In the middle of our road trip home today, Sherrod and I started talking about how the first few words of favorite songs can trigger years of memories.
Sherrod’s: “Here comes the sun….”
Mine: “Screen door slams….”
What’s yours? pic.twitter.com/pyc8fDo2ql
— Connie Schultz (@ConnieSchultz) August 16, 2019
And now for something completely different…
The House Judiciary Committee will return early from August recess to consider three bills that address gun violence in the wake of two deadly mass shootings earlier this month. https://t.co/iVYg1UOGEO
— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) August 16, 2019
NEW: House Judiciary Cmte. Chairman Nadler announces that he is calling cmte. back from recess on Sept. 4, the week before rest of Congress returns, to work on gun-related legislation.
Nadler also says the cmte. will hold a hearing on military-style assault weapons Sept. 25.
— NBC Politics (@NBCPolitics) August 16, 2019
OzarkHillbilly
I’ve got a 5th Bday party to go to up in Foristell, (2+ hrs away) then we meet up with my son and his friends who are having a family wkend at Meramec State Park. I’m not gonna get shit done around here today. Blech.
oldster
Chris Cillizza, ultimate DC Press Corps clown, inveterate Hillary-hater, and one of the stupidest people on the planet:
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/cillizzas-folly-cnn-edits-article-criticizing-purchase-of-alaska-in-greenland-debate
More evidence that sucking up to right-wing power gives you life-long tenure in DC, no matter how incompetent you are.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: Nice. I’m just marking time. It’s nice out now so out with the pups to Normal Hardware and then tackle the lawn.
Quinerly
Answering Connie’s question (but not the first words of the song) when Van says (to me?) “I want to rock your gypsy soul.”
Happy Saturday from Poco’s tribe!
OzarkHillbilly
It would appear that the only thing the British can agree on is that while a no deal Brexit is the equivalent of self castration, it still beats the hell out of having Jeremy Corbyn in #10 Downing St.
mrmoshpotato
@OzarkHillbilly:
You turned 5? Congrats big guy! ?
mrmoshpotato
@Quinerly: Happy Saturday to you, Poco, and the tribe.
OzarkHillbilly
@mrmoshpotato: Don’t I wish. ;-)
rikyrah
@Quinerly:
Morning to Poco and the tribe ???
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ? ??
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
It’s the equivalent of lefties who couldn’t bring themselves to vote for Hillary. Traitors to their country all.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
JR
Connie Schultz has good taste
MattF
While. Dri-ving. In. My. Cadillac…
p.a.
First lines (& apropos of birthdays):
How young are you, how old am I?
Let’s count the rings… around my eyes
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Quinerly: “Screen door slams” is great! I accept it!
Good morning.
rikyrah
@Baud:
Don’t compare him to Hillary. He is a clown candidate like Bernie.
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: Have fun. Google tells me that the State Park is beautiful.
geg6
Don’t want to be an American idiot…
In tribute to the previous post. :-)
WereBear
“I once had a girl…”
germy
germy
Dorothy A. Winsor
We went to a concert here last night. I have trouble at musical events here because the songs are all aimed at someone 10 years older than me. When the guy last night picked his own songs, he did stuff I liked including some MoTown, which was about as recent as he got. But then he asked for audience requests. I have come to hate every song by a member of the Rat Pack.
Baud
@rikyrah:
I’m not comparing him to Hillary. In the UK, it’s Corbyn vs. Boris Johnson with no deal Brexit on the line. That’s a no brainier for people who are about their country.
Raven
I know they have sorority rush on many campuses but Athens is nuts. I hit Starbucks and it was full of girls in white T’s and tiny shorts. Milledge Ave is the main drag through Greek row and university busses are depositing hundreds of these kids in front of the various houses. I don’t exactly know what the deal is but, at some point, they fall out in little dresses and the frat boys pull out couches and hold up number cards like a gymnastics meet. (I assume they still do even in the day of me too)
Baud
@geg6:
Also, too, “Know Your Enemy.”
Mrearl
“Busted flat in Baton Rouge . . .”
Baud
@Mrearl:
Good pick.
OzarkHillbilly
@JPL: It is. It’s just down the road from us and I/we go there often. (we took the dogs for nice little hike there Thursday AM) 30+ caves in the park tho they are all closed now because of White Nose Syndrome. Lots of history, great trails, and of course the river. which I floated with my son just 2 weeks ago.
Raven
I was talking with a friend who is from Louisiana and a chef. I was telling her about my tuna trip and she was puzzled. Her family inshore fished for red, trout and flounder but she had never heard of Venice AKA Tuna Town or fishing for them off the rigs. I hit a site that said it started in the late 90’s.
Amir Khalid
@oldster:
Does no one edit Cillizza? After calling Alaska one of America’s last land purchases, he refers to two more such acquisitions in the early 20th cemtury, about 50 and 60 years later.
Barbara
When life looks like easy street there is danger at your door . . .
Amir Khalid
For evocative opening lines, I like:
To the east the factories stand like fire-breathing dragons against the sky
Raven
@Barbara: come along or come alone. . .
