Wednesday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Wednesday, January 13, 2021
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115 comments
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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Fuck this guy. If he was at all interested in unifying the country he’d commit seppuku on live TV.
About damn time.
More of this and Republicans just might nurture more than a passing acquaintance with the truth.
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Nah, who am I kidding.
This is pretty extraordinary. Signed by all 8 members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. However, at the end of the day is the somewhat ordinary idea of reminding every Soldier, Sailor, Airman, Marine (and now Guardian) to follow their Oath of Office.
Top military leaders issue warning to troops after deadly Capitol insurrection
This accusation is rather astonishing. If true, some Members need to be expelled. Not censured, not “wait and let their constituents decide”–expelled. Out.
Mikie Sherrill says unidentified lawmakers led ‘reconnaissance’ tours ahead of Capitol attack
@OzarkHillbilly: The Flint water crisis is a self contained encyclopedia of political and moral disfunction. This includes the Democratic side, as it’s an article of faith amongst even rank and file Dems that Flint’s water is still dangerous when in fact it has benefitted from one of the most thorough and expensive public infrastructure upgrades for a small city in the nation’s history and now has better water quality at the tap then probably 90% of the municipalities in the country.
But the overriding takeaway is how it perfectly illustrates Republican ineptitude and evil. The cynical taking away of services from a poor black community to finance tax cuts for the well off. The insistence that libertarian mumbo jumbo should trump reality. And then, when people started dying, the cover ups, the doubling down, the implication that any complaints were fantasies generated by stupid and lazy minorities and their liberal enablers. Snyder knew people were dying and his reaction was to stop measurements and prevent facts from getting out (DeSantis, anyone? Or a dozen other Republican governors in the COVID crisis?) Did he know that Republican officials went as far as falsifying data and covering up deaths? Yes, there is vanishingly small doubt that he knew. And I hope to god it can be proven in court.
@Jen: If this is true, she should name names. To make a charge like this, she has to have the receipts.
@Scott: She most likely is, but via the proper channels to the proper people.
Arizona Reps. Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar implicated by activist in Capitol insurrection
@Jen: @Scott: @OzarkHillbilly: @OzarkHillbilly:
Biggs and Gosar are probably on the list.
@CSK: And Pete Sessions, who openly said in a (now-deleted) tweet that he met with people from STS at the Capitol and encouraged them to keep up the good work.
@Jen:
Gee, on January 7 Sessions is whining about an “illegal and unprecedented charge on the U.S. Capitol.” What did he think would happen?
Mo Brooks has got his panties in a bunch.
Question for the Masses: Consider the last 12 years. What events do you think will actually be written about by historians as indicative of these years, which I’m calling “the 2010s” even though they encompass slightly more than that?
I’m thinking basic memorial history here, the kind of thing where you might sum up a period in a couple sentences with large movements and one or two key events (like, say, the way we sum up the 1920s as a rollicking time followed by a huge market crash and then breadlines and Hoovervilles, or the 1870s as the rise of the railroad & Victorian tech economy along with the end of Reconstruction). What’s going to make it into our “This Was Us” for the 2010s?
@OzarkHillbilly: A hit dog will holler.
@ptfe:
For certain Obama’s election and the Trump election and presidency.
@CSK:
Apparently, the fact that they now have to go through bag checks and mags scanners is pissing them off. Little Miss Pistol openly refused to let her bag be checked, set off the metal detector than had a showdown with the police days after a violent invasion of those same halls. It seems the snowflake GOP is too good for what the rest of us have to do to attend a HS, go to an airport or courthouse or god forbid, enter Disney World. Wah wah, how inconvenient and invasive, why they never!!! Well, clearly these elites have no idea how the rest of us peons have to live because this kind of crap’s been normal for about two decades!
The House Republicans’ cunning plan is proposing a bipartisan commission to look into the events of January 6 blah blah blah. This is both craven and insulting. “Create a commission” is the oldest, most transparent way of dodging responsibility in politics. We don’t need a commission. The evidence is in front of us. A dangerous man sits in the Oval Office. If this doesn’t rise to high crimes and misdemeanors — lies about the legitimacy of the election, inciting statements intended to fire up fascist would-be insurrectionists — nothing does.
