvB
— Bob Schooley (@Rschooley) August 14, 2015
Let us savor [trigger warning – RedState link]:
… You need to read some stuff, but it is not for the faint of heart. What you are going to read is not redacted, not safe for work, but you need to see it and read it and then read past it. I apologize in advance and keep your kids away. But please read below and then keep reading. I challenge you…
Guess what, dumb bass, the non Washington Republicans, like us, want no fucking part of the current Republican Party, like you. Leave the real conservatives alone, quick mailing shit, quit begging for help, and most of all, KEEP BASHING TRUMP. You are incredibly fucking stupid.…
I am getting, even here at the end of this week, at least twenty-five a day like this. The first part of the week it was about 100 an hour. There has been no escape…
Conservatives have a real and legitimate reason to be pissed off at the GOP. Polling suggests conservatives hate the Republicans in Washington more than Democrats hate the Republicans in Washington. That anger has galvanized conservatives and pushed them toward Donald Trump. To his credit, he has capitalized on that anger.
But folks, this is anger at an unhealthy level. It is anger that has gone beyond the righteous anger of repeated betrayals from Washington. It is an anger that has become unhinged and is potentially uncontrollable. Anger at that level is more often destructive than constructive.
I want to beat Hillary Clinton next year. I want to beat her with a Republican who is not just another party apparatchik surrounded by lower level party apparatchiks within the Republican Party.
But I know we cannot beat Hillary Clinton with this level of anger. We won’t be able to draw people to our side and our cause like this.
I get the anger. I do. I am angry at the betrayal and the repeated lies from Washington Republicans who say they love children, but won’t even defund Planned Parenthood.
I get the anger of voters who sent men and women to Washington to fight Obama only to give him a blank check and keep Obamacare funded.
But I don’t get this anger. If this is the anger that flows out of Trump supporters, I do not think it is sustainable. Yet it comes daily. It is poisonous to debate, to democracy, and to the soul itself.
Yes, Republican voters have been betrayed. But I do not think people who are angered at the present President demeaning the integrity of the Presidency will ultimately side with any candidate whose base of support generates rage and hate. I refuse to believe that the people angry at Washington and the GOP have let their anger consume them. But the people in these emails and so many like them have been consumed by anger.
Those of you who see it within the ranks of the candidate you support, and not just with Trump supporters, need to try to channel the anger and draw out the happy warriors…
Will nobody help poor, besieged Erick hammer that last nail into his own palm?
He’s come up in the world over the last six years, though. Now that he’s a professional grifter, I mean “political operative”, no longer on the semi-pro circuit, he doesn’t even suggest his loyal readers pay to mail bags of artificial sweetener to Donald Trump’s office. Guess he no longer needs the Amazon commission.*
*Unlike Balloon Juice! When you shop online, click through the link at the top of the left-hand column!
***********
Apart from pointing & mocking, what’s on the agenda as we wrap up another week?
Baud
This speaks poorly of Democrats.
dmsilev
Erick son of Erick of the House of Erick likes to talk about how fervent a Christian he is. I would recommend to him the following statement from his Bible: “As you sow so shall you reap.”
David Koch
It’s hard to see how Trump loses the nomination.
Anyone who criticize him walks into a withering buzzsaw of blowback. Which underlies a strong support for his candidacy, meaning people will turn out in high numbers and won’t be easily pushed off their decision.
David Koch
Grouch Marx marathon on TCM all day today. I’m DVRing half of the day.
John O
My favorite part of Son of Erick’s screed is the implicit notion that he has a majority or winning point of view, or that he isn’t interested at all in quixotic rules as, “You have to get more votes to win elections.”
What a loon ball. I can’t stop laughing at his surprise at meeting the modern GOP (his base) and finding out they are either morons, assholes, or both.
And in the end, whichever clown falls out of the car will wind up getting around 45,000,000 votes, and that makes me want to cry.
Baud
I agree, however, that Republican voters have been betrayed. The GOP won a massive victory in 2014 and they haven’t even tried to match their rhetoric. Good for the country, but after six years of all that hate and misinformation, it has to be a massive letdown for their base.
Zinsky
Erickson is so full of hate, he can’t think clearly. Instead of feeling sorry for blastocysts which are no bigger than tadpoles, he should try feeling compassion for living, breathing sentient adult human beings who are suffering. He apparently has no capacity for that.
NotMax
Puts the Freud in schadenfreude.
Baud
I think I might start using this phrase.
Botsplainer
@Baud:
I’ve been causing squidclouds of butthurt lately by ceasing my attacks on the term Republican and instead going after the term Conservative. I want that term to be toxic for decades to come, much as they maligned the term liberal.
Botsplainer
@Zinsky:
Did you hear the one about the Right to Life bake sale? They were unsuccessful – it seems that they were trying to sell cups of uncooked batter that they kept insisting were cupcakes.
Sherparick
@dmsilev: I have a nice, appropriate cross reference to phrase, as Biblical authors spin their metaphors and tropes against each other: Proverbs 22:8
Whoever sows injustice reaps calamity, and the rod they wield in fury will be broken.