OzarkHillbilly
People say I’m no good and crazy as a loon
‘Cause I get stoned in the morning
And get drunk in the afternoon
Raven
@OzarkHillbilly: He’s such a pig but had some great tunes.
Bobby Thomson
I got a letter from the government the other day
Rise up this mornin’
The color of the sky as far as I can see is coal grey
I really do appreciate that you’re sittin’ here
Alone, listless
And when I asked for a separate room
In the shuffling madness
Out where the river broke
Ohio Mom
Some days I wish Sherrod was President just so Connie could be our First Lady. Her Twitter has become a regular stop for me. She manages to be realistic and angry about the right things and optimistic and joyful all at the same time. Which has the effect of elevating my mood.
My goal today is to make some more progress on cleaning out the basement. Ohio Dad is against the idea of paying someone to take the old tube TV but apparently there is no place that will take them for free anymore.
I also suspect he is not looking forward to lugging it up the stairs. Still, in ten years we’ll be living somewhere else and it might take that long at the rate we move to get this place ready for the For Sale sign.
OzarkHillbilly
@Raven: Haysoos Crispo, Christ on a cracker, WTF happened??? It’s like he had this demon prion disease lurking, nibbling at the edges of his brain, and then one day…
I will never understand it.
debbie
@Raven:
Feels like you’ve walked into an alien world, I bet!
i don’t remember first lines of songs so much as I remember the first guitar notes, like Hey Joe, Sweet Jane, Gimme Shelter, etc.
OzarkHillbilly
Living off-grid for 77 years – in pictures
Quinerly
@mrmoshpotato: l@Dorothy A. Winsor: @rikyrah: Good morning back at you! I’m out the door! Take care.
Wag
oldgold
“I can’t get no, oh, no, no, no, hey, hey, hey.”
gene108
Got onto a Twitter conversation with a gun humper. His conclusion is he’s will to tolerate gun violence rather than give up his guns. Very sad and demented way to look at the world.
mad citizen
Think I’ll pack it in
And buy a pickup
Take it down to L A
Find a place
Try to fix up
And start a brand new day.
Or. The Clash cover of:
“My baby drove up in a brand new Cadillac “
Steeplejack
@Raven:
Charlie Daniels or Lee Hazlewood?
Spanky
germy
@Spanky: Nilsson!
OzarkHillbilly
@Steeplejack: In this case, Daniels.
mad citizen
@Ohio Mom: This sounds like our Indiana house, what with my hoarding tendencies and my wife a fair bit behind me but still with unneeded stuff. Pay to get the TV gone, you’ll feel better.
Fortunately we got rid of our working tube TV 6 or so years age; me and my neighbor helped each other, and they were off to goodwill.
debbie
Stockholm Syndrome survives: the Log Cabin Republicans have endorsed Donald Trump. They praise him for removing LGBT issues as a wedge issue.
Huh?
Jeffro
Here’s how you start a road trip:
“Livin’ in a shack in a one-horse town,
Tryin’ to get to heaven ‘fore the sun goin’ down…”
???
gene108
“Don’t call it a comeback…”
Sets the tone off the bat
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: See? Keeping up the beatings until morale improves really works!
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
And I hadn’t even begun to recover from “Even if you hate me, you have to vote for me!” yet. //
Spanky
@germy: One that never got any radio play. Sad!
Ohio Mom
@mad citizen: Goodwill won’t take tube TVs anymore. Even St. Vincent DePaul, which will take almost anything, and come to your house to haul whatever it is away, won’t take them. Have you ever been in a St. Vincent DePaul store? I love thrift shops and rummage sales, but their stores are piles of barely sorted odds and ends and most of the ones I’ve been to had a strong mildew smell. Sets me off sneezing.
@OzarkHillbilly: She looks very happy and healthy, and appears to have found a balance that works for her: a cell phone charged in the car “to call a doctor or a priest.” It looks like a serene lifestyle. Don’t know about the set-up for the last rites in the upstairs bedroom though.
Spanky
@Jeffro: Road trips start with
oatler.
The piano has been drinking
Immanentize
Ain’t it just like the night to play tricks when you’re tryin’ to be so quiet?
Jeffro
@gene108: that is easily one of the dumber analogies I have ever heard it
You can teach yourself to swim or better yet, take lessons. You can also teach yourself how to shoot, or take lessons on being a responsible gun owner.
The difference is, with swimming, even if there is a lunatic who wants to try and round large numbers of people, he can only drown one at a time, with his hands. He can’t drown 26 people in 35 seconds before being taken down by police.
And on and on. So very dumb, the gun nuts. They’re only argument, really, is just like that Australian comic put it: “I like guns”
Um ok. I like living and living without this kind of insanity around.
Ohio Mom
@debbie: Just being gay and identifying as a Republican means you’ve painted yourself into
a corner. They have nowhere else to go except to endorse Trump, poor dears.
They don’t realize they get the press’s attention because they satisfy the same human urge that makes for rubbernecking auto accidents and freak show attendance.
