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You are here: Home / Economics / Kochsuckers / Open Thread: The NYTimes Longs for A Simpler Day…

Open Thread: The NYTimes Longs for A Simpler Day…

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When the Very Serious Media People could pretend that the Tea Party was a ‘grassroots uprising’ of good folks very concerned about ‘fiscal responsibility’. Positive side, such as it is: Pushback was swift, vociferous, and (to a degree) effective:

… When Congress approved $320 billion in new spending this month as part of its latest budget deal, most Republicans in the Senate voted yes, prompting a lament from Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, who was first elected in 2010 as a slash-and-burn fiscal conservative.

“The Tea Party is no more,” he said.

But Mr. Paul and others who have signed the Tea Party’s death certificate overlook one way it continues to define the country today. It ignited a revival of the politics of outrage and mistrust in government, breathing new life into the populist passions that continue to threaten the stability of both political parties. Even if the Tea Party’s ideas are dead, its attitude lives on.

“The energy that was with the Tea Party then was not even so much about fiscal discipline, but about holding Washington accountable for the promises it makes,” said Rory Cooper, a former aide to the Republican House leadership. As voters watched one promise after another go unfulfilled, he said, the anger eventually erupted in 2016 with Mr. Trump’s election. Voters said, in essence, “‘We don’t trust any of you, but we will trust this guy who makes every promise under the sun,’” Mr. Cooper said.

“Then what happened,” he added, “was they stopped caring about the promises.” …

IMO, the real reason for Jeremy Peters’ purported nostalgia was to set up a beat-sweetner for Mick ‘Acting Head of Everything’ Mulvaney:

… Of the 87 new Republicans elected to the House in 2010 — the most sweeping repudiation of a president and his political party in generations — one who has risen higher than most is Mick Mulvaney, Mr. Trump’s chief of staff.

In early September 2009, Mr. Mulvaney, then a state senator and part-owner of a chain of Mexican restaurants, sat in the back of a town hall in Rock Hill, S.C., a gathering that was typical for that summer. Seven hundred people filled the hall while another 200 listened on portable speakers outside. Constituents grilled the House Budget Committee chairman, John Spratt, a Democrat, and complained about how much the Obama health care plan would add to the nation’s trillion-dollar-plus deficit…

Mr. Mulvaney decided to challenge Mr. Spratt, and on the day he announced his campaign, in November 2009, he accused his opponent of selling out. “People can say a lot about me,” Mr. Mulvaney said at the time. “One thing they can never say is that I’ve sold out my principles.”…

If Mulvaney had any principles other than ‘What’s in it for Mick Mulvaney?’, that would be a genuine news story.

Reader Interactions

139Comments

  2. 2.

    trollhattan

    I wandered over to not just one but three teabagger rallies at the state Capitol and they dripped in racial condescension against Obama and the very oxygen molecules he takes in. Nothing overt from the speakers of course, being California and all, but the crowd chatter and signs, they just couldn’t stop themselves.

    The final one (there were no more) was a low-energy (sad!) shell of the first, for which Fox et al pulled out all the stops.

  4. 4.

    debbie

    I’m glad the pushback has accomplished something, but it should have accomplished a lot more. I wish they’d dropped their polite verbiage and focused on these pigs’ swaggering around Krogers with AR-15s flopping around on their shoulders grumbling their threats to water the Tree of Liberty with the blood tyrants. I wished they’d pointed to the fat bastards on their Medicare scooters and portable oxygen tanks complaining about government giving too much to the undeserving. NYT had a chance to actually hold a mirror before these people, yet pussied out.

  5. 5.

    Jeffro

    I remember back then when my daughter told me that her 4th grade teacher had mentioned the tea party during social studies/current events. She asked him what it was about and he threw out all all the usual BS: non-partisan, bi-partisan, good people worried about all that government spending going on, etc etc. A real ‘citizens uprising’.

    If I remember correctly, she said she must have rolled her eyes at him at that point and tried to argue about it, but he cut her off and wouldn’t allow any more discussion on it. It was the quintessential Republican response to facts, when you think about it. ;)

  6. 6.

    JGabriel

    schrodingers_cat:

    Not America, our elite media did, either that or they played along.

    Exactly. Some in the media were too afraid to anger the always and already angry right, others too eager to appease them, and stil others were just as racist (and sexist in H. Clinton’s case) as the tea-baggers they reported on.

