Shocker: Donald Trump Told Reckless Lies About Coronavirus Today, While the CDC Issued Dire Warnings

Politics • Views: 24,884

Our horrifyingly bad president* is in India, mispronouncing names and boasting about himself, and today he gave a press conference and spewed a whole bunch of misinformation about the worsening coronavirus epidemic.

Trump sycophant Larry Kudlow promptly got on TV to co-sign.

This isn’t just irresponsible — it’s reckless endangerment. Coming from the highest office in the US. Because, unfortunately for Trump, his cronies, and the rest of the civilized world, the Centers for Disease Control are saying the exact opposite.

Trump, of course, has a history of using disease to spread fear, misinformation and conspiracy theories, and to delegitimize government agencies.

Jump to bottom

273 comments
1
LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)  Feb 25, 2020 • 11:23:04am

Thanks Senate Republicans. Thanks for acting like the things he was being impeached on were no big deal because you couldn’t tell your pathetic base the truth that he’s a crook.

2
Eclectic Cyborg  Feb 25, 2020 • 11:23:31am

Got CL’d on last thread.

DOW currently down over 800.

Are we tired of all this winning yet?

//

3
Charles Johnson  Feb 25, 2020 • 11:24:36am
4
Mike Lamb  Feb 25, 2020 • 11:25:05am

I have a family vacation scheduled for Rome and Florence towards the end of June. Trying very hard to sort through the wheat from the chaff in terms of actual, legitimate concerns. My reaction is that it is a serious issue, but at the same time, it is more akin to the flu—with the issue being that there is no preventative vaccine at the moment. A bad flu season wouldn’t be a reason to cancel a trip.

5
Shiplord Kirel, Friend of Moose and Squirrel  Feb 25, 2020 • 11:26:40am

CLed from last string. An associate of now-flat flat-Earth rocketeer “Mad Mike” Hughes has admitted what every reasonable observer already knew:
“Mad” Mike Hughes at times said his rocket launches aimed to prove the Earth’s shape, but a representative told BuzzFeed News that was all for publicity

On Saturday, a public relations representative disputed Hughes’ flat Earth beliefs, telling BuzzFeed News that the argument had helped him raise money but that he didn’t actually believe it.

“We used flat Earth as a PR stunt. Period,” Darren Shuster told BuzzFeed News. “He was a true daredevil decades before the latest round of rocket missions. Flat Earth allowed us to get so much publicity that we kept going! I know he didn’t believe in flat Earth and it was a shtick.”

As for why Shuster would admit this, why not? It’s not as though the flat-Earth faithful could sue Mad Mike, and it does help his legacy. I would certainly rather be remembered as a huckster who grifted flat-Earth idiots than as a flat-Earth idiot myself.

6
lawhawk  Feb 25, 2020 • 11:27:09am

Trump’s proposed budget slashes and burns the CDC funding and pandemic prevent programs. Now he’s asking for less than half that amount back as though he’s doing everyone a favor.

He’s clueless. Kudlow’s lying his ass off, and the markets are responding appropriately at this point since all the indicators are showing that the supply chains into China are being affected due to efforts to contain. That means businesses here are being affected even if no one is sick.

But the disease can spread because not everyone shows symptoms right away so isolation for 2 weeks might not be enough.

Trump spewed bulkshit all through the Ebola epidemic, and was consistently wrong then. He’s still wrong now, only he’s in a position to cause more harm.

7
Eclectic Cyborg  Feb 25, 2020 • 11:27:18am

Trump saying we’re close to a vaccine is insanely reckless. That’s the kind of thing you DO NOT BULLSHIT ABOUT IN THE MIDDLE OF A FUCKING OUTBREAK!

8
Eventual Carrion  Feb 25, 2020 • 11:27:22am

Time for the trusty sharpie to do its thing on the CDC report.

9
Joe Bacon 🌹  Feb 25, 2020 • 11:28:02am

-825…is it going to go -1000 today…place your bets…

10
LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)  Feb 25, 2020 • 11:28:27am

re: #4 Mike Lamb

I have a family vacation scheduled for Rome and Florence towards the end of June. Trying very hard to sort through the wheat from the chaff in terms of actual, legitimate concerns. My reaction is that it is a serious issue, but at the same time, it is more akin to the flu—with the issue being that there is no preventative vaccine at the moment. A bad flu season wouldn’t be a reason to cancel a trip.

My parents are planning the same. It’s a shame too since it would be my mom’s first time out of country and my dad’s first time in Europe.