Chris Johnson
@rikyrah: Din’t know you were a Tory ;)
OzarkHillbilly
@Ohio Mom: I would guess that she is accepting of the inevitable and because of the fact that she is alone wants to make it as easy as she can on everyone else.
debbie
@Ohio Mom:
“I didn’t leave the Republican Party, it left me…” is and always will be bogus.
gene108
@Jeffro:
That’s really all the talk from gun humpers amounts to. They value their guns, more than they value the lives of others.
Quinerly
@debbie: this after the Board voted to not endorse him.
hueyplong
“Wading through the waste, stormy winter”
hueyplong
@Ohio Mom: Hadn’t thought of the Log Cabin Republicans as a Tod Browning production before. Now I’ll have trouble thinking of them as anything else.
Immanentize
@Quinerly:
I really don’t think the Log Cabin Republicans are out there increasing Trump’s vote totals. But they do give cover to those who would vote for him under any circumstances.
Gypsy heart indeed
Amir Khalid
@debbie:
Supporting the political party that actively opposes your right to exist is plainly irrational. But then, there has always been a whiff of turkeys-voting-for-Thanksgiving about the Log Cabin Republicans, hasn’t there?
Amir Khalid
@debbie:
I seem to recall that Ronald Reagan said that about the Democratic party.
germy
@Ohio Mom: Does your town have an Electronics Recycling Day? In my town, it’s a yearly event.
OzarkHillbilly
@gene108: @Jeffro: Got into it with one over at Outside the Beltway yesterday and the previous evening.
He closed with,
To which I replied:
MagdaInBlack
Late to the party but…
“Pack up all your dishes.
Make note of all good wishes.
Say goodbye to the landlord for me.
That son of a bitch has always bored me. …”
Guy Clark (Jerry Jeff)
debbie
@Amir Khalid:
My youngest brother said it during the Terry Schiavo conflict. Now, he’s just another Trumper.
AND Twitter tells me the Trump administration is moving to end transgender rights. It only gets worse and worse.
Mr. Mack
“Looked in the mirror and saw a movie star…so I flew to Hollywood in a neighbor’s car”
Immanentize
@MagdaInBlack:
Who is from upstate New York not far from where I grew up.
Kayla Rudbek
All right, repeating from last night:
To my surprise, one of my knitting projects was featured in the designer’s/company’s weekly newsletter as stitcher of the week! Afloat on the Fourth, kit bought from Stunning String Studio, Afloat
MagdaInBlack
@Immanentize:
I know! Not a Texas boy at all!
Sure found his real musical home tho ?
*That song reminds me of road trips with my late husband ?
Ceci n est pas mon nym
“Gotta make a move to a town that’s right for me…” (Funkytown)
Yeah, it’s a stupid song. But it was playing all the time the first year we were married, nearly 40 years ago, and we used to sing it to each other a lot. Still makes me smile both for the memories and for how silly it is.
Other than that, can’t think of specific songs, but there are specific eras, the early 70s and 79-82 where nearly any song will trigger complicated waves of emotion.
Amir Khalid
I’m waiting for the Southampton-Liverpool EPL game. There was a bit of midweek drama after Liverpool beat Chelsea in the Super Cup match on Wednesday: a pitch invader trying to evade stadium security and join in the on-pitch celebration wound up crashing feet-first into the team’s group hug, and into goalkeeper Adrian San Miguel’s ankles. Which swelled up, making Adrian uncertain of starting against Southampton. Fotunately Adrian’s ankles are now okay and he’s been cleared for action.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Kayla Rudbek: Congrats!
Baud
@debbie:
Trump was an all-in bet. Very few will be able to quit him.
Kay
This should be investigated as a “car attack”– it’s what the white supremacist in Charlottesville did. Is this a tactic they’re promoting on their sites? This is intended to shut down dissent. They hope to scare people off from opposing them. This guy was so confident he did this wearing his name on his chest.
Omnes Omnibus
Well, a person can work up a mean mean thirst after a hard day of nothing much at all….
ETA: Well, you didn’t wake up this morning ’cause you didn’t go to bed
You were watching the whites of your eyes turn red….
Dev Null
@MattF: There’s something strange about that Nash Rambler…
Kay
@Baud:
I don’t know how widespread it is but it is interesting how so many have retreated to “the economy” as a reason for continuing to support him. It must be widespread- Trump himself is telling him they “have” to support him or they will lose their retirement savings. So the blatant racism and corruption and sleaziness of him and his team are not, actually, brilliant political moves. The norms are there because if they weren’t there these people would be proudly supporting him instead of whining about the economy. “He’s a mean-spirited ignorant racist but unemployment is low” may not be a good argument, but it’s the only argument they’re willing to make in his defense and that includes Donald Trump.
Bobby Thomson
@Omnes Omnibus: On the bus, that’s where we’re ridin’
MagdaInBlack
@OzarkHillbilly:
Saw that yesterday and I have to admit, I’m somewhat envious.