    I wonder which category Jeremy Peters belongs in?

  7. 7.

    Jeffro

    I mean, since when did protesting government spending involve poster-size pics of Obama with a bone through his nose, and people toting assault weapons? Gimme a break.

  8. 8.

    Omnes Omnibus

    It’s funny, there is a commenter a couple threads down complaining that we are either neo-liberals or there dupes for not recognizing the actual economic insecurity that people are feeling and how that led to Trump and that Brexit will at least something something Labour and austerity. Or many words along those general lines.

  9. 9.

    germy

    My memories of the tea party: Whenever there’d be a rally (maybe thirty or forty people) and the news media would cover it like it was the 1963 March On Washington.

  11. 11.

    kindness

    It’s the NY Times. They seem to live in an acid induced fairytale world that I never attained at all the Dead shows I went to (hundreds).

  12. 12.

    A Ghost To Most

    I’ve been curious: whose nose would be higher in a prig-off between Jeremy Peters amd Noah Rothman?

  14. 14.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    The Tea Party, you mean the “Keep the government out of my Social Security”, Tea Party?

  15. 15.

    PeakVT

    Anyone know a liberal multi-billionaire who wants to fund a US version of the Guardian? (Not a US version of the existing Guardian, but a whole new institution.) I think that is one of the many things the US media landscape needs. Our major newspapers, on balance, suck.

    Since I’m fantasizing, I can’t wait for President Warren to kill AM radio and restore the fairness rule with her Senate super-majority in 2021.

  16. 16.

    Elizabelle

    @schrodingers_cat: Yeah. Jeremy Peters is a disaster hire. I always wince when I see his byline.

    I can’t think of ANY of the NY Times DC political desk I trust. Who am I leaving out? They are your press corpse elite.

    Is there a good reporter among them? Am just thinking of Haberhack, Peter Baker, the execrable Peters …

  17. 17.

    jl

    This part was funny.
    ‘ Organizers convened mass gatherings across the country called “tea parties,” and they had a specific set of demands: ‘

    There were some “grass-roots” “tea parties.” They were obliterated by “corporate” “astroturf” organizations right at the beginning. And what is “Bannon” doing in there?

    Hilariously and disgustingly misleading article. Parts of it seem to be more about ritual deficit scolding than anything else.

    Edit: I guess “Organizers” is doing a lot of work.

  18. 18.

    bemused

    @JGabriel:

    Elite media also didn’t/don’t want to cut off their access to all those many, many pampering interviews and articles with maga deplorables and their grievances.

    many, many

  19. 19.

    Baud

    The NYT is garbage, but politics is about what wins, and the tea party, authentic or not, eventually won with Trump.

  20. 20.

    Wapiti

    I thought the first three months when they called themselves “Teabaggers” was hilarious.

  23. 23.

    Ohio Mom

    There’s still a rump of a Tea Party here in Cincinnati.

    I just checked and they are keeping their Facebook page up to date — they’re currently frothing at the mouth over the thought that Ohio might take some symbolic steps toward gun control.

    At this point, all they do is repeat stupid stuff to one another, and remember what they think were their glory days fondly.

  24. 24.

    Kay (not the front-pager)

    @JGabriel: Jeremy Peters falls at least partially in category 3. He’s an affirmed right winger (although I’m sure he would say he’s just “objective”). Also another of NYT’s Clinton haters.

  25. 25.

    Roger Moore

    @Wapiti:

    I thought the first three months when they called themselves “Teabaggers” was hilarious.

    Yeah, that was pretty classic. I had a coworker who hated them because of the Bristol Palin DWTS business and was always complaining about the “Teabaggers”. I mentioned that she might not want to call them that because it had rude sexual connotations, and it just made her use the term even more.

  26. 26.

    Chris T.

    “People can say a lot about me,” Mr. Mulvaney said at the time. “One thing they can never say is that I’ve sold out my principles.”

    “You’ve never had any principles.”
    “That’s why they can’t say I’ve sold ’em out!”

  29. 29.

    Mike in NC

    As many have pointed out in recent years, the racist Tea Party movement was 99.9% composed of far-right Republicans who hated Obama. They all traded in their yellow Gadsden flags for red MAGA hats.