Oh, and please stuff the “unity” argument in any available orifice. What are we divided over? Holding Trump accountable. The circularity of the argument — don’t divide us further, because we’ve divided the country in our unyielding support of an anti-democratic hatemonger — would be funny, if the stakes were not existential.
If you want to hear something infuriating, listen to Kara Swisher’s podcast with the CEO of Parler. The protests were bad “but people feel like the election was stolen from them.” And he called himself “politically neutral” but said he didn’t vote because nothing can stop America from sliding into big government Socialism. And the reason that most of the people on his site are right wingers or libertarian is because liberals hate free speech. And Twitter putting labels on Trump’s lies is authoritarian censorship.
@KM: One GOP Congresswoman said that the metal detectors are Nancy Pelosi’s communism.
You don’t have to be a moron to be a Republican but damn if it doesn’t help.
@ptfe:
Depends on how far ahead said historian is writing.
But past 12 years?
Offhand:
Rise of China.
Awareness, if not action, on global warming.
The dawn of AI, and computer modelled organic chemistry, protein chemistry, and genetics.
Mobile phones and the internet merging into global reach cloud data.
Social media and big date advertising.
The other day we had a long discussion about social media and people being kicked off, etc. Jonathan Last has a post up contending that; We Need More Social Media Bans.
@ptfe:
@JohnSF:
Also depends: global history or country specific?
Very different answers.
My last was re. global.
Also, historians recall the frustration of the populace over the damned elusive edit function!
🙂
A certain Dr. Joyner noted this tweet on the Tweeting site
People of the land. The common clay of the new west…
There’s a David Foster Wallace essay about minor tennis pro Michael Joyce where he remarked that he couldn’t have really more than simplistic conversations with Joyce, because to become a professional tennis player, the ludicrous amount of training that you have to do just doesn’t leave a lot of time for intellectual development.
Terrifying, from Rep. Ayanna Pressley’s chief of staff:
More here.
I’ve found out John de Lancie, who played Q in three Trek series, narrates several Trek novels, mostly those with Q in it. He’s one of the top fiction narrators I’ve heard. This isn’t saying much,a s I estimate my audio book activity thus far is over 98% non-fiction.
I put a bunch on my reading list at Scribd. I also have a substantial backlog over at Audible, not to mention podcasts. I almost wish for traffic to recover, so I get more listening time during my daily commute.
I’m also wondering when, or whether, Q might show up in the new streaming Trek series. In a way he seems passe given the more serious, darker new formats. But can a Picard series be complete without Jean Luc not even once saying “Damn it, Q!”?
I’m glad I stocked up on popcorn the last time I was at the grocery store. Today looks to be verrrry interesting.
Amazon has filed a response to Parler’s antitrust suit the latter filed when Amazon dumped it from AWS and wow, what a shithole of violent, racist garbage Parler is. It’s pretty obvious Parler was in violation of AWS terms of service and did nothing to rectify that. Here are some examples provided by Amazon in its court filing.
@KM:
I assume Boebert got on a plane to fly to D.C. Did the airline permit her to pack her pistol when she boarded?
Sorry, JohnSF, but this made me chuckle. Perhaps we should start referring the edit function as “Q” so we, like Picard, can say, “damn it, Q.”
@Mikey:
checking my torso…nope, no ignition button. I still like that R. Kelly song though.
As always, white supremacists are the least supreme of us white people. 😛
Turns out my friend-who-has-gone-down-the-Trump-rabbit-hole has been kicked off Facebook and is (of course) fuming about censorship. Since I haven’t been reading his posts I have no idea whether it was one over-the-top statement or he just got caught up in an AI-mandated purge. I’m tempted to tell him he’s the equivalent of someone who pals around with a bunch of drunks who start fights in bars and now is surprised that the bar owner won’t let him in any more….but what’s the use.
@Teve:
The US Olympic team includes plenty of people with crappy right-wing personal politics. This is not particularly surprising, given how many sports there are where qualifying means being a member of a family that can afford the very large outlays necessary. To pick an illustration of the cost from a sport I know, consider fencing (it’s been in every modern Olympics).