OzarkHillbilly
@MagdaInBlack:
Last night I broke the seal on a Jim Beam decanter
That looks like Elvis
I soaked the label off a Flintstone Jelly Bean jar
I cleared us off a place on that
One little table that you left us
And pulled me up a big ole piece of floor
I pulled the head off Elvis
Filled Fred up to his pelvis
Yabba Dabba Doo, the King is gone
And so are you
Just One More Canuck
Pulled into Nazareth, was feeling about half past dead
laura
Well my time went so quickly, I went lickity splitly, out to my old 55.
And that chorus
Now the sun’s coming up, I’m driving with lady luck, freeway cars and trucks, stars beginning to fade, while I lead the parade.
MagdaInBlack
@Kay:
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/08/heres-why-trumps-rabid-base-will-never-see-the-light-theyve-turned-to-the-dark-side/
(Tom Boggioni, btw)
TS (the original)
The media has now normalized trump wanting to buy Greenland. Whatever anyone in the GOP does, the political media finds a positive attribute. Everything a democrat does is controversial. So tired of this liberal media.
Why trump might want to buy Greenland
Kay
@Baud:
In a way Democrats are lucky. Trump didn’t run as a Republican. He ran against Republicans. He could have come up with a popular agenda. He could have hired good and competent people. A smart person who was given this “perfect storm” win might have hired some Democrats, even. Democrats aren’t Republicans. They would have made an infrastructure deal, or Obamacare tweaks with some pot sweeteners on funding, or done an immigration deal like the one they were negotiating with the Bush Administration. He could have been a really popular President. They’re mean spirited assholes so that kind of “smart” isn’t in them- they only know zero sum “smart”- but Trump really could have broadened the GOP. A better person who also hired higher quality people could have broadened the GOP. He has such a cramped, ungenerous vision – he took the smallest level of support he could possibly get. Just getting by.
Dev Null
@Amir Khalid:
Too subtle, if I may say so without giving offense. The gore isn’t front-and-center. I prefer:
Admittedly, that meme doesn’t go far enough: their faces are being eaten as they speak, yet they’re going to vote for the Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party every chance they get.
Ya gotta admire the the way they have looked into the eyes of their Fate …
… and embraced it.
Or sumpthin’.
MagdaInBlack
@OzarkHillbilly:
Have to admit, I’ve never heard that one !
Til now…ty youtube
Baud
@Kay:
Conservatives politics has always been about (1) creating pretexts for bad behavior and (2) convincing mushy people that imperfect good people are bad people.
Think about economics. They don’t say giving more money to rich people is a good in itself. They promote it as a way to increase job growth. They know the first argument by itself won’t fly.
Baud
@Kay:
Couldn’t disagree more. He ran as an uber-Republican, being direct instead of talking in code. The only aspect I’ll give him a tiney bit if credit for is understanding that GOP war lust would be unpopular with his base.
OzarkHillbilly
@MagdaInBlack: I love George Jones. That particular autobiographical song perfectly encapsulates his own self destructive ways and the sorrows they brought to him.
Dev Null
@Kay:
Are you sure about this? For Republicans in general, I mean, perhaps not for the Log Cabin
GobblersGoobers.Never forget “… the judges”.
And Ebola-infected ISIS terrorist-martyrs swimming the Rio Grande on their way to Arkansas.
And the “No Gazillionaire Left Behind Tax Cut Cut Cut” Act.
The last on the op ed page of the WSJ, anyway.
Baud
@Baud:
“…tiny bit of…”
Kay
@Baud:
And Social Security and Medicare. And federal subsidies to conservative voters. He is literally giving “farmers” (land owners) $20,000 a year so they’ll continue to support him.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly:
The Grand Tour. Best weeper ever.
Kay
@Dev Null:
But Trump himself says they must support him even if they hate him or they will lose all their money. He knows his base better than anyone.
Another Scott
Only love can make it rain…
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@Kay:
Not really. His message was different, but every Republican runs on “saving” social security and Medicare. We don’t see it that way because we know they are lying, but Republicans don’t really run against those programs.
I don’t think Trump ran on subsidies to farmers. Obviously, he’ll try to buy them off though.
MagdaInBlack
@OzarkHillbilly:
In my younger years, I had no use for George Jones etc type music…with the “wisdom” of age, Ive come to appreciate him/it (much) more.
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: That’s a great one. George Jones is a great antidote to depression. No matter how down I got, I could always listen to him and say, “Well, George has it worse.”
ETA He stopped loving her today
Baud
@Baud:
By being more overtly racist, Trump didn’t have to invent some way to save social security and Medicare for white people that involved changing the program. He could simply reassure his base that he would protect them with the implicit understanding that he would do that by hurting brown people and liberals.
Another Scott
@debbie: They’re a self-parody and have been for a long time.
Flat-earthers.
It’s sad in a way, and completely predictable in another.
Cheers,
Scott.
Yarrow
@debbie: In photos I’ve seen of the Log Cabin Republicans they’ve seemed to be mostly white and male. I’ve always had the impression their whiteness and maleness took precedence for them when it came to politics. Given that view, it’s not really surprising they’re supporting Trump.