  30. 30.

    trollhattan

    @Ohio Mom:
    We had a guy in town–Republican lobbyist, well connected–who had “Tea Party Express” trademarked and ready to go when the “movement formed organically out of taxpayer tears.” He did buses to D.C. and all kinds of stunts, and I’m sure made a bundle.

    So odd that it was all ready like that. Pure coincidence. And it never went away, just into cold storage “for next time.”

  32. 32.

    Tenar Arha

    @schrodingers_cat: Honestly, IIRC it’s a combination of the Pentagon Papers & then as an add-on, it’s part and parcel the same “liberal media” slag from the era of “even the liberal New Republic…”

    @Elizabelle: Columnist-wise Jamelle Bouie, Krugman, Michelle Goldberg…but unfortunately I’m drawing a blank on the reporters, who I know exist but I’d have to google more than I want from my phone.

    You’re right about their politics coverage, it really sucks. I suspect it’s from a combination of their dependence on access, their bias for reporting from authority, and IIRC letting people like a harasser have a supervisory position over too many women for too long.

  35. 35.

    TenguPhule

    Trump officially launches U.S. Space Command

    So I guess Space Nazis will be the new black.

  37. 37.

    dexwood

    @Wapiti:
    Yeah, that still cracks me up. I remember my asshole brother-in-law and asshole sister-in-law using the term and what great pleasure it gave me to point out what it meant in certain circles. The other thing I remember is driving by one of their protests and seeing my sister-in-law, who is not white, out in front of the group. She looked like a raisin in the rice bowl. I honked and gave her the finger laughing all the way home.

  40. 40.

    Ohio Mom

    @trollhattan: Yeah, odd (sarcasm).

    The son of an old friend of mine thought himself one of the founders of the local Tea Party. He certainly did a lot of work for them, and did serve as the figurehead/spokesman for a while. You and I know he was being used but he isn’t smart enough to figure that out.

    His family was very proud of him; I told the mom I couldn’t be her friend anymore, and I wasn’t ever (she died of cancer a year ago).

  42. 42.

    dexwood

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:
    I was in a second hand store on Sunday, an indoor flea market, and on one of the walls was an old sign from Kirtland Air force Base, very large, that advertised the Air Force Space Command. It wasn’t for sale. I should have taken a picture.

  44. 44.

    C Stars

    OK, I didn’t read the article because I cancelled my subscription a year ago and now the NYT wants me to create an account in order to read any of their articles. BUT I am curious if it mentioned what I remember most about the Tea Party–other than the rank, in-your-face bigotry–which is that not more than a few years in, it became clear that those who designated themselves organizers or leaders of the movement were straight pulling a con–wasn’t there a “Tea Party” executive who basically just absconded with all the money and built a vacation house or something? I mean, not that this is so unusual for the modern-day alt-right/GOP, but I seem to remember that it was one of the first GOP movements that just completely collapsed in on itself in a remarkable way because of multiple people, nominally “in charge,” who essentially just stole whatever money was made available to them by individual donors/dark money groups.

  46. 46.

    TenguPhule

    @Baud:

    The big question is whether they keep up the “tea party” front in 2021 or go full Nazi now that Trump has lit that fire?

    I assume this is rhetorical.

  48. 48.

    Jeffro

    @TenguPhule: God isn’t good enough to give me trumpov as Dark Helmet, trying to give orders to ‘Space Command’ troops…but then again, maybe she is?

  49. 49.

    Shana

    @trollhattan: We’ve still got lots of idiots here in NoVA with their Don’t Tread on Me license plates. Earlier this week I saw something I’d never seen before: a large pickup truck with a huge Don’t Tread on Me flag flying from the back of the truck. I would have expected to see it in 2010 but not now.

  51. 51.

    TenguPhule

    When Jim Mattis was defense secretary, the Pentagon was hesitant to embrace the idea of a Space Force. Trump’s first Pentagon chief initially saw it as potentially redundant and not the best use of defense dollars. His successor, Mark Esper, has cast himself as a strong supporter of creating both a Space Force and a command dedicated to space.

    “To ensure the protection of America’s interests in space, we must apply the necessary focus, energy and resources to the task, and that is exactly what Space Command will do,” Esper said Wednesday.

    “As a unified combatant command, the United States Space Command is the next crucial step toward the creation of an independent Space Force as an additional armed service,” he added.