For sixty years in one form or another, the Conservative movement has been preaching hate, resentment, and anger; and promising their members a unicorn after every election. But for lots of white guys in their thirties, forties, and fifties, the only sex they get is beating off, they have to pay their old lady and good for nuffing kids child support, and every day that have to put up with the boss for “Office Space.” So they are angy, and not going to take any more and Trump knows a market niche where he sees one.
rikyrah
Good MOrning, everyone :)
Schlemazel
@Botsplainer:
The interesting bit is that the real nut jobs have been saying for some time that the Republican party is not the conservative party. I’d like to promote that idea also as I think it might help fuel a Conservative party run for office & finally shatter the GOP for good – in both senses of that word
Sherparick
@John O: I know folks who have fallen into the 29% of hard core right wing nut votes. 20 years ago they were sensible, reasonable people, but then found themselves joining a church or listening to Fox, or both, and the next thing I know they are the Crazy Uncle and Aunt forwarding me right-wing e-mails!! It is freaking amazing what tribal affinity and the social psychology of mass movements do to people and their brains.
Baud
@Sherparick:
Rachel has been doing old videos of the presidential candidates. There was a old clip of Trump talking and he seemed … normal.
Kay
@Baud:
I’m glad their base finally figured this out:
I was wondering how long they could keep them at bay with the 5000 votes to “repeal”.
Patricia Kayden
Delicious!! Love the fact that he’s reaping exactly what he has sown — and from his own kith and kin too. How ironic. I hope the Trump supporters go off the rail and support Trump’s independent run WHEN he is kicked out of the Republican primaries.
I am not angry at all with the President or Democrats in Washington (except perhaps Schumer for his betrayal on the Iran Deal). The rage that Erickson is experiencing is unnatural in my opinion. And I don’t see how it will help Republicans win next year which is good.
Matt McIrvin
@David Koch: Remember, Trump’s actual support is still somewhere around 25% of Republicans (the high outlier polls are the ones you hear about, but that’s the aggregate; the most recent ones actually seem slightly off his peak).
I don’t think that 25% is going away, but that’s not enough to get him the nomination unless the rest of the field stays fragmented through the entire primary season, or he gets a large number of the other candidates’ voters.
mtiffany
Righteous anger? Good thing these folks are rigtheous otherwise it would just come off as entitled.
Holy fck, I just had a breakthrough — these people are stuck in the terrible twos. It explains so much of their behavior: from the “MINE!” mindset, to the “IWANTITNOW!” impatience, to the suspicion that anyone else getting something means that that particular something was taken from them (because everything is theirs), to the rigid inability to compromise, and the outraged tantrums from not getting what they want exactly the way they want it exactly when they want it…
They’re fcking toddlers.
Baud
@Kay:
They were putting all their eggs in the Supreme Court basket.
@Patricia Kayden:
The casualness with which the Senate Dems are treating the Schumer situation makes me think (hope?) that this is all kabuki and they have the votes.
Patricia Kayden
@David Koch: Trump recently spoke out in favor of Planned Parenthood so that may be a negative for his supporters.
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/250936-trump-defends-planned-parenthood
If he keeps making those type of comments, perhaps his extreme Rightwing supporters will back off him.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Personally I feel a certain comical fondness for Boehner and his futile attempts at cat herding.
Kay
@rikyrah:
Did you see this?
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-chicago-katrina-financial-disaster-landrieu-new-orleans-mcqueary-emanuel-pers-20150813-column.html
They already changed the headline and added an explainer by the author, where she helpfully tells readers what it’s “about”. It’s not “about” the words she wrote. She actually does not believe that 1000 dead is a small price to pay for a balanced budget.
bemused
@Baud:
And soft-spoken, somewhat subdued. Astonishing.
Baud
@Kay:
Like getting rid of Saddam, a massive natural disaster that allows us to get rid of unions is a good deal.
Patricia Kayden
@Sherparick: “But for lots of white guys in their thirties, forties, and fifties, the only sex they get is beating off, they have to pay their old lady and good for nuffing kids child support, and every day that have to put up with the boss for “Office Space.” So they are angy, and not going to take any more and Trump knows a market niche where he sees one.”
It’s ironic that they idolize Trump because he has nothing to do with their particular problems. He has no problems getting women, or paying his bills, and is his own boss. You would think angry white guys would find someone who actually can empathize with them instead of a billionaire who inherited his wealth.
Baud
@Patricia Kayden:
He represents their ideals.
MattF
Well, seriously, just look at Jeb!. Or, Georgie Will.. or, for that matter any of the mainstream media R apparatchiks. They’re all political rentiers, every single one.
I don’t blame RWNJs for thinking they’ve been betrayed, because they have been. As noted above, that’s been good thing for the country, but still, feeling resentful about it makes sense.
bemused
@mtiffany:
The out of contro! todd!ers are a nationa! mega menta! hea!th care crisis with no intervention in sight. Can just hope they do themse!ves in. (Have a stuck keyboard key which is driving me batty)
Botsplainer
@Patricia Kayden:
They might be rich one day, and he’s a white guy in a nice suit.
The gullibility of white folks for appearances astounds me daily.