11
lawhawk  Feb 25, 2020 • 11:28:51am

re: #7 Eclectic Cyborg

Trump saying we’re close to a vaccine is insanely reckless. That’s the kind of thing you DO NOT BULLSHIT ABOUT IN THE MIDDLE OF A FUCKING OUTBREAK!

It takes time to develop a vaccine, let alone test it with human subjects.

So no, we’re not close.

12
William Lewis  Feb 25, 2020 • 11:29:48am

Way OT but cute:

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

13
Eclectic Cyborg  Feb 25, 2020 • 11:30:58am

re: #9 Joe Bacon 🌹

-825…is it going to go -1000 today…place your bets…

-906 now. I’d say the odds are looking pretty good.

14
Charles Johnson  Feb 25, 2020 • 11:31:03am
15
The Pie Overlord!  Feb 25, 2020 • 11:31:06am

re: #3 Charles Johnson

Look at all the lab safety rules that Ivanka ignores in her cute photo op:

1. Holding an open test tube at mouth level
2. Gloves are way too big
3. Hair is not covered or tied back; can contaminate test samples

16
Eventual Carrion  Feb 25, 2020 • 11:33:43am
“We have contained this, I won’t say airtight but pretty close to airtight.” — Kudlow, on @CNBC now.#COVID19

Kudlow before the 2008 economic crash.

wrote a Feb. 5, 2008, column in National Review saying he was “still betting on and buying Goldilocks [a just-right scenario] for the long run.” He wrote, “Maybe we are going to have a mild correction. Maybe not,” adding: “I’m going to bet that the economy will be rebounding sometime this summer, if not sooner. We are in a slow patch. That’s all. It’s nothing to get up in arms about.”

So excuse me if I don’t listen to your ass Kud.

17
lawhawk  Feb 25, 2020 • 11:33:44am
18
LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)  Feb 25, 2020 • 11:34:28am

re: #15 The Pie Overlord!

Look at all the lab safety rules that Ivanka ignores in her cute photo op:

1. Holding an open test tube at mouth level
2. Gloves are way too big
3. Hair is not covered or tied back; can contaminate test material

Yeah it’s like those stock photos you see in labs. What NOT to do. Vanky’s doing that.

19
Joe Bacon 🌹  Feb 25, 2020 • 11:36:23am

-905…and Cokehead Kudlow still says nothing’s wrong…

20
b.d. (We're gonna win)  Feb 25, 2020 • 11:36:51am

Those Trump rallies are the perfect platform for the virus to spread, especially with all of those Chinese spies being so close to his drooling fans.

21
lawhawk  Feb 25, 2020 • 11:37:17am
22
Florida Panhandler  Feb 25, 2020 • 11:38:01am

re: #16 Eventual Carrion

Kudlow before the 2008 economic crash.

So excuse me if I don’t listen to your ass Kud.

Cocain-addicted TV Poser Kudlow never uttered a statement on monetary policy he didn’t later completely ignore or directly violate in practice. This is an ongoing fiasco with him right now especially in regards to his head being so far up Trump’s ass it would take a whole Kilo of the white stuff to draw his attention away it.

23
Joe Bacon 🌹  Feb 25, 2020 • 11:39:24am

Kudlow’s head is so far up Trump’s ass that it’s now bouncing against his pituitary gland…

24
Shiplord Kirel, Friend of Moose and Squirrel  Feb 25, 2020 • 11:40:59am

re: #3 Charles Johnson

25
Joe Bacon 🌹  Feb 25, 2020 • 11:41:51am

^VIX just hit 29…when it hits 30 that’s a red alert for the market…now -922…

26
unproven innocence  Feb 25, 2020 • 11:42:32am

re: #15 The Pie Overlord!
re: #24 Shiplord Kirel, Friend of Moose and Squirrel

#4: Mouth open.

27
Hecuba's daughter  Feb 25, 2020 • 11:47:45am

re: #15 The Pie Overlord!

Look at all the lab safety rules that Ivanka ignores in her cute photo op:

1. Holding an open test tube at mouth level
2. Gloves are way too big
3. Hair is not covered or tied back; can contaminate test samples

This isn’t a real picture promoted by the grifter family, is it? Could it have been put together by someone who isn’t a fan?

28
Eclectic Cyborg  Feb 25, 2020 • 11:47:56am

re: #25 Joe Bacon 🌹

^VIX just hit 29…when it hits 30 that’s a red alert for the market…now -922…

Reached 29.94 a few moments ago.

29
uriel  Feb 25, 2020 • 11:49:31am

Got CL’d, but since it seems relevant here:

re: #278 calochortus

Why yes, the common cold is caused by a corona virus, but by that logic we have nothing to fear from tigers because they are related to house cats, and we all know house cats are unlikely to kill us.