    Kaitlyn Johnson, a defense space expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said she considers it likely, but not certain, that Congress will approve a Space Force in the 2020 defense bill.

    Mattis was a crooked asshole, but not completely bugfuck nuts.

    The CHUDs are in control now.

  57. 57.

    germy

    @Shana: We used to live across the street from a guy with a “don’t tread on me” flag on his front lawn.

    He took it down after there was a news story about a guy and his girlfriend who killed a cop and then put a gadsden flag on the body. Anyone remember that story?

  62. 62.

    A Ghost To Most

    @Shana: That is to be expected. Virginia contains the largest concentration of Lost Cause assholes your side of Texas.

  64. 64.

    Ohio Mom

    @Shana: One of my neighbors had a Don’t Tread On Me flag festooning his porch for the longest time but I noticed recently it was gone.

    Based on that, I thought that fad was over. You got a very nostalgic pickup truck driver there.

  65. 65.

    Chetan Murthy

    @germy: That was right around the time of the Malheur refuge standoff, right? The pair were associated with that somehow …..

  68. 68.

    germy

    @Chetan Murthy: It’s funny how we’re hazy on the story.

    Now if it had been a left-wing couple with an antifa flag (is there such a thing?) we’d know every detail to this day.

  69. 69.

    RAVEN

    The People’s Bicentennial

    The phrase “Don’t Tread on Me” with the image of a coiled rattlesnake can be traced back to a flag created by American general and politician Christopher Gadsden (1724-1805). He designed the flag in 1775 during the Revolutionary War. The flag was used by Continental sailors to express pro-revolution sentiments. The P.B.C., or People’s Bicentennial Commission, founded by Jeremy Rifkin, adopted the Gadsden flag in the 1970s. The P.B.C.’s goal was to use the 1976 Bicentennial to encourage an economic revolution. The group organized protests including one against big oil companies where participants threw empty oil barrels into Boston Harbor on the 200th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. The P.B.C. held a rally at the Capitol in Washington D.C. on July 4, 1976, and chanted slogans like “Mobil, Exxon, ITT, Down with corporate tyranny.” After the September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda terrorist attack on the United States, the Gadsden flag became a symbol of defiance. The conservative Tea Party within the Republican Party adopted the flag as its symbol in 2009.​

  70. 70.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Elizabelle:

    According to Jeremy Peters’ Wikipedia page,

    He covers the Republican Party and the conservative movement for The New York Times

    Query (legit query, I honestly don’t know): Does the New York Times also have a reporter on staff who “covers the Democratic Party and the liberal/progressive movement”?

  73. 73.

    Chetan Murthy

    @germy: [I don’t want to minimize the crimes, but] “RWNJs kill innocents” is, at this point, “dog bites man”. “Left-winger [who isn’t literally deranged] kills innocents,” that’s “man bites dog”. B/c it doesn’t happen [or at least, not very damn often].

  75. 75.

    sdhays

    Does the NYT mention that they were originally “teabaggers”, by their own choice? And that this unfortunate choice educated a lot of people about a different meaning of that term that most people really didn’t want to know?

  79. 79.

    Baud

    Reviving the American Working Class

    NYT > Top Stories / by The Editorial Board / 3min

    Factory jobs are not coming back. Democrats are starting to offer plans for improving pay and benefits for the jobs taking their place

    Actually, that was a big part of Hillary’s platform, but the NYT was too busy chasing email stories to notice.

  82. 82.

    Mary G

    Wonder if the #MoscowMitch ads have Kentuckians going off Republicans?

    Organizers have asked the audience to move out of the seats and closer to the stage ahead of Trump Jr/ Gov. Bevin event in Pikeville.I think it's fair to say this is sparsely attended. pic.twitter.com/JghTohDROS— Ryland Barton (@RylandKY) August 29, 2019

    Sad!

  83. 83.

    frosty

    @Shana: I pass by a Don’t Tread On Me flying at a house 3 or 4 lots away from me here in South PA. At least my neighbor’s kid has moved out so I don’t have to see the Treason Flag he hung in his window to use as a curtain.

  84. 84.

    sdhays

    @TenguPhule: Space Farce is one of those things that is so stupid (and relatively benign – compared to other shit) that I can imagine Pelosi being willing to bargain over – give Dump his Space Farce for Dreamers or something. But it’s also one of those things that I don’t see McConnell willing to trade anything important for, so I assume it will never go anywhere.