If you’re going to make the team and hope to be competitive at the world level at age 18, a few years before that you have to start spending significant time in Europe where you can fence in competitions against a variety of world-class fencers. The Olympic Committee doesn’t pick up those expenses; company “sponsorship” of athletics is usually limited to equipment, not travel and hotel expenses; if your family’s not wealthy enough, you aren’t going to make it. I met a woman once whose dream from the time she was 13 was to make the US Olympic fencing team. She did — and her parents took out a large second mortgage on their house to finance her chance at it. As to the patriotism angle, in the year the Olympics is held it takes the place of the World Fencing Cup. If that’s the year you’re peaking and want a shot at being recognized as the best in the world, the Olympics is the only chance.
@Joe:
Tinder/Grindr. LOL
@JohnSF:
Maybe. Or it could be seen as the end of the rise of China. Or the pivot inwards of China. I don’t think that book has been written yet.
This is funny. Parler has sued Amazon for anti-trust something for I guess being a monopoly hosting business, and Amazon replied OK motherfucker and posted a whole bunch of shit that was being said on Parler. Rape threats, death threats, and some racial slurs. Fun for the whole family!
Just listen to this:
http://www.thebulwark.com/the-trump-mob-in-their-own-words/
@grumpy realist:
12 years ago I met a friend named Mike at the Starbucks we always hung out at. He was in his early 20s, we had the same hobbies, we were friends of the same woman. Good guy. I liked him. He went into the Army, became a drone pilot, got out, lives in Savanna. He’s slowly, over the last few years, gotten shitty on Facebook. Last year he kept posting shitty replies to women I know. Insulting them. Leaving comments calling one friend of mine, a woman named Pam who’s a lawyer in Chicago and is way smarter than he is, a ‘stupid bitch’ I finally blocked him. I texted our mutual friend ‘what am i going to do with Mike?’ She replied “oh I don’t know. He became a Trump asshole and I blocked him years ago.”
@MarkedMan:
The population of Flint suffered a grievous harm, and then were lied to repeatedly, they have every right to be leery of government assurances. Please don’t make statements like this assigning blame to the Democratic party just because you want to make a both sides do it point.
Questions:
Have you tested the Flint water?
Would you drink this water?
Would you give this water to a young child in your family?
@ptfe:
It depends largely on when, by whom, and what are the historical fashions at the time.
By the latter I mean things like the shift from “Great Man history,” to “Balance of power history,” to “broad socio-economic history.”
I wonder, too, how it helps that times are far better documented now than ever, even other recent times. If Google, for example, saves a person’s location history, you could tell centuries from now where a person was on, say, Jan 6th. 2021 at 3:15 pm, and maybe even what route they took to get there.
From the tail end of the era*, IMO the signal development is the culmination (one hopes) of the middle-class wage stagnation that began in the 1970s. Will that matter a great dela to historians in, say 2170? Who can tell?
*Historical eras don’t lend themselves to be easily divisible by ten. Many historians talk of “the long XIX Century,” which comprises the era between Napoleon’s second and final deafest, and the start of WWI.
NHL season starts tonight. Finally. Some scouts favor Avalanche to win Cup. I’m going with Canadiens.
When I took a plane from RDU to JAX i had to stand in a machine that blew air on me to sniff for explosives. STFU.
The Atlantic:
If I have been born 100 years ago I would’ve found a cliff and thrown myself off it.
Ali Alexander of “Stop the Steal” says that Pete Gosar, Andy Biggs, and Mo Brooks met with him to coordinate what happened on Jan. 6.
Some stark images:
Armed soldier in the US Capitol.
@CSK: Thing is, Ali Alexander is such a media whore he might well have done that, even though the assumption was that it all stays outside and (relatively) peaceful.
I don’t really trust the dude at all. I will let law enforcement sort it out.
I’m barely following the impeachment discussion/debate, but it’s looking like 100% gaslighting from Republicans. There’s so much gaslighting DC probably won’t need electricity for days.
I just don’t understand how we get past this as a country. Some of these people clearly believe this horsesh!t they are shoveling our way.
@CSK:
Correction: I meant Paul Gosar.