Kay
@Baud:
I like to imagine idea to execution in pieces like that. It’s the 10 year anniversary of Katrina, she’s got the Paul Vallas connection to Chicago and…the thing writes itself!
NorthLeft12
Anne, Since I refuse to click that toxic link, I’ll assume that what you quoted is pretty representative of his entire whine.
The level of bullshit and stupidity in that plea is just unbelievable. Is Erickson so ignorant that he just can’t see that what he wrote will only make matters worse? Especially for him and the rest of the “smart” conservatives that love to whip up the base on a daily basis, then completely fail them and weakly, yes weakly, blame it on Obama, the Dems, or the left wing media.
You know what? Those TPers and racists and pseudo-Christians can smell another sell out coming from a mile away. They also are beginning to recognize that these repubs are just plain incompetent, and will never deliver anything that they want and will just continue to play them and serve their real base, the 0.1%.
Thanks for that post it was a great way to start the day.
Baud
@Kay:
Step 1: Elect a Republican.
Step 2: Disaster.
Step 3: Profit!
Kay
@Baud:
I might be giving them too much credit, but could it mean more than that? Trump isn’t a conservative. He’s just not. Maybe it’s a way for the GOP base to move away from “movement” conservatism while still hating liberals and Democrats, and also immigrants.
HeartlandLiberal
I am having a real hard time generating any sympathy for someone who over the years is known for asking when voters would “march down” and “beat” lawmakers “to a bloody pulp” and referring to former Supreme Court Justice David Souter as a “goat fucking child molester.”
Really. All I felt reading his heartfelt plea to conservatives to be good was a giant swell of delicious Schadenfreude of the highest quality.
Botsplainer
@NorthLeft12:
Dude, you gotta ditch the fairytale of “the populist hard right is reprehensible, but rising from its slumber about serving the .1%”.
That will never happen – they always serve the power.
brantl
I find it humorous that Ewick Ewickson (of the braided armpit hair) is being forced to smell the armpits of the great Teabagger unwashed. Poor him! Woe is him!
NorthLeft12
@John O:
This is the best one line summation of his epic whine that could possibly [IMO] be done.
John O.; I salute you for your brevity and succinctness. Qualities that I sadly lack. Bravo and please continue, sir.
Kay
@HeartlandLiberal:
I don’t know, but I think Erickson is an actual Party link to the base. What he says is what the official GOP wants to get across to the base. It’s so consistent I would not be surprised if that was his job. He fires them up until he’s told it is damaging, then he reels them back in. Over and over and over. He does some version of this every cycle.
I think it’s good because it means they’re worried about Trump. It’s already too late in a way. Even if they neutralize Trump, the eventual nominee will have to kowtow to Trump supporters and Trump himself, for his endorsement.
bemused
@Botsplainer:
I’ve heard average Joe R’s say the same thing. The fantasy that if they keep voting R they are going to get into the over $200,000 income category is their baby b!anket they hug 24/7 and can’t be parted from without extreme separation anxiety.
NorthLeft12
@Patricia Kayden:
Yes, I thought they might try and pass off the barrage of complaints on organized liberal trolling, but it seems that even Erickson and his fellow conservative pundits are not dopey enough to try and make that argument.
RSA
I curse Facebook for having turned “unlike” into a verb, which confused me for a second here. Though to be honest, who needs more reasons?
BillinGlendaleCA
I was watching Morning Joe, and you all are whistling through the graveyard. The Democrat Party is the one in disarray. Hillary and some others at State will be doing hard time over her email stuff. Al Gore, Handsome Joe Biden and SecState Kerry are all ready to get into the race. Donnie hears that his New York friends are worried about Hillary… So laf it up libs, the democRat party is the one in trouble, not the fine upstanding conservatives.
ETA: And that was in the first 10 minutes, I turned it off after that. I didn’t want to start chugging my mouthwash.
Sherparick
Shaun Mullen at “Crooks and Liars” doing a riff off of Joan Didion, who in turn was doing a polite literate riff that George Carlin does with far more appropriate language in his Stand up Routine “There is a Big Club, and you and I are not in it.” http://crooksandliars.com/2015/08/politix-update-secret-political-media
Frankensteinbeck
You haven’t been betrayed. You just didn’t get what you want. That you can’t tell the difference is one of the major problems of modern conservatism.
They’ve kept it up for seven years, now, and they were pretty pissed before.
You are exactly like your readers. You aren’t getting your own way, so you’re sticking your fingers in your ears and going ‘Nuh-UH!’ Because you want it, you’ve decided it must be righteous.
@mtiffany:
I think it’s that first year of high school rebellion and social bullying they can’t get over, but… yeah.
@Kay:
Hate is movement conservatism. It is racism, misogyny, whiny ‘You’re not the boss of me!’ entitlement, and pure, asshole spite. Trump has separated the ones who are obsessed with using the word ‘Christian’ to label their hate (hate does so love labels) and the ones who aren’t invested in that label.
EDIT – I understand the confusion. You’re thinking about policies. But that’s the thing, policy is a sideline. Movement conservatism is about hate, and Trump is getting up on stage and being a loud and proud asshole, including undeniable racism and sexism. This is who they are and what they want. It is conservatism. The policies were just ways to pretty it up for those capable of shame.
over_educated
@Patricia Kayden: that’s kind of the point. Trump is a white male power fantasy. He is an old white guy who lives the life of a ganster rapper.