  85. 85.

    germy

    @frosty: Same feeling I get when I see reader comments on my local online news. Some really dumb foxnews talking points. These people are my neighbors.

  90. 90.

    RAVEN

    @Baud: Not really, the last day of work is Tuesday and then a month of leave. My bride asked me how I felt and I said, “you hated your job and hated your boss so it was a really big deal for you. For me, not so much.” I guess the stroke a year ago was a wakeup call that I should do something else so here goes.

  91. 91.

    TenguPhule

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    not sure why it might get though the House.

    my understanding is that McConnell will do what he usually does, force it into a must pass spending bill and threaten to let the bills go unpaid if it doesn’t.

  95. 95.

    trollhattan

    @frosty:
    My Sierra Foothill-dwelling buddy has always had Gadsden/Trump/State of Jefferson waving neighbors but recently one has taken to flying a Confederate flag, and he’s debating how to approach them to take the damn thing down.

    I dunno how that can be accomplished. Money+crank+armed to the gills is a good Tarentino plot and that’s the extent of it.

  98. 98.

    TS (the original)

    @Omnes Omnibus: trump has done so much more to undermine the economic security of those who voted for him than anyone else in the past 40 years including Reagan & Bush. The media seems unable – or no doubt is unwilling – to highlight this truth.

    When President Obama won election in 2008 I had zero doubts that he was the best person to be leading the recovery. At the moment – because of what trump has done on the international scene, not sure who will be willing to help the next democratic president get things back together. Trust in the US wanting to lead a recovery is gone.

  102. 102.

    TenguPhule

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    I’m not sure that Moscow Mitch would be all that enthused enough with the idea to do that.

    I thought so too until I saw Trump starting to threaten FOX news for being insufficiently pure to the cause. Now, I’m not so sure.

  103. 103.

    germy

    "Whether or not my priors & prejudices have any correlates in reality, they are mine, and I deserve to have them catered to." Basically the Boomer ethos.— David Roberts (@drvox) August 29, 2019

  104. 104.

    debbie

    @RAVEN:

    I only get broadcast stations, and all three of the goddamn so-called major networks are broadcasting games tonight. The season is already too long. //

    (Enjoy the leave and beyond!)

  107. 107.

    A Ghost To Most

    @Major Major Major Major: When I left the USAF in 78, a friend engraved a disk platter for me (18″ diameter in those days). Amongst other things, it says “SAC: Peace is Our Profession, War is Just a Hobby”.

  109. 109.

    Mary G

    Georgia’s governor and ex-SOS is a bad man:

    This is the first time a federal court has actually struck down an entire state's voting system because they are violating the fundamental right to vote. pic.twitter.com/TyqgICskq8— Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) August 29, 2019

    I’m sure the Superemes will overrule, but Stacey Abrams wuz robbed.

  112. 112.

    Redshift

    “Then what happened,” he added, “was they stopped caring about the promises.”

    It’s kind of amazing when even a guy who is trying to explain away the idea that it was just racist hated for Obama can’t come up with anything better than “they had these things they really cared about, and by pure coincidence they suddenly stopped caring as soon as the black guy was out of office.”

  113. 113.

    mrmoshpotato

    Just economically anxious citizens with signs like “Hang in there Obama” with a noose.

    Just kidding – Trump trash before they knew they were Trump trash.

  114. 114.

    A Ghost To Most

    @Jeffro: If you ever want to see a metric shit-ton of these mofos in one place and all acting the fool in their cosplay costumes, go to either the spring or fall National shoot of the North-South Skirmish Association in Gainsboro, VA (north of Winchester). 10,000 nazis, armed to the teeth, and drinking heavily.

    If you go, go Saturday for the cannon and mortar competitions.

  115. 115.

    Jay

    @trollhattan:

    Yellowdoggrannie has a bunch of memes featuring the Nazi flag and the Confederate flag as treason and the flag of losers.

    Probably the safest means of dealing with the flag issue would be to colour print off the memes and spend some time either stuffing them in the mailbox or postering the fence.

    Quiet, anonamous, and tells them what “exactly” they are “standing for”.

    Treason in Defence of Slavery.