@Mu Yixiao: Republicans told me if I voted for Biden, America would turn into Venezuela, and they were right!
@Jay L Gischer:
The last I read, Biggs is denying he ever met or worked with Alexander. Brooks says his words at the “rally” were taken out of context. He added that he was invited to speak there by the White House.
@CSK: Stop the squeal!
@Loviatar:Really? Your take away is that I think Democrats are equally to blame as Republicans in the Flint water crisis? You missed the part where I said I thought the Republican governor should go to prison?
As far as my comment about what all too many Democrats believe, I stand by it. We rightly castigate Trumpers for being completely unwilling to accept reality when it comes to the Presidential election and climate change and, well, virtually everything. We disdain them because when they are shown the conflicting evidence they attack the messenger and say they will never believe anything that comes from the lame stream media.
The cause of the Flint water crisis is a travesty and a criminal act. But the (eventual) response and the results are a success and should be celebrated as such. Instead we have national Democratic leaders barnstorming in with trucks full of bottled water continuing to sow fear in the residents. That’s wrong, and I’ll call it out.
An no, I didn’t test the water personally, but I followed the issue closely enough to know how many independent sources have been testing the water and reporting good results. So yes, I would drink the water, and I would let my (formerly) young kids drink the water.
@MarkedMan: Adding one more thing. This is also incredibly tactically stupid on the part of the Democrats. We have a case where Republicans, thinking they could get away with harming the little guy, caused death and illness. Democrats found out, raised holy hell, and forced through reforms that resulted in Flint having cleaner water than almost any of the surrounding towns, even the white ones. Why are Democrats still hawking fear? Shouldn’t the message be, “Look at what Democrats can do for you!”, shouted from the rooftops?
@MarkedMan: (Wow, I’m on a roll). Another tactical mistake: when the surrounding white communities say “sure, you’ll help the minorities, but what have you done for us?”, the Dem’s could prate on endlessly about white privilege. But wouldn’t it be better to say, “We are the party of clean water! Vote us into your town and we’ll send a test kit to every household! If we find problems we’ll do something about it! We aren’t the party of sweeping things under the rug. After all we care about all kids, we care about your kids, not whether some underperforming rich guy loses his water contract!”
@MarkedMan:
I had an occasion recently to reread Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail and this quote jumped out at me. You should read the letter and see if any of it applies to you and your words.
@Mu Yixiao:
If they had deployed them on 1/6 nothing would have happened and 5 people would still be alive.
Surely something as historically extraordinary as a second impeachment warrants hearty congratulations, and perhaps also a gift.
I’m thinking a trash can, spray-painted gold, to store his political ambitions in.
@Kathy:
I’m going to have a drink. But that’s just me. YMMV.
Ten Republicans voted to impeach Trump.
@Kathy: He’s finally done something nobody else has done!!! 😉
@pwnallthethings
Presidential impeachments, a brief summary:
1789-2016: 2
2017-2021: also 2
This made me laugh.
Queens man impeached — again
@Jax:
He’s a cinch to make it into the repository of trivia questions.
On other things, it’s been only 67 days since the election was called for Biden and today. it seems a lot longer than that.
@Sleeping Dog:
Unproveable.
It’s just as much a probability that a pushback from armed military would have inflamed the insurgents even more and those unused guns and pipe bombs would have been used.
@Scott:
There’s nothing–absolutely nothing–that Trump hates more than being reminded of his Queens origins.
10 House Republicans held to their oaths, and voted to impeach.
10 isn’t a lot, but it’s enough to make this the most “bipartisan” Presidential impeachment in American history.
– Zero Republicans voted to impeach Trump the first time.
– Five Democrats voted to impeach Clinton.
– No Democrats voted to impeach Andrew Johnson.
@Michael Cain: “The US Olympic team includes plenty of people with crappy right-wing personal politics”
Sure, crappy politics. But how astonishingly stupid do you have to be to wear your Olympic jacket while participating in felonies?
Here are the members of Congress who did not vote today, either for or against impeachment. All of them are Republican.