Of course they’ll be surprised when the leopards eat their faces, but that’s pretty typical these days.
Ohio Mom
@germy: Good idea. I will call the county recycling department on Monday. They didn’t list an electronic recycling day on their website but it is worth a shot. Ohio Dad would be happy to have a far-off deadline for hauling that thing up the basement steps.
OzarkHillbilly
@MagdaInBlack: It’s a mix. George grew on me. Johnny Cash was always good, same for Willie. Merle Haggard was one I came around to. There are others of course. I don’t know much about the current crop other than Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell, and one or 2 others.
MagdaInBlack
@OzarkHillbilly:
Willie opened the door for me (our antidote to disco)….the others followed him in ?
ETA kind of lost my taste for Waylon after we saw him all
f-d up in concert in Bloomington, IL
Miss Bianca
There must be something deeply wrong with me. Because when I saw that Sherrod and Connie tweet, the first song line that flashed through my mind was “Sitting on a park bench…”
Ken
Spring is here, spring is here, life is skittles and life is beer…
Yarrow
@Ohio Mom: Don’t let Ohio Dad bring that heavy TV up the basement steps! Didn’t he have heart surgery awhile ago?
Here’s an option to consider. Figure out when you’re going to donate it and start making a list of other lifting/moving tasks that need to be done. On the appointed day hire movers just to carry the TV up the stairs and into whatever vehicle you’ll use to take it to donate. Also have them do the other tasks You can do that–you don’t have to hire movers to put things in a truck and move them to another location.You can hire them just to move items within your house. There’s usually a minimum number of hours but that’s why you make the list and batch tasks.
Ohio Mom
@OzarkHillbilly: Yeah, I got that. But it’s hard to imagine someone sick enough to be facing their last days holed up on the second floor rather than the first. And priests have their own Last Rite kits.
Her setup is symbolism, it gives her some comfort I suppose, even as I find it morbid.
Dev Null
@Kay: Perhaps we’re talking at cross-purposes? There are the Log Cabin Goobers, there are Trumpkin farmers (who are losing their farms, but like the Log Cabin Goobers mostly intend to vote for Trump because in the long run
we’re all deadeverything will work out for the best in this … er, never mind that for now), and there are the Raving Loonies who binge-attend Trump rallies.Ah betcha almost none of the Raving Loonies have a clue about the economy per se … I’d be surprised if more than a small fraction of the attendees have two nickels in a 401K to rub against each other. They’re not into abstractions like “the economy”, they’re into Dear Leader: Trump giveth, Trump taketh away, blessed be His Name; Trump will make everything Right.
In my hearing, that riff (incl. 401ks) is just another Trump agit-prop flourish, one that works the same way as his “Sir” anecdotes. The “weird anecdote about [the] unnamed billionaire who hates him but is helping him” (quoting a quote in AL’s post this morning) gives it away.
Sure, Trump knows his base, but I don’t think that means that his agit-prop riffs are intended to persuade the base; instead they’re empty applause lines.
Miss Bianca
@OzarkHillbilly: Love that song. A band I was in almost covered it for our “Incredibly Sad Music Show”, but we ended up doing “He Stopped Loving Her Today” instead as our representative “George Jones will fuck your shit up” song.
Ohio Mom
@Yarrow: Ohio Dad is fine. It’s a year and a half from his heart valve replacement and he’s as healthy as can be. When western medicine works, it works (that isn’t to say it isn’t completely oversold a lot of the time).
But you have a point about waiting to move all the heavy things at once and hiring somebody. Maybe my friend’s 25 year old. He and his starving musician friends are always up to earn a few extra dollars.
Yarrow
@Ohio Mom: Glad he’s dong okay. Hiring your friend’s kid and his friends sounds like a good plan. They may not have all the tools–dollies, protective padding, etc.–but if you’re not worried about that then they would probably work great.
Immanentize
@Miss Bianca:
You have to have strings to make that song really work…. Or a really punk attitude.
Immanentize
@Ohio Mom:
I was at my Doctors the other day and we were talking about Crisper technology and a possible cure for Sickle Cell Anemia. These are the days Of miracle and wonder….
Meanwhile, “surprised to learn I have high blood pressure” said no one ever.
Yarrow
@Immanentize: How’s the kid doing?
TomatoQueen
It was Christmas in prison and the food was real good/We had turkey and pistols carved out of wood; and from the same source:
Got kicked off of Noah’s Ark/Turned my cheek to unkind remarks/There was two of everything/and one of me
Immanentize
@Yarrow:
Improving, slowly. We are now in a more difficult than I thought it would be phase of increasing calories by mouth. Banana, chocolate, peanut butter, protein powder smoothie has 1000 + calories just FYI. And I didn’t even add the honey….
Yarrow
@Immanentize: Glad he’s improving, even if it’s not as easy as you both might wish. That sounds like a tasty smoothie.
Dev Null
@Kay:
This is the critical point, it seems to me.