  116. 116.

    Gin & Tonic

    @RAVEN: I didn’t realize until last night when I stayed for the credits that Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann all were credited for music (also Don Preston, Zakir Hussain, Airto…) in Apocalypse Now.

  118. 118.

    sdhays

    @Redshift: Yeah. If they all collectively “stopped caring” about all these things, it’s pretty clear that they never actually cared about those things.

  120. 120.

    Raven

    @Gin & Tonic: It reminds me of Miles recording “Elevator to the Gallows” while watching it on the screen.
    https://vimeo.com/24948941

    After attending a Grateful Dead concert, director Francis Ford Coppola asked Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann to record drum music for his film Apocalypse Now, much of which takes place along a river in the jungle during the Vietnam War. Hart and Kreutzmann, along with seven other musicians, assembled many different drums and other percussion instruments at the Club Front recording studio in San Rafael, California. While a rough cut of the movie was screened, they improvised the music, some of which ended up being used on the final soundtrack.[2][3] The recording sessions took place over a period of ten days. Selections from the sessions were remixed and assembled into the final album.[4]

  121. 121.

    kindness

    I have family up in the Sierras around Sonora/Tuolumne City and I see far too many State of Jefferson signs at rural houses. These are economically depressed areas that wouldn’t have paved roads if it weren’t for the city folk that pays the taxes. They think they can live free without taxes but Kansas showed us just recently it doesn’t work that way. They won’t admit it. Stubborn cusses. In my youth I used to deface stuff that offended me. Paint a peace sign on a horrible sign so they have to take it down and clean it or just take it down. I don’t think I’d go there with some mountain folk though. They already are telling you they aren’t rational with the Jefferson stuff. An actual Confederate battle flag outside though…….man. I would find some way to burn that thing.

  125. 125.

    NotMax

    @schrodingers_cat

    So old can remember, before they did a one-eighty, when the New York Post was the Lefty McLeftface paper.

    A bit before my time there was PM, an ultra-liberal newspaper in NYC, financed by Marshall Field III. It accepted NO advertising. Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss) sold hundreds of cartoons to PM

    During my formative years and beyond no one would have described the NYT as liberal. Much more likely would have labeled it severely, soberly centrist, although the editorial page was known to detour and take intermittent laps in Lake Liberal. That later generations automatically think of the paper a somehow being liberal shows how far the Overton window had migrated.

  126. 126.

    NotMax

    It’s practically a straight line from the era of Proposition 13 and from Nixonism/Reaganism to the Tea Party.

  129. 129.

    jonas

    @kindness: If I were 1. a decent artist and 2. had more time on my hands I would love to come up with a huge, badass Shepard Fairey-style icon of William T. Sherman on a big placard and as an act of guerilla art stick them up across the street from any car/dwelling/flagpole with Confederate swag on it. It would just be Sherman’s glowering visage with the slogan “March on, boys,” underneath.

  130. 130.

    jonas

    @Shana: I think the Gadsden flag is basically a catch-all icon for anti-government/libertarian sentiment. It’s slightly less shameless than just flying the Stars and Bars, but largely stands for the same sentiments: racist, gunhumping, IGMFY asshole.

  131. 131.

    namekarB

    @trollhattan: Learn from another Sierra Foothill geezer. He put up a Mexican National Flag in response and when the confederate neighbor complained, Geezer explained that him and neighbor were really fighting the same enemy. Both flags fought and lost to America. Neighbor wandered away grumbling to himself.

  136. 136.

    dww44

    @schrodingers_cat: Thanks for the Jeremy Peters comments. Whenever I’ve seen him on TV, he DOES come across as an entitled snob of both the intellectual and social sort and I know nothing about his background

  137. 137.

    Chris Johnson

    @Calouste: You would prefer Boris Johnson maybe?
    (heh, I knew that busting out that n-word would call out the trolls. So much for the next few weeks or so as they coordinate to try and hound me off the blog. Joke’s on them, I’ve been posting here for over ten years)

  138. 138.

    Robert Sneddon

    @jonas: I recall seeing a cartoon of General Sherman wearing a pair of goggles. Reflected in the goggles is a mushroom cloud. He is saying, “Sweeeeet”.

    There was another picture of him, an early photograph, I think with the text underneath reading “Don’t make me come down there again.”

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