Andy Harris, Maryland, 1st District
Kay Granger, Texas, 12th District
Greg Murphy, North Carolina, 3rd District
Daniel Webster, Florida, 11th District
Kay Granger had previously stated after the election that Trump should just move on and not contest it. She tested positive for Coronavirus and may not have been in Washington for the vote, but current house rules allow members to select a proxy to vote on their behalf because of the Covid pandemic.
I’ve seen nothing so far about the others. I’m actually shocked that Andy Harris didn’t vote, especially after his loud altercation yesterday during the debate on the House floor and his votes against certification of Biden’s victory.
It will be interesting to see the reasons for not voting.
@Greg V: I posted this somewhere else and someone pointed out that I didn’t make it obvious enough from the quote: the panic buttons were removed BEFORE the riots began. That’s what makes it sinister.
@Teve:
Ah, Teve, my day is now complete. Good hot black coffee, nice cigar, sunshine, and now, a Blazing Saddles reference. “Morons,” indeed.
Here’s what baffles me:
Today several House Republicans stated they blamed Trump for the January 6th Putsch, but they would not vote to impeach him.
So, let’s be clear: they think Trump is responsible, at least in part, for an attempt to take down the US government, but that doesn’t merit impeachment.
Then what does?
@Tim: I’m reminded a little of when Arlen Specter voted “not proven” during the Clinton impeachment (it was counted as a no). There was apparently some precedent for that kind of vote in legislatures–as I understand it, it’s sort of an impeachment-trial equivalent to voting “present.” I think that’s more or less what these nonvoting Republicans today were aiming for as well.
@Kathy:
Lying about a blowjob.
Apropos of nothing, I’ve been thinking of Revenge of the Sith, and Palpatine invoking Order 66. If there was a burst of static, he might have told the clone troopers in invoke Order 60 or Order 6.
Instead of slaughtering the Jedi and overthrowing the Republic, they might have been trimming the hedges and cleaning up litter or something. (I don’t think the order orders the clones were created with are known, so… they could involve lawn care)
Clear communication is one of the keys to success in a coup.
@Loviatar: As I might have said to one of my comp students years ago,
[And please feel free to tell me “you just nutha ignint cracker” if you must, my students used to all the time.]
@Kathy:
What does?
Changing the letter behind his name to “D”.
@Sleeping Dog: The social media including Facebook and You Tube get a lot of use by churches who post photos, music, and sermons. A lot of church members follow those.
“who’s going to monitor the monitors?”
@Kathy:
My guess is having (D) next to your name, but some people think I’m too cynical. [I’m more inclined to agree with Lily Tomlin that the problem is keeping up, not being too much so.]
@Loviatar: “Lying about a blowjob.”
Well, that too, but only if you have (D) next to your name.
@wr:
Apparently he wanted his teammates to be able to recognize him. These people are not overly endowed with brains.
@Kathy:
If you get a chance, someday try a book read by the late Patrick Tull. He was amazing. His edition of the Patrick O’Brian Aubrey/Maturin series is masterful.
@Tyrell: And yet the article in question MAKES ABSOLUTELY NO STATEMENT THAT EVEN SUGGESTED that churches should be banned from posting photos, announcements, or sermons. Not even in the case of Reynolds’ current favorite boogieman, White Evangelical Congregations.
Up your game Tyrell. You’re losing credibility.
@flat earth luddite:
Several years ago, I realized that there’s a Blazing Saddles quote for almost every occasion.
@CSK:
I expect, absent a pardon from El Grand Cheeto Himself, most of the cases stemming from the Putsch of January 6th will plead out to some reduced charge. A few will inevitably go to trial.
I expect some form of outlandish defense based on some obscure misunderstanding of the Constitution, as these extremists are wont to favor. I also expect at least one will attempt the “following orders” defense, claiming The Orange Moron Himself ordered an assault on the joint session to stop Grand Theft Electoral (some people say that’s the Grandest Theft there is!).
Of course, I could be wrong.
What’s really clear is that most of them believed themselves to be safe from the law, as they even bragged about their crimes on social media.
Not surprised to find morons following another moron.
To use, and slightly alter, one of Trump’s favorite locutions: Many legal experts are saying that he’s a flight risk if he faces prosecution.
@Kathy:
There is video and audio of people claiming that they stormed the Capitol because Trump told them to do so.