JPL
When did Christians start preaching hate? I’m curious when that became a thing.
NorthLeft12
@Botsplainer:
I don’t agree with you. The RWNJs who I described don’t identify as serving the 0.1%. They see themselves as co-existing with them in the long term hope that they or their children [through some miracle that I can’t imagine] will someday be part of that leadership class. Because really, that’s exactly what they have been taught throughout their lives by their parents, school, and media.
What they are seeing is that THEIR grievances are not being acted on with any great will. And they are pissed about it.
Unfortunately, they are mostly too ignorant and racist to realize how the things the repubs are doing are hurting them and their children.
Baud
@JPL:
When they choose Reagan over Carter.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA:
I’d be worried if Joe didn’t believe that.
Frankensteinbeck
@JPL:
About 100 BC.
But I understand what you’re asking. Christianity and hate became synonymous in America around desegregation, when Christianity was first used as one of the major excuses to defend it, then as a label by the whites who got pissed that their children might have to go to school with blacks. In the 80s it coalesced with Reagan overtly inviting the fundies into a coalition of ‘fuck whatever liberals want.’
There’s a long history of good and bad in Christianity (including justifications of racism), but that’s the turning point you’re looking for.
Frankensteinbeck
@NorthLeft12:
Most of what the rich have wanted since Reagan has been the right to kick the poor all they want, and liberals have made putting limits on the rich a major goal. Both of those have made conservatives want to side with the rich.
JPL
@Frankensteinbeck: Thanks.
The Thin Black Duke
@Baud: Exactly. A vote for Reagan was a white bigot’s prayer in the church of hate.
mtiffany
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Excuse me, but do you mind? Some of us are eating…
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@JPL: It started building slowly, maybe around August 9, 1974. Or January 22, 1973.
Vietnam, inflation, recession, the end of God-given cheap gas, Nixon resigning, Roe v Wade, the end of Apollo, court-ordered school busing to desegregate the schools, crap American cars like the Chevy Vega, etc., etc. There were lots of reasons for people to think that the US was falling apart and that the answer was to “return to God and the Bible” and that all those nasty XXX people were ruining things. Many starting dates could be picked, but I think most of them were before Reagan.
Cheers,
Scott.
Karen S.
@over_educated: This is a perfect description of Trump and why his white male supporters are so keen on him. He talks loud and brash, gets women seemingly with ease, and at least appears to have loads of money. I imagine he does have lots of money, just not as much as he wants us to think he has. I live in Chicago where there’s a building downtown, just north of the Chicago River, that bears his name. I wonder how much he gets for leasing his name out.
Linda
@Baud: the problem was, like all dumb grifters, they over promised. They could have plausibly promised to cut items that were small, or cut back funding on the margins, which is what Republicans are good at. It’s how they kill good programs a little at a time. But their mouths wrote checks they couldn’t cash. When they threaten to shut down the whole government over Planned Parenthood, they also look like the nuts they keep swearing they aren’t. Not good.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Donnie said his friends in NYC think Hillary is too divisive.
OzarkHillbilly
@Frankensteinbeck:
You mean there were Christians before there was a Christ? Wow… Who’da thunk it? ;-)
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA:
So she’s just like Obama?
JPL
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: The era of talk radio has magnified it.
Frankensteinbeck
@OzarkHillbilly:
Yes. That is exactly what I mean. Judaism was going through interesting times.
EDIT – (You probably know that, but… who can tell around here?)
Kay
@Frankensteinbeck:
I’m just pleased they can’t control any of this and they now have to incorporate “Donald Trump” into their plans. If he stays on top even a little while longer he’ll have a lot of leverage. They need every single vote and they aren’t going to alienate any R voters.
Botsplainer
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
Do not make the mistake of dissing the Vega. With some work, those aluminum blocks could positively scream with speed.
Paul in KY
@rikyrah: Happy Friday!
Frankensteinbeck
@Kay:
I do want to say that you’re a good person, one of the nicest here, and I appreciate your always reaching for the positive and not lumping Republicans into one unreachable group. Conservatism may be hate, but that doesn’t mean conservative voters are all one note haters. In your activist work, you clearly reach for anybody who might be conflicted, not paying attention, or has only a 1% chance to be reached, but that’s worth trying. While the truth of the ugliness of conservatism’s motivations is important, so is the positive outlook that is the only way to build anything better. Plus, it’s good for us as people.
…I may have said this before, but it bears repeating.
Betty Cracker
@Botsplainer: I drove a Vega for a couple of years. It was already quite elderly when it came into my possession, but it really was a zippy little car. Of course, I had to purchase motor oil in 5-gallon jugs and top it off more often than I had to fill the gas tank, but besides that, it was a fun ride.
Patricia Kayden
@BillinGlendaleCA: Did he identify any Clown Car Occupant who was not divisive? We’re talking about candidates who believe a woman shouldn’t have access to abortion for any reason, who want to roll back voting rights, who want to erase marriage equality, etc. We’re also talking about a party which has a loudmouth racist and sexist at the top of its polls.