That’s a good analogy, but I do have to admit to being frustrated by the fact that so many people who should know better keep collapsing the discussion from *a* coronavirus to *the* coronavirus. It paints an inaccurate picture that seems to be leading to a lot of confusion on the topic, especially among people who are largely ignorant about epidemiology and are getting their information from the media/ internet.

Inaccurate information can be almost as dangerous the actual disease itself in this sort of situation.

That said, Rush can’t leave the national stage soon enough.

30
Eclectic Cyborg  Feb 25, 2020 • 11:51:03am

re: #25 Joe Bacon 🌹

Start sounding the alarms…

31
calochortus  Feb 25, 2020 • 11:52:11am

re: #30 Eclectic Cyborg

Start sounding the alarms…

[Embedded content]

BWEEP! BWEEP! BWEEEP! ( or other alarm of your choice.)

32
jaunte  Feb 25, 2020 • 11:55:31am
33
Charles Johnson  Feb 25, 2020 • 11:55:37am
34
Citizen K  Feb 25, 2020 • 11:56:38am

And once again, people are reminded that Warren exists if only to scream about how she needs to drop out now and how she’s the divisive spoiler candidate that everyone should hate.

35
LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)  Feb 25, 2020 • 11:56:46am

re: #33 Charles Johnson

[Embedded content]

I have no idea. Something sinister is going on and I don’t like it at all.

36
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Feb 25, 2020 • 11:57:32am

re: #32 jaunte

Trump is not a medical professional and he takes no interest in being briefed by experts. His opinion of what may or may not happen with the coronavirus is meaningless. Reporters are doing a disservice to the public by even mentioning what he says.

That statement applies to almost any topic except how to walk away from a bankruptcy.

37
lawhawk  Feb 25, 2020 • 11:58:21am

re: #33 Charles Johnson

38
LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)  Feb 25, 2020 • 11:59:49am

re: #37 lawhawk

[Embedded content]

Fucker.

39
Eclectic Cyborg  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:00:23pm

re: #37 lawhawk

I don’t want people to die, but Trumps re-election bid being sunk by his own incompetence would be perfect Karma.

40
Charles Johnson  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:01:06pm

re: #37 lawhawk

Right, he knows how it could be weaponized against him, because HE DID THAT TO OBAMA.

41
lawhawk  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:03:25pm

re: #40 Charles Johnson

Trump always puts his own needs ahead of everything else, including his oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution and the people of the US.

He’s more concerned about his reelection effort than doing his goddamned job.

42
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:04:17pm

re: #39 Eclectic Cyborg

I don’t want people to die, but Trumps re-election bid being sunk by his own incompetence would be perfect Karma.

It has not hindered him so far…let us hope that he has reached his limit for what sort of boorishness is considered acceptable.

43
calochortus  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:04:34pm

re: #39 Eclectic Cyborg

I don’t want people to die, but Trumps re-election bid being sunk by his own incompetence would be perfect Karma.

Karma would involve Trump getting COVID-19.

44
Sherlock Hound  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:06:08pm

re: #34 Citizen K

I ask myself, does Matt have a #metoo waiting from one of his close, and female associates? Every male pundit who puts down a woman candidate turns out to be a misogynist

45
Hecuba's daughter  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:06:59pm

re: #43 calochortus

Karma would involve Trump getting COVID-19.

True karma would be both Trump and Pence becoming ill and perishing from the disease, making Nancy our first female president.

46
calochortus  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:07:53pm

re: #45 Hecuba’s daughter

True karma would be both Trump and Pence becoming ill and perishing from the disease, making Nancy our first female president.

I’d be OK with that.

47
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:09:05pm

re: #45 Hecuba’s daughter

True karma would be both Trump and Pence becoming ill and perishing from the disease, making Nancy our first female president.

gosh, the CT folks would have a field day with that scenario…

48
b.d. (We're gonna win)  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:10:03pm

re: #45 Hecuba’s daughter

True karma would be both Trump and Pence becoming ill and perishing from the disease, making Nancy our first female president.

Thoughts and prayers

49
lawhawk  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:10:07pm
50
LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:10:47pm

re: #47 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

gosh, the CT folks would have a field day with that scenario…

They already are with Trump lawfully being impeached. Fuck em.

51
EPR-radar  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:11:18pm

re: #43 calochortus

Karma would involve Trump getting COVID-19.

And not dying of it, but having a sufficiently severe case of it that he ends up in respiratory ICU for