A less twisted / more self-aware / less greedy but still norm-bustin’ Republican visionary could have become a latter-day Julius or Augustus Caesar, by (ahem) casting the money-changers from the temple, so to speak (apologies to ancient history for the mangled metaphor). The opportunity was there.
And it’s the present-and-future danger: Trump has blazed that trail, exposed the fault lines, whatever you want to call his path to the presidency.
Trump could never become Caesar [1] because Trump is ignorant, lazy, and focused entirely on $. Power seems to be secondary to him. (Mussolini, well, maybe.)
Paradoxically, my hypothetical norm-bustin’ Republican visionary might never manage to become the Republican nominee, precisely because (as you also said):
Is it possible to thread the needle and 1) satisfy the mean-spirited base (and plutocratic donors), then 2) build out the GOP by presidentin’ in ways that benefited the country as a whole while consolidating executive power?
We don’t have an existence proof, thank Dawg.
Yet.
[1] in the sense that both Julius and Augustus Caesar were smart, shrewd, patient, etc. Trump is none of those.
Dev Null
@OzarkHillbilly:
Nice!
And apparently true:
No-deal Brexit preferable to a Jeremy Corbyn government offering a second referendum, poll finds
Kayla Rudbek
@Dorothy A. Winsor: thanks! I opened up the email, started scrolling down, and was all, “hey, wait a minute, I recognize that photo!” No indication whether I won anything beyond recognition, but it got me to join Stunning String’s Ravelry group. They have just opened up a physical storefront in Sycamore, IL if that is anywhere close to you. They also go to a lot of shows, so I bought that kit at Maryland Sheep and Wool. Now I have a ton more of their kits on my wish list.
MagdaInBlack
@TomatoQueen:
Love my John Prine ?
” I’m sorry my son but you’re too late in asking.
Mr. Peabodys coal train has hauled it away “
Ohio Mom
@Immanentize: Waiting to heal from surgery can be a boring grind. Eyes on the prize. Remind Immp we are all cheering him on, and thinking about the day your comments are all about adjusting to empty nesthood.
NotMax
@Immanentize
No matter how you slice it, two steps forward, one step back is still one step forward.
debbie
@Yarrow:
Heh. I almost hope for a front-row seat at that show.
debbie
@Ohio Mom:
If you’re still here, this place in Cincinnati may be worth checking into.
debbie
@Immanentize:
I found I had just that yesterday. I blame Trump.
ETA: Glad to see smoothies are now in the picture for Immp.
Baud
@Dev Null:
Wow. I thought Labor was leading in most of the polling of the election were held today.
Brachiator
@Baud:
UK polling is as crazy as early polling here.
There are Labour constituents who are as strongly Leave as any Tories. Corbyn chose not to try to change these people’s minds. The phony BREXIT party not only threatens the Conservatives, but could also pull from Labour. These idiots are truly a wild card. And it’s unclear whether the Lib Dems have any real strength.
And then there is the nasty demonizing of Corbyn.
Bottom line: a new general election does not necessarily favor Labour.
And in a crazy way, who should be the next prime minister and how do you deal with BREXIT are two separate problems with at least two different answers. In an even crazier way, for a while it seemed that Corbyn was ignoring BREXIT and essentially saying “Deal or no deal, just vote Labour.” I don’t think this helped him.
mrmoshpotato
@debbie:
“I never thought they’d take away my rights,” cried the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered Republicans who endorsed someone who wanted to take away lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights.
mrmoshpotato
@Baud:
How can you?
“Oh, I no longer support these atrocities.”
“I see. Why the fuck did you support this monster in the first place”
*awkward silence*
Yutsano
@Dev Null: Log Cabin Republicans care about one thing: tax cuts. Most are rather well off and would prefer if they let the rubes support government while they skate off with their bucks to Monte Carlo. It’s pure selfishness that will hurt them.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@Immanentize: Oneonta, if I’m correct. Mr. Q’s brother in law grew up there, though he’s far too young to have know Jerry Jeff (and may or may not know who he is even).
“Ancient History” Eric Brace and Peter Cooper live at KDHX
I’m a big Jerry Jeff fan, who of course made LA Freeway a hit for Guy Clark – another favorite of mine.
Happy Saturday
Brachiator
@debbie:
Wow. For many reasons, I find this sad and stunning. Principles over self-preservation?? Also, I guess they can never abandon the GOP, no matter what.
SRW1
Can’t liiiiiiiive, if living is without you
SRW1
I remember to this day
The bright red Georgia clay
And how it stuck to the tires
After the summer rain
sam
Sherrod’s supposed to be the progressive yet he quotes the Beatles and his fife for god’s sake quotes Springstein. We worship false gods.
Dev Null
@Baud:
I haven’t been following Brexit news since the Maybot was defenestrated, but I don’t believe that’s true.
Shorter: The Tories are running between about 20% and 30%, depending on who you ask; Labour slightly less; UKIP in the noise; and Farage’s new Brexit Party around 15% (10-20%).
As Brachiator says (post after yours) it’s a mess.