How is Secretary Clinton worst than anyone on the Republican side? And Donnie is supposed to be a Democrat. **shakes head**
Kropadope
Planned Parenthood promotes healthy babies…usually.
Was holding the U.S. government hostage in what can best be described as an overt-but-well-whitewashed attempt at economic terrorism not enough for you?
@Schlemazel:
Democrats are the conservative party, nothing nutty about it.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Botsplainer: Heh. There were some good ideas in the Vega, but they did too much cost cutting to have them be reliable cars. GM had world-class engineering, but the bean counters got them almost every time…
The Vega that people could buy and use as a normal car was [crap]. Lots of cars were crap back then, though.
Cheers,
Scott.
(That’s my opinion and I’m sticking with it. ;-)
Paul in KY
@Kay: Interesting theory.
OzarkHillbilly
@Frankensteinbeck: Ahh, it was on purpose. Yeah, Judaism was definitely going thru a Chinese curse of it’s own. ‘Zealot’ is a good book for putting the biblical Jesus into his times.
Another Holocene Human
@Sherparick: And if their workplace has a union or they work for the government (soooo many of these clowns work for the government) then there’s a Black man with seniority over them who’s a lazy good fer nothing or a Black woman who’s their supervisor who’s unqualified and a rude bitch.
No wonder white music has themes like “I’m not gonna take it! No! I’m not gonna take it!” and “And I won’t. Back. Down.”
workworkwork
My wife gets her walking cast off today!
I’m going to be doing some more work writing my Udemy class.
We’re getting our hair cut.
Tomorrow we’re going to that “Man from U.N.C.L.E.” movie.
Sometimes not having life drama is a good thing.
Another Holocene Human
I’ve noticed the men who complain about others “goldbricking” are the worst to work with, the biggest shirkers, and the men who complain about others being “unqualified” have no qualifications (nor the character) to do the job themselves.
debbie
@Frankensteinbeck:
Lie down with ravening dogs, and you’re bound to wake up feeling like a chew toy.
debbie
@Patricia Kayden:
Trump (with his blunt speech) represents what RWNJs could be if they too were able to make it big. He’s the kind of guy, from Jersey or Brooklyn, who pushed his way onto the trading floor and set the country up for financial catastrophe.
The only thing keeping the RWNJs from becoming the next Trump or Wall Street Hero are the damn liberals. These RWNJs think the Constitution would guarantee them success based solely on their Whiteness.
This is why I was more than a little surprised to hear Glenn Beck state that diversity and tolerance had destroyed the Constitution. The Constitution was supposed to be their golden ticket to Easy Street and all these @#[email protected] are keeping them from cashing in.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Does Erik even understand what a political party even is, much less the history of the GOP?
Botsplainer
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
GM’s 70s and early 80s bean counters seemed to view their role as follows:
1. Obscenely line the pockets of the directorate and top tier of management.
2. Defer maintenance and upgrades on Detroit facilities in pursuit of goal 1, thus hollowing out the city and weakening the union, their most valuable employees.
3. Accelerate planned obsolescence in pursuit of goal 1.
4. Act surprised when Japanese and German manufacturers ate GM’s lunch by making cars that consumers wanted at decent prices and with good reliability.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Kay:
The Base was never really conservatives too in the traditional sense – it has always been about keeping their socialism and taking socialism away from the wrong people.
Betty Cracker
@Frankensteinbeck: I’ll co-sign your comments about Kay. I admire her ability to focus on the constructive.
As someone who lives in a predominantly wingnut area with scads of wingnut relatives, I sometimes struggle to reconcile portrayals of conservatives as irredeemably racist, hate-filled, humorless fucks with the actual people I know who are loving, funny and generous. People are complicated.
John O
@NorthLeft12:
How nice of you to say!
Thank you. Seems sort of obvious to me, but then again, lots of stuff does that does not seem readily apparent to others.
workworkwork
@Botsplainer: The key phrase being “with some work.”
Jeffro
Shorter Erickson: “I don’t understand this anger; after all, it is directed at me”
Angry mobs are hard to keep under your thumb, Erick. Like dmislev quoted earlier, “As ye sow…”
Paul in KY
@JPL: When did Paul write Romans?
Jeffro
The GOP has been running a bomb-making factory for years and this is what they get – what you get, Erick.
boatboy_srq
Even in his impotent fury, the disconnects are still blatantly apparent.
Svensker
@HeartlandLiberal:
Yup yup yup
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Botsplainer: Yup.
GM could have done so much more and been such a great credit to the industry. Pontiac had an overhead cam straight 6 in the late ’60s. They could have continued to keep developing that technology and been ready for the EPA emissions and fuel economy standards that they knew were coming. But no, they threw it away.
The linerless Al block in the Vega could have been perfected, too. But they decided to address the dangers of overheating and excessive oil consumption by, IIRC, putting an electrical switch in so the engine wouldn’t run if the oil pressure was too low rather than fixing the underlying problem. The rust problem was endemic in the industry as a whole and helped, they thought, churn their customers – ‘Hey, it’s been 3 years, you need a new car!11’
GM, like the rest of the big 3, the steel industry, the railroads, etc., etc., figured they could keep making money by milking the investments in plant and equipment made 20 years earlier rather than continuing investment in their workers and the best possible technology. It cost them, and their customers, big-time.
