Charlie - I think Ionesco's "Rhinoceros" play was a very apt description of the GOP today. Very depressing analogy. (I read the Wikipedia article just now - I haven't seen it yet.)
Is that Lil' Marco, captain of his South Miami High debate team circa 1988? Or is that just some g.d. cheap pol planning his presidential election victory speech?
The NYT has already called it for the Orange Snake. 2nd place is still up. If Nikki had any ounce of courage, she'd drop out and say she's voting for Biden. Well, I can dream.
Please stop talking about Iowa like it was important, it isn't. You have exactly one candidate running to win the GOP nomination. No one is going to get particularly excited about someone running for second. Tell us the percentages in two sentences and move on. If the candidates don't care why should we.
Marco was always an empty suit, and subject to whatever the prevailing sentiment of the voters were that day. Unfortunately, we’re finding out that almost every single one of his colleagues are as well. It’s obvious that there’s no way we could trust any of them to truly stand up for America. Any foreign leader could threaten to tweet about them, or send a few angry people after them, and they would fold in a heartbeat. It will take a generation or more to rebuild the Republican Party.
In the 1950s the late great historian Daniel Boorstin wrote a short book entitled, if my aging memory served me accurately, THE IMAGE. In it he posited the idea of the “pseudo event,” an otherwise meaningless event made significant by the media.
As i recall his example was the Miss America contest. If he were alive to revise it I suspect he would use both the Iowa Caucus and the New Hampshire primary as his examples.
Who in their right mind can view
either of these as anything other then an insignificant black swan sitting on the back of an ersatz unicorn.
Can we please…please….please stop wishcasting that the MAGA Republicans aren’t going to vote for Trump even if convicted ? Stop trying to gaslight us into even considering that a conviction is the redline in the sand. Anyone who is willing to pull any lever for Trump at this point is going to follow him to the bottom. What’s scary is there are 70+ million of our fellow Americans willing and able to destroy our country for this man.
There's a principle in medicine that practitioners should not be in healing business if they themselves are not whole. It applies to other endeavors, as well. Joe Biden's favorability number is now 33%. Even fewer, 28%, believe he is mentally and physically up to the job of president. He's not well liked and never has been. He stumbled into the '20 nomination only with the help of Jim Clyburn and SC Blacks. Had Clyburn not pulled that rabbit out of the hat, Biden's '20 campaign would have ended in ashes like his two others. He was elected only because he was running against Donald Trump. Joe Biden wants to lead the nation for another four years, but he is badly diminished himself and has little hope of prevailing. If Dems don't come to their senses and find a younger, more able nominee, he is going to take us down right along with him.
Maybe there's something I'm missing, but I read the NBC poll (61% of caucus-goers say it doesn't matter if he's convicted of a crime) as potentially very hopeful. Typically nothing, up to and including the botching of a global crisis, has moved his support more than a handful of points. There's no Dem caucus to speak of, so isn't this basically all Republicans? Isn't it huge that 39% said it Would matter? Isn't he quite boned if he loses even a fraction of that 39%?
I'll never understand MAGA's belief that Trump is the apotheosis of manliness. Maybe it's me, but I fail to see how they look at a 77-year old draft dodger buried under three pounds of makeup and think "now there's a man's man."
Charlie - I think Ionesco's "Rhinoceros" play was a very apt description of the GOP today. Very depressing analogy. (I read the Wikipedia article just now - I haven't seen it yet.)
Is that Lil' Marco, captain of his South Miami High debate team circa 1988? Or is that just some g.d. cheap pol planning his presidential election victory speech?
The NYT has already called it for the Orange Snake. 2nd place is still up. If Nikki had any ounce of courage, she'd drop out and say she's voting for Biden. Well, I can dream.
Please stop talking about Iowa like it was important, it isn't. You have exactly one candidate running to win the GOP nomination. No one is going to get particularly excited about someone running for second. Tell us the percentages in two sentences and move on. If the candidates don't care why should we.
Yay Packers and Lions!
Marco was always an empty suit, and subject to whatever the prevailing sentiment of the voters were that day. Unfortunately, we’re finding out that almost every single one of his colleagues are as well. It’s obvious that there’s no way we could trust any of them to truly stand up for America. Any foreign leader could threaten to tweet about them, or send a few angry people after them, and they would fold in a heartbeat. It will take a generation or more to rebuild the Republican Party.
The only happy thing in the whole newsletter is that the Packers thumped the Cowboys. Thanks for that, from a Wisconsin girl!
In the 1950s the late great historian Daniel Boorstin wrote a short book entitled, if my aging memory served me accurately, THE IMAGE. In it he posited the idea of the “pseudo event,” an otherwise meaningless event made significant by the media.
As i recall his example was the Miss America contest. If he were alive to revise it I suspect he would use both the Iowa Caucus and the New Hampshire primary as his examples.
Who in their right mind can view
either of these as anything other then an insignificant black swan sitting on the back of an ersatz unicorn.
Can we please…please….please stop wishcasting that the MAGA Republicans aren’t going to vote for Trump even if convicted ? Stop trying to gaslight us into even considering that a conviction is the redline in the sand. Anyone who is willing to pull any lever for Trump at this point is going to follow him to the bottom. What’s scary is there are 70+ million of our fellow Americans willing and able to destroy our country for this man.
There's a principle in medicine that practitioners should not be in healing business if they themselves are not whole. It applies to other endeavors, as well. Joe Biden's favorability number is now 33%. Even fewer, 28%, believe he is mentally and physically up to the job of president. He's not well liked and never has been. He stumbled into the '20 nomination only with the help of Jim Clyburn and SC Blacks. Had Clyburn not pulled that rabbit out of the hat, Biden's '20 campaign would have ended in ashes like his two others. He was elected only because he was running against Donald Trump. Joe Biden wants to lead the nation for another four years, but he is badly diminished himself and has little hope of prevailing. If Dems don't come to their senses and find a younger, more able nominee, he is going to take us down right along with him.
Vox populi, vox insani!
I still find it so odd that Donald Trump applies makeup to his face every day. Why?
Even though debunked, it is distressing that the students were eager to follow the professor's instructions to be cruel.
"However, others claimed that the original advertisement attracted people who were predisposed to authoritarianism."
Stanford students are "predisposed to authoritarianism"? Say it ain't so!!!
Maybe there's something I'm missing, but I read the NBC poll (61% of caucus-goers say it doesn't matter if he's convicted of a crime) as potentially very hopeful. Typically nothing, up to and including the botching of a global crisis, has moved his support more than a handful of points. There's no Dem caucus to speak of, so isn't this basically all Republicans? Isn't it huge that 39% said it Would matter? Isn't he quite boned if he loses even a fraction of that 39%?
I'll never understand MAGA's belief that Trump is the apotheosis of manliness. Maybe it's me, but I fail to see how they look at a 77-year old draft dodger buried under three pounds of makeup and think "now there's a man's man."