Britain’s first-past-the-post electoral system means that unless the smaller parties (Lib-Dem, SNP, etc) cooperate, the Tories might do well enough to form a coalition government with UKIP and the Northern Ireland party (which seems to have gone missing from wiki’s table) – think Maine and Paul LePage. FWIW, I’m speculating on the Tories and Brexit Party working together … dunno anything about the Brexit Party.
Dev Null
@Yutsano: @Brachiator:
People who know something about history are invited to correct my errors, but I seem to recall that a lot of well-to-do Jews in the early days of Hitler’s Germany felt that Hitler’s antisemitic rhetoric was red meat for the rubes on election day; at worst Hitler would go after those Jews (who I think were the poorer Sephardic Jews from Russia and Eastern Europe). You know, the riff-raff. (Someone here recently posted a circa 1932 clipping from the Vichy Times to more or less that effect.)
And why wouldn’t wealthy Jews make that assumption in 1932? They’d been minimally affected by antisemitism in WWI Germany and earlier, perhaps because they were too wealthy and important to the war machine.
And hooboy, antisemitism was a real thing back pre-Hitler. The Spousal Unit has been sorting books in the attic, and paging thru to decide which we should keep. She ran across a book by a high-status Brit recounting his journeys through Prussia and Russia (in the 1890s, I think), and y’know? You’d be called a Nazi today if you said half what this guy wrote about Russian Jewish peasants.
I had no idea anti-Jewish bias ran that broad and deep. The impression I get is that pre-Hitler Europeans imbibed antisemitism with mothers’ milk.
Anyway, I’d guess the Log Cabin Goobers have the same mindset as those wealthy Jews. They (think Peter Thiel) will never suffer persecution resulting from their sexual orientation. They’re too important to the party.
It could also be the case that Log Cabin Goobers who stand to suffer from the GOP’s anti-LGBTQ hysteria have mostly left the GOP, which is to say, perhaps the Log Cabin Goobers aint what they useta be.
But I’m just guessing. Happy to be corrected.
mad citizen
@Ohio Mom: I may have been in a St Vincent DePaul store once. I for sure know that mildew smell though. I was in a vintage clothing store in Bloomington Indiana yesterday that just reeked of it, being such an enclosed space. My wife and me had to leave it and meet up with the rest of our party later.
Dev Null
@Baud: @Brachiator: David Brockington has a helpful post about Brexit here.
Another Scott
@Dev Null: Thanks for the pointer.
I find our own Tony Jay’s analysis re Corbyn and Brexit much more compelling, myself. YMMV.
Cheers,
Scott.
Brachiator
@Dev Null:
Thanks for the BREXIT tip. I think it lines up with my views and much of what I have read on the issue.
I don’t think this is correct, but many other folks have a deeper knowledge of history.
Also, I don’t think the Log Cabin Republicans are mainly motivated by tax cuts. They are not a bunch of billionaires or trust fund babies.
I don’t know what their motivation might be in endorsing Trump. But here is the sad thing.
In 2016, they perhaps didn’t know who Trump was. And they declined to endorse him.
Today, they know exactly who he is and warmly embrace him.
rikyrah
@Dev Null:
Corbyn came too late. I have been following this, and Corbyn REFUSED to.be all in anti Brexit.
Until now.
He waited until 11:52 to decide to offer the second referendum, and wonders why people don’t trust him?
How are you going to blame the people for not wanting him?
Now, if they had thrown his azz out, brought in a new leader of Labour who was talking about another vote, then I would understand…but, Corbyn has a credibility issue……and , so we want to get into the accusations of anti-Semitism against him?
2liberal
@Kay:
I’m guessing he wants to resign and retire and not lose any benefits which he would lose if fired for cause … i may be wrong
Jinchi
@Kay: Trump ran as a narcissistic billionaire businessman who was going to roll back everything Obama ever accomplished while gutting regulations and cutting taxes and he committed to hand over all judicial nominations to the Heritage Foundation while leaving domestic policy to Mike Pence and rousing the base with his racist callbacks.
So he ran as Grover Norquists dream idiot who could hold a pen. The ultimate Republican candidate.
Dev Null
@Another Scott: Thanks, A. Scott … the comedian? I haven’t seen it.
Oh, wait. You mean valued commenter Tony Jay, duh. Silly me. At the risk of sounding like a pompous jackass, there are analyses and there are analyses. I suspect that Tony Jay’s analysis is compatible with Dave Brockington’s (very different) analysis, but I should go back and read Tony Jay’s analysis before making so rash a claim. You’re referring to this? Or one of his other comments?
Inquiring minds, and all that…
PS: been out sanding clapboard in 90F heat and humidity, ugh, else had responded earlier.
Dev Null
@Brachiator:
I read this claim recently – within the past year or ten (what’s an order of magnitude among friends?!? especially on a log scale), but no idea where. Something about Germany and WWI, perhaps.
Log Cabin Goobers: I know next to nothing about their membership, so should have kept my mouth shut. I was reacting to Kay’s and Yutsano’s statements about the economic interests of Trump’s base.
I saw a comment somewhere that suggested the endorsement was a leadership play, but I’d have to look to be confident that Log Cabin leadership was winging it in the absence of a consensus of the membership.