Cheers,
Scott.
NorthLeft12
@Frankensteinbeck:
I’m not sure that the rich want to kick the poor so much as to make sure that whatever scraps they give, willingly or through taxes, is only going to the truly deserving and not wasted on those who are not; ie. POC, immigrants, criminals, drug users, “low” morals, mentally ill, lazy, uppity, …..
NonyNony
@Kay:
I think you’re giving them too much credit. There’s a part of the base that is looking for a “Tough Daddy” figure that they can admire and worship. Look at that crowd of 16 on that stage – who among them can play the “Tough Daddy” role? Trump. The rest of them either look like weenies (Jeb!, Walker, Paul, Rubio, Cruz, Graham, Santorum, Jindal) or already stink of failure (Kasich, Christie, Huckabee) or are disqualified from the Tough Daddy role due to their gender (Fiorina) or skin color (Carson – though the non-white supremacist part of the base seems to have taken a shine to him post-debate).
Trump is the alpha “Tough Daddy” – and part of being a “Tough Daddy” is that he can say what he wants and even if it disagrees with the party line, his supporters are going to be okay with it provided he stays tough and doesn’t try to walk it back. They like that he’s standing up to the “RINOs” – even when his position is the opposite of the GOP standard position. They just want to see someone punch the “RINOs” and help them “take their party back”.
If he starts to accomodate or cave to the party, he’ll lose support. Because they aren’t supporting him because he’s the “most conservative” – they’re supporting him because he’s the toughest.
Steve in the ATL
@Botsplainer: Yeah, the US auto industry did this to itself. My parents had a few of those shitty cars in the seventies, and since then no one in the family (parents and two generations down) has bought an American car or even considered it.
And the lesson I learned for my career is get out when your company puts a beancounter in charge or starts bringing in MBA’s and McKinsey types.
different-church-lady
Eventually every Dr. Frankenstein arrives at this moment. Yet the modern GOP just can’t cranking out Frankensteins.
RobertB
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: My brother owned a ’67 Le Mans (halfway between a Tempest and a GTO) that had that SOHC in-line 6. You wouldn’t even know that engine was running when it idling.
Iowa Old Lady
@NonyNony: I have to admit I don’t see Trump as a “Tough Daddy.” He’s too silly.
Thoughtful David
@Botsplainer:
Me, too. This also has the advantage when conservatives start talking about how it was Democrats in the South who supported Jim Crow and opposed voting rights, etc. Ok, maybe they were nominally Democrats, but actually, they were conservatives. Conservatives supported slavery, the Confederacy, established the Klan, opposed voting for women and everyone else, etc.
Liberals have always been on the good side of these things. So, call them what they are: conservatives.
Dolly Llama
@JPL: About 35 A.D.?
Paul in KY
@Betty Cracker: You seem to have a good crew of wingnuts. Agree that some people I know who have wacky political views can also be very nice people most of the time.
different-church-lady
@different-church-lady: “…just can’t stop cranking out Frankensteins” is how that should read.
Chooch
@Patricia Kayden: Sycophants don’t idolize people who are LIKE THEM, they idolize people who are what they want to be
Paul in KY
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: ‘Planned Obsolescence’ has got to be the stupidest marketing strategery ever. Really killed a lot of customers on American cars.
CONGRATULATIONS!
That’s OK, Erick bin Erick. Someone will piss it onto your double-wide grave, every day.
I can explain it to the poor bastard in five words: You sold out your base.
The Other Chuck
@Paul in KY:
Maybe not with cars — seems to work well enough for the computer industry.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@Kropadope: True dat. The GOP has, seriously, become the anarchist’s party.
Kropadope
@CONGRATULATIONS!: I like to think of them as a blend of radical economic liberals and social reactionaries.
Jado
@Zinsky:
Blastocysts only stay blastocysts for a few days – human beings stay human until they die (or until they become poor, whichever). So really, for Erick it’s only a matter of attention span. He isn’t interested in protecting anything that lasts longer than a stock market surge. Environment, manufacturing jobs, people – all last too long for Erick to pay attention to.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud:
I think they do.
OTOH I think people need to keep calling their Congress people to keep them from getting cold feet. The right wing is making their voices heard. We need to do the same.
/off soapbox.
Omnes Omnibus
@Kay:
So, fascism?
Citizen Alan
@JPL: 1866
sigaba
@Paul in KY: Japanese cars have Planned Obsolesence as well, but it’s more about styling.
I opened a private tab and went through the the RS comment thread a bit. There seems to be a complete inability to understand who’s writing these emails — there’s a lot of “these aren’t real conservatives”, and “his supporters are sheep in search of a charismatic leader.” (It’s all so familiar.)
What exactly does the Erik branch of the Republican Party think the Tea Party is? What exactly makes this haterade any different than Death Panels? For Erik maybe this is some kind of unprecedented outpouring of bile and personal assault, but for Nancy Pelosi, it’s Tuesday.