@CSK:
True. And when that fails, I look to Princess Bride, Young Frankenstein, Father Goose, and Casablanca. But then again, I am but a simple farmer…
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
I’m a little confused by the quote bracketing, so my response may not line up with what you’re trying to say with your comment.
You’re correct, I obviously need to do a better job in communicating my point.
However, I find it difficult to accept, someone who starts off by blaming the citizens of Flint and the Democratic party for their rightful skepticism of the government proclamations regarding Flint’s water quality. @MarkedMan didn’t say I understand their skepticism and we need to work to convince them of the government’s position, no he blamed them for politicizing the situation. In other words Republican’s are evil, but Democrats are almost as bad for not trusting the evil people.
My Point:
To paraphrase Dr. King, my regrettable conclusion is that the left’s great stumbling block in the stride towards equality and a better America is not the Republican party, but the white moderate who is more devoted to “order” than to justice. They claim to agree with you in the goal you seek, but can’t agree with your methods of action. They feel only they can set the timetable of action and constantly advise the left to wait for a more convenient season.
@flat earth luddite:
Ah, the common clay of the new west.
Check out this idiotic article from the Right Wing “Newsbusters” website that they published the evening of 5 January BEFORE the insurrection on the 6th. You may want to hurry before they realize how stupid it makes them look and delete it.
From the article:
“The CBS Evening News wore their hatred for Trump supporters on their sleeve Tuesday as anchor Norah O’Donnell and White House correspondent Weijia Jiang claimed, without evidence, that pro-Trump protesters gathering in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday planned to bring “weapons” and “storm the Capitol” building in some kind of coup attempt.”
Dammit! I hate that there is no “edit” button!
Here’s the link I botched in the post above:
https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/nicholas-fondacaro/2021/01/05/cbs-claims-trump-supporters-plan-storm-capitol-weapons
@Loviatar:
My reading of MarkedMan wasn’t that we was criticizing the citizens of Flint, rather he was criticizing politicians that are claiming that the water situation in Flint hasn’t been addressed. He agreed that indictment and prosecution of republicans responsible for poisoning the citizens of Flint was not just deserved, but long overdue. He didn’t count the misdeeds as equivalent, rather he called on ‘his side’ to hold to the facts, as we rightly tell ‘their side’ to do.
Look, I’m probably at least as left leaning as you, but even I find your knee jerk responses strident to the point of being off putting even when I’m agreeing with you on the substance. It is that type of response that alienates current and potential allies. I don’t think you will change his opinions or votes, nor will you change mine, but general uncharitable shittiness to 80-90% allies isn’t helpful to the causes you appear to care about.
To be clear, my response here isn’t just about this incident, rather about a pattern of condescending rudeness towards our hosts and other commenters that isn’t justified 80-90% of the times I’ve seen it deployed.
@Grewgills:
You should see the things I write, delete and don’t publish. LOL
Ms. QAnon herself, Marjorie Taylor Greene, is planning to introduce articles of impeachment against Joe Biden on January 21.
@Loviatar:
Look, if that’s your takeaway from what I said, there is no point in my explaining in more detail.
@Grewgills: Well said.
@Loviatar:
That, my good citizen, is the core of good politics and progress–and has been since the dawn of civilization.
We are at our best when we agree on what’s important–even if we disagree on the details–and understand that seeing the situation from different perspectives is the best way to find the path that will bring us to our goal.
Common ground and middle ground are how most of human progress has happened. We only remember the big battles because they’re exciting–and unusual.
@CSK: Is she the idiot who spoke from the floor of the U. S. House of Representatives, on national television, with a mask that said “censored?”
Proof that any moron can get elected.
Small “squee!” moment tonight.
As I’ve mentioned, I publish an online newspaper for our small town. Yesterday our police chief let me know that the “true crime” TV show he was interviewed for (“Exhumed” on Oxygen) is airing this coming Sunday.
I’ve dealt with famous people for 30 years and it doesn’t impress me in the least. But I got a jolt out of asking a producer for quotes for my story. I don’t know why that’s so exciting… but it is. 😀
@Mikey:
Yes, she is.
@Mu Yixiao:
Joplin, MO. is a small town?
