Whiskey Fire

Speaking of Big Tall Hapless Dorks Who KIlled Their State Party Forever

Twitter is weird.

I was recently told on Twitter that the real reason I think the George Pataki Twitter feed is very silly is that I am afraid of a George Pataki presidency.

This is not strictly true.

For the Historical Record, I am not remotely alarmed at the prospect of George Pataki becoming president.

This is something that I feel must be stressed.

I am not at all concerned that George Pataki might be elected president of the United States of America.

Let this be Widely Declared.

Ferguson, Infamy

Everybody knew how the Ferguson Grand Jury would rule.

Like Michael Brown was just busting up a chifferobe. Fuck.

Fuck.

 

 

Concern Trolling: How to Do It

Here is how to Concern Troll, Al Sharpton style:

The Rev. Al Sharpton says Rand Paul’s efforts to engage black voters could present a strategic challenge for Democrats: If the Republican senator runs for president, fewer African Americans may be motivated to show up and vote against him....

Democrats have traditionally done well among African American voters, especially with Barack Obama at the top of the ticket. In 2016, Democrats will “need maximum black turnout in a lot of states,” Sharpton told POLITICO.

“What I think is more dangerous for Democrats is, if a guy like Paul is out there, if he becomes the nominee, for argument’s sake, he … does not generate a turnout against him” among African Americans, Sharpton said. He added, “If he’s able to neutralize his past image on civil rights, if he becomes the candidate … and if you don’t get a huge black turnout saying ‘We’re afraid [of him],’” that could be a pitfall for Democrats.

This is top-flight Concern Trolling. C'est magnifique!

Sincerely, this is The Shit. Give it up for Sharpton.

Hole Foods

So, The Daily Beast exists. And this is an article on the Daily Beast about Whole Foods. The author of the article is correct about biological science, but has his head up his ass about how politics intersects with class as regards science.

This person says that Whole Foods is as anti-science as the Creation Museum, and I don't disagree:

But you don’t have to schlep all the way to Kentucky in order to visit America’s greatest shrine to pseudoscience. In fact, that shrine is a 15-minute trip away from most American urbanites.

I’m talking, of course, about Whole Foods Market. From the probiotics aisle to the vaguely ridiculous Organic Integrity outreach effort (more on that later), Whole Foods has all the ingredients necessary to give Richard Dawkins nightmares. And if you want a sense of how weird, and how fraught, the relationship between science, politics, and commerce is in our modern world, then there’s really no better place to go. Because anti-science isn’t just a religious, conservative phenomenon—and the way in which it crosses cultural lines can tell us a lot about why places like the Creation Museum inspire so much rage, while places like Whole Foods don’t.

This is kind of weird.

First, what the fuck is up with the reference to Richard Dawkins? Here's his fucking web-site as regards pro-biotics. That's some sketchy horseshit right there. (I don't trust Dawkins for shit. Too libertarian.)

And Whole Foods isn't liberal. It's libertarian.

The liberal approach to Whole Foods is to say, many things you do are great. Let's help you. However, we live in a democracy, and the People have a right to independently determine whether or not you, and your products, are full of shit.

The liberal accepts science, and argues that a government that rejects scientific fact is just fucking stupid. The libertarian only gives a shit about making money.

Not sure why this is difficult.

Some Choices Are Not Hobsonian, Particularly

I'm not really seeing the dilemma here....

Senate Democrats are considering a vote in the lame-duck session to force approval of TransCanada Corp. (TRP)’s Keystone XL pipeline, a party aide said, a move that may bolster Louisiana Democrat Mary Landrieu’s re-election chances.

Catastophic environmental disaster balanced against the at best dubious benefits of continuing to acknowledge the existence of Mary Landrieu?

Not even a close one.

Beg pardon: not even a fucking close one. Let's keep this civil.

 

 

Proving the Point

One of the lucky inmates at the Tucker Carlson Charity Home for Blind Concussed Squirrels discovers nuts.

Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber said that lack of transparency was a major part of getting Obamacare passed because “the stupidity of the American voter” would have killed the law if more people knew what was in it.

Gruber, the MIT professor who served as a technical consultant to the Obama administration during Obamacare’s design, also made clear during a panel quietly captured on video that the individual mandate, which was only upheld by the Supreme Court because it was a tax, was not actually a tax.

Golly. What did Gruber actually say? Here's the Daily Caller's own transcription:

This bill was written in a tortured way to make sure CBO did not score the mandate as taxes. If CBO scored the mandate as taxes, the bill dies. Okay, so it’s written to do that.  In terms of risk rated subsidies, if you had a law which said that healthy people are going to pay in – you made explicit healthy people pay in and sick people get money, it would not have passed… Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage. And basically, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically that was really really critical for the thing to pass… Look, I wish Mark was right that we could make it all transparent, but I’d rather have this law than not.

Gruber here is making an unexceptionable point: the "American people" are not necessarily stupid taken individually, but they sure are easily swayed by stupid arguments. The colossally stupid "death panels" nonsense proves that dispositively.

And the Tuckerista quoted above adds further evidence to this theory: Gruber didn't say the mandate is a tax in regards to the narrow (and stupid) legal issue that stupidly went before our stupid Supreme Court, he was only talking about CBO scoring, which is a different thing.

What Gruber was saying is that "we knew that there would be a huge problem if we had to explain how insurance works, because even though that's not a difficult concept, it would have been demagogued by screaming talk radio swine and their angry base of addled morons."

The far-right howler monkeys are pretty much just proving Gruber right; after all, they themselves get paid (or desperately want to get paid) to fling nonsense-poo to rally support for the idea that third-party swine deserve to get rich off you getting sick, and all poor people ought to quickly die, even if they have three jobs.

When Is Broken?

As if Bush v Gore were not enough, now we have this monstrosity.

Why do we even have a United States?

Half this country does not want a federal government and instead imagine themselves lords of the Thunderdome or some similar shit.

Caught Redhanded

I did but tie one fellow, who was taken redhanded and in the fact, to the horns of a wild stag.

My contribution to eileeninmd's Saturday's Critter's #49 (and a second to TexWiscGirl's Good Fences #33):

Here's a praying mantis with one of the ladybugs that swarm to the south side of the bulding on sunny fall days.


German Village fence cat:


Here's another picture of the 2nd Brown Snake I saw a couple weeks ago. This was before it puffed itself up in an attempt to look bigger:


Posted by ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© and cross-posted at my place. Mouse over pics for captions, and click them for larger versions.
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Does Acting Like a Total Asshole Equal Strategic Brilliance, Or Does It Just Mean You're an Asshole?

Scott's a pal, but why are we taking this Yglesias shit seriously?

But at a time when McConnell is likely poised to take over as Senate Majority Leader, it's worth taking a moment to acknowledge his political acumen. Not acumen in winning reelection, but acumen in masterminding the Republican comeback after the huge Democratic wave elections in 2006 and 2008.

Mitch McConnell didn't decide to act like an asshole because he's some fucking Machiavelli supergenius. Mitch McConnell acted like an asshole because he's an asshole.

Mitch McConnell made the calculation that he'd rather fuck over the entire country before ever conceding jack shit to a Democratic president because he's an asshole.

Mitch McConnell has no strategy.

Mitch McConell gives no shits.

Mitch McConnell is just an asshole.

I don't know why this is a difficult point to grasp. The GOP are going to act like assholes -- they give no shits about the nation, they give no shits about democracy, they are just crazy angry assholes.

"Keep acting like an asshole" doesn't make you a fucking strategic mastermind. All it means is that we have a shite polity that tends to reward stupid assholes.

The Apocalypse of Clay

So we live in a slightly more ghastly country, now.

Whatever.

God, I hate old white cranky racists. Can the rest of us please start voting?