Matt McIrvin
@debbie: Of course, they’re ignoring the fact that Trump started out by inheriting a job and a fortune from his self-made-multi-millionaire father.
Matt McIrvin
@Thoughtful David:
This isn’t 100% true. Ta-Nehisi Coates has actually been good to read on this subject:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/04/a-history-of-liberal-white-racism/275113/
The racist Democrats of the pre-civil-rights era were in some ways economically progressive, and many considered themselves the opposition to Northeastern plutocrats. They were often culturally conservative, but even there, there were alliances with such things as the woman suffrage movement. Today’s political categories aren’t exactly the ones of 150 or even 50 years ago.
Another Holocene Human
@OzarkHillbilly: Actually, yes, if you dig into the history of it.
Rick Taylor
“Will nobody help poor, besieged Erick hammer that last nail into his own palm?”
We should all find a nail and mail it to Erick. ^^
Kropadope
@sigaba:
At least they didn’t plan the obsolescence of their work force.
Paul in KY
@The Other Chuck: Good point!
Paul in KY
@sigaba: I think you are a glutton for punishment to wade thru the morass that is RS. Must be tougher than me.
BruceFromOhio
Then you haven’t been paying attention, or you are extraordinarily stupid. Or both.
My concern is what the Trump-humpers do when Clinton wins. If you love your guns and your Konfederate flag, it’s pretty clear a functioning democracy is not in your interest when your loud-mouth, racist plutocrat gets trounced at the polls.
BruceFromOhio
@Baud:
The paymasters said, bad dog, get off the couch. And so the Legislature alternates between licking its nether regions and snarling at itself in the mirror. Gaia help us all.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Betty Cracker:
I’ve started to look at many of them — including my mom — as people who have been severely damaged by our racist society. My mom is a sweet, generous, open-hearted person, but she was taught from a young age that she needed to close herself off from Those People and look down on them, and she just can’t shake that message because it was ingrained so early.
It became really obvious to me when we were staying for several weeks at a Holiday Inn in Naples where all of the desk clerks and housekeeping staff were black. She was uncomfortable and bitched about it for the first couple of days, but then she got comfortable with the individual people and started chatting with them (she even did some old-lady flirting with a couple of the guys). The morning my brother died, she sought out one of the housekeepers to let her know because they had been discussing it.
And then she turns on the TV and it’s all about how Scary Black People Are Scary and it undoes all of the good her own personal experience tells her. Crap.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Matt McIrvin:
The original feminist movement (Seneca Falls) grew out of the abolition movement — Frederick Douglass was one of their early supporters. But when some women realized that “inferior” men (Black, but also “Papist” immigrants) were going to be allowed to vote and educated white women were not, they got bitter, and they said some really nasty shit. I sometimes suspect that the surge in white supremacism in the early 20th century was partially tied to the rise of the woman suffrage movement and that some suffragettes used white supremacist rhetoric to win supporters. I haven’t really investigated it because it’s just too fucking depressing.
Marmot
I actually got out of the boat for this one!
And I’m always going on about writing and word choice, and it’s pedantic, sure. But I think writing tells you a lot about a person.
Haha. Bolding mine. Eric’s thoughts are a jumble. We all get snared by the words sometimes, but he put a lot of thought into this post.
And I think he’s trying to hide the truth from himself. Rage has always motivated the right. He just couldn’t imagine receiving any. They can never put themselves in another person’s place. No “theory of mind.”
What? That’s somewhat contradictory. It’s right there in front of you — refuse to believe all you like.
Most irritating to me, Eric tries to appear formal and deliberate, so he avoids contractions and tends toward wordiness. His writing is simplistic instead of simple.
And the comment section! We’re not perfect, and typos are inevitable, but man — those are some fucked-up word strings and spellings. They also seem to think cursing is morally wrong.
I can’t believe this bunch of half-wits is our opposition. Guess I don’t leave the boat enough.
Lurking Canadian
@Matt McIrvin: As I understand it, the relationship between the fortune Trump inherited in the 1970s and the fortune he currently owns is roughly what you would get if you invested the original capital in low-risk instruments and waited forty years.
In other words, his entire career has been sound and fury signifying nothing, but they still view him as a titan of industry and a self-made genius. As I have said before, say what you like about Carnegie (he deserves it), but at least he built some useful shit on the way to getting rich.
NorthLeft12
@BruceFromOhio: If this is up for a vote, I will raise both of my hands for extraordinarily stupid.
Mr. Erickson reeks of cognitive dissonance. Perhaps he should develop a cologne?
Paul in KY
@Lurking Canadian: When you inherit $20 million (in 70s), you have to try really hard to fuck that up.
low-tech cyclist
Can’t you see them closing in, honey,
Can’t you see them circlin’ around?
Matt McIrvin
@Lurking Canadian: So many prominent Republican figures of the past few cycles are basically legacies: Trump, Romney, Rand Paul, the Bush brothers, Poppy Bush himself for that matter. They inherited their fortunes or their reputations or both from their fathers.
On the Democratic side, we have Hillary Clinton… but she’s not the daughter of a political titan, she’s the wife of one with whom she rose to the top as a team; he benefited from her, not just the reverse.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Paul in KY:
Oh, Trump did his best to fail, believe me. He’s still the only person I’ve ever heard of who managed to go bankrupt running a ca$ino, a business where people LITERALLY hand you their money.