@Grewgills:
I don’t write to convince others of the rightness of my positions, I leave that to those with better writing skills. @Michael Reynolds excellent comment today excoriating Conservative policy positions. I am a visitor to OTB for two reasons, both of which I give full credit to our blog host James Joyner and his contributors, primarily Steven L. Taylor.
1) the ability to gain an insight into the daily Republican/Conservative viewpoint without having to wade through a sewer of racist, misogynist, homophobic filth.
2) the ability to call out right-wing lies and/or centrist both-siderism without getting banned.
My commenting style is confrontational and critical. I believe for far too long we’ve been too “nice” to people who spew harmful things with a soft tone. You know, someone you would like to have a beer with, who then commits torture and mass murder.
—–
I view the above criticism as an entree into both-siderism, your viewpoint may differ.
@CSK: Great. Now I know what the government is going to be doing for the next 4 years. Yippie. 🙁
@Mikey: See? I KNEW there was a reason that the Founding
Fathers [tm] had envisioned a republic where only about 15 or 20% of the population would be eligible to vote. It’s all so clear now.
@MarkedMan:
—–
You blamed the crisis in Flint on
—–
You blamed the Democrats for politicizing the crisis,
—–
Which you equated to;
—–
That seems like classic both-siderism. Please tell me how I misconstrued your point.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
It’ll be one impeachment after the other. Good times, right?
@Mu Yixiao:
No that is actually bad politics. You’re pissing off a part of your base by ignoring their call for a place at the table. You’re telling them, we support your goals. but you can’t have any input in the negotiations to achieve those goals. Progress if any, is incremental and unsatisfying.
—–
The US has moved furthest in its quest for civil and equal rights when radical action was taken; civil war and 60s counter-culture. In the period when moderates/centrist held sway we either stagnated or regressed. It kind of tells you something doesn’t it.
@CSK:
Donnie is so nice they impeached him twice.
Uh huh…those MAGA cowards probably would have ran away with their tails between their legs if they were confronted with a large armed force…
@Kathy:
Reminds me of an old song: “My Sweet Impeachable You.”
@Loviatar: FWIW, any objection I had to your comment had nothing to do with how confrontational it was. It was that you obviously didn’t spend a single moment trying to understand what I was saying.
But it gave me a chuckle rather than offense because I wasn’t actually saying what you thought I was but was instead making a comment about how a hypothetical person who paid no attention to others would rush out the gate to let everyone know how righteous they were. I speculated on what such a person would say. And then you said that exact thing. To be honest, at first I thought it had to be meant humorously.
@OzarkHillbilly: The Democrats are by their PLATFORM resd it socialist who hate America!!!!! Is this your party??? Are you a moral derelict, who hates what America is under Trumps Direction, that is not America first, believes in Abortion, illegals that have the same benefits as you and me, depleting the military, defunding police, not holding China to a higher level, not penalicing China for their attack on America with their virus!!!! anti Guns, boarder anti God, and on and on ! Republicans, hell no a bunch of yellow backstabbing Swamp creatures who were stumbling blocks to us by not supporting great direction the President wanted to take us , holding the House and Senate the first two years and getting NOTHING DONE! They have always killed their own that do not go along with Swamp legislation!!! These idiots will take you to the bottom of the swamp!!! IS THERE ANY HOPE FOR AMERICA???? “YES” THE NEW “AMERICAN PATRIOT PARTY” FOR CONSERVATIVE GOD FEARING, AMERICA FIRST,(NOT ONLY BUT FIRST)GUN LOVING, ABORTION HATEING, STRONG BOARDER, LAW AND ORDER, LOW TAXES, LESS RED TAPE, PLATFORM!!! WITH J. DONALD TRUMP AT THE LEADERSHIP OF THIS PARTY FOLLOWED BY STRONG CONSERVATIVE NOT PAID OFF PATRIOTS!!! PETITON TRUMP TO LEAD AND GET OFF THE GROUND, NEW HOPE FOR AMERICA STONG ” PATRIOT PARTY” THAT WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN 2024!!! HOPE FOR AMERICA
@CSK:
I’m nowhere near Joplin, MO.