To your point:
This.
They self-identify with their would-be oppressors.
Tangentially, it was reported this morning or last night (TPM among other outlets) that Republican House leadership have circulated talking points to House members, advising members that if asked about mass shootings, they should blame lefties. (Liz Cheney was mentioned …)
The GOP really have embraced the dark side. All of them have. They’re a cult now.
Dev Null
@rikyrah: having an
argumentplacid discussion with an ex-colleague on exactly this point.Shorter: I don’t grok the Remainer MPs position. I accept your claim (and my ex-colleague’s) that no-one trusts Corbyn.
Heck, why would anyone trust Corbyn?
I mean, there’s plenty of (at least circumstantial) evidence that Corbyn shouldn’t be trusted.
That said, if Remainers want to remain, putting Corbyn in charge of a caretaker government is currently the only plan on offer.
As best I understand (no doubt poorly), the idea is that Remainer PMs from half a dozen parties would vote for a Corbyn-led coalition government which would then do something other than no deal Brexit (details not entirely clear to me.) I believe that Corbyn has promised a general election within some fixed time like 50 or 60 days (correct me if I’m wrong.)
Currently, the balance of power is on a knife edge – Tories have a 1-vote majority – so were Corbyn to step over the line in any way, any party in the coalition government could bring down Corbyn’s coalition government.
If all that’s true, then what does trust have to do with it? Each party in the coalition – and renegade Tories – all have a gun pointed at Corbyn’s head.
Help me out here … I really srsly don’t grok the argument that says no-deal Brexit is preferable to a temporary Corbyn coalition government.
Another Scott
@Dev Null: Yes, that. And this comment (and the whole thread).
I’m in NoVA so all I know of UK politics is heavily filtered, but the idea that Corbyn-is-an-incompetent-idiot-and-obviously-should-just-say-that-he’s-pro-remain-and-the-fact-that-he-hasn’t-means-that-he’s-an-incompetent-idot-QED is just too pat for me. Politics is complicated, and there are obviously various factions in Labour that need to be accommodated (and wishing otherwise won’t make it so). Even if Corbyn does want to leave, he’s not an I’ll-destroy-the-UK-and-the-economy-to-get-my-way monster like Boris and the other Brexit Tories.
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
Dev Null
@Another Scott:
Happens to many of us. I worked in Arglinton for ten-odd years. Where are you? Arlington? Alexandria? (er, if I may ask, of course. No offense taken should you tell me that’s none of my business. Becuz it isn’t my business. Asking for a frend, becuz I have beaucoup ex-colleagues in NoVA.)
Oh, dear. I hope I haven’t given the impression that what little I know isn’t heavily filtered. You and I, we’re in the same boat, bro.
(Wait, did I work for you?!? /snark)
Wait, wut?!? Who said that Corbyn is an incompetent idiot?
My ex-colleague insists that Corbyn is an orthodox doctrinaire Marxist, and (my colleague says (I think, but I’m not following his argument)) that that is the rub.
Were Corbyn an incompetent idiot, I daresay that MPs would be happy to sign on, just as peeps have signed onto incompetent idiot Trump.
Srsly, I’m lost. It’s a safe bet that Corbyn wants to Leave – he’s been of that position forever, if not longer, amirite? – but the rest, I thought I’d said what you said.
How are we in disagreement?
Or does Brockington’s post say something different from what I think it says?
Another Scott
@Dev Null: I only very rarely read LGM, so there may be more to Brockington’s post as background that I’m not aware of. I wasn’t arguing with you, so much as saying that I think Tony Jay presents a better case.
He says:
Given that as things stand now, and Boris’s ‘Brexit on October 31 come Hell or high Water’, the UK is leaving October 31 unless the government is changed and Article 50 is put on hold or revoked, etc., etc., then of course it’s about throwing Boris out and have a general election. And stopping the October 31 Brexit.
Brockington’s post doesn’t present a good case, it seems to me, and it seems to be framed in terms of “of course Jeremy wants out of the EU, wink-wink-nudge-nudge”, without recognizing that he’s leading a fractured party and is more interested in having some sort of consensus in the nation (that’s why he wants a referendum vote with an actual plan and a choice staying in the EU, IIRC) than being in Boris’s Brexit camp.
If Jeremy is able to get the EU to agree to some magical CorBrexit that makes the country happy – one that the population and Parliament signs off on – then what’s the problem? (I don’t think such a thing is possible, myself.)
Tony Jay’s essay(s) make much more sense to me – 1) May’s Brexit has been defeated 3 times and won’t work, 2) There is no BorisBrexit plan because the EU won’t negotiate again about it with a Tory government, 3) A no-deal Brexit would be a disaster, 4) Corbyn’s Labour party is fractured but is the official opposition, so if Boris is forced out then Corbyn should lead the next attempt to solve the Brexit problem. And most likely the only solution is to either not do a Brexit or do some sort of magical customs union with the EU so that there is not a hard border between the NI-EU and the rest of the UK.
Just my $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.