Paul in KY
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): He’s a go-getter!
Lliz
@Baud:
I think I might start using this phrase.
Fantastic, right?
J R in WV
@Frankensteinbeck:
No, no. Hatred of the other has been part of Christianity for far longer than America has existed. The French Albigensians aka Cathars, were wiped out in the 12th and 13th centuries for their heresy and refusal to renounce it. The victors would force the population of a town into their cathedral, block all the doors, and burn the building with everyone in it.
This is an early example of Christian hatred and violence, even before the Spanish Inquisition got fired up.
EthylEster
@Paul in KY: When did Paul write Romans?
Latter half of the 1st century CE.
I was thinking along the same lines.
EthylEster
@sigaba:
This is the classic problem with “i’m OK but YOU are a fucking radical/wacko”.
There are no rules for determining REAL wacko-ness.
Everyone has his/her definition.
Eric is being to forced to update his definition.
This shows that self-awareness is not his strong suit. ;=)
sukabi
@Kay: she’s of the same ilk that was writing articles in the financial sections before Katrina hit, about the opportunities for rebuilding, and finally changing the demographics of the area. They were salivating over the thought of all the money that was going to be available.
Horrifying people.
Matt McIrvin
@sukabi: The Republicans benefited handsomely from so many of the black people in New Orleans being scattered to FEMA trailers in neighboring states (or just drowned). Louisiana became a deep-red state overnight.
Matt McIrvin
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): Casinos aren’t necessarily a license to print money any more, since the market has become saturated. And all that glitz is costly. The recession actually hit Las Vegas pretty hard; Atlantic City is suffering from not being the only place in the East you can gamble any more.
pluky
@J R in WV: otherwise known as the first crusade. “Kill them all. God will know His own.”
sukabi
@Matt McIrvin: yep.
sukabi
@NorthLeft12: cologne? Seems he’s found a new one. I believe it’s called Flopsweat.
Ken
How wealthy are all these grifters going to get when they stoke this hate over the next 8 years when Clinton is the president? There is no way the right wing media is losing that cash cow. They need Hillary to win.
PaulW
things to note:
1) While Trump is getting most of the polling he’s still on average around 20-24 percent. Granted this is in a field cluttered with 5 percenters taking away precious floor space, but a true leading candidate would be in the 35 percentile competing with three or four “serious” challengers in the 15-20 percent range.
2) There may be too many candidates, but you would think by now enough of the primary voters would come to their senses and start gathering support towards the higher-end “serious” candidates with the better odds of getting convention delegates. There’s not much difference between Walker and Perry, is there, or Jindal and Santorum to Huckabee? And yet the voters really haven’t made that move (yet, I grant you).
3) It’s at the point where the choice is no longer over the platform – there are almost no moderate viewpoints to challenge the hard-core unspoken agenda of mass tax cuts for corporations and mass deregulation and mass deportation and mass Christianization – but the choice is over which candidate airs the grievances… which is why Trump is doing so well (it’s all he got to offer lacking a legislative/governing record). The primary voters are choosing who they back based on personalities, not policies.
4) Which is why Jeb is turning out to be so disastrous. He’s stuck in a bad spot: as the “establishment” candidate it’s up to him to represent an agenda and propose policies… which nobody wants to hear and which are painful reminders of the failures of the last GOP administration’s (his brother’s, no less). And with regards to personality, well there it is on the stage: a forced grimace of a smile lacking all charisma or desire to stand before the public. It’s as though he’s burned out by public interaction already and would prefer running the world from a small office already, so stop bugging him.
PaulW
@Ken:
there’s only so many years you can run a con before the scam victims wise up. The Far Right has been told time and again there is an Apocalypse Now, that we are in the End Times already due to Obama’s failed administration, so BUY OUR BOOKS and vote our candidates to save yourselves! They’ve been told the same damn message about BILL Clinton in 1992 and 1996 and 1998 and 2002 (blaming him for 9/11). Now here’s the third time, here’s HILLARY, that whore of Babylon herself, and there’s the Republicans offering up the likes of Jeb or Cruz or Huckabee or Christie or whomever (not exactly the St. George or Batman we deserve or need). And here’s the GOP telling the voters you GOTTA BACK US THIS TIME MAN and YES WE WILL FINALLY ARREST THE BABY KILLERS and BRING ABOUT RANDIAN UTOPIA even though they’ve promised that in 2000 and 2004 and 2008 and 2010 and 2012 and 2014 and STILL the Far Right have not been fully appeased.
There are enough angry base voters now angry at their own party for getting strung along on broken promises and bad policies. They’re not buying the con that Karl Rove and the Koch Brothers and the RNC want to sell them again: they’re buying something fresh in Trump’s con game instead.
PaulW
@EthylEster:
I never. I’ve done mostly short stories.
The Other Chuck
@pluky:
Not the first crusade. Came some time after the … sixth? or thereabouts. At some point they stopped numbering them.
Paul in KY
@EthylEster: Always happy to be thinking same points as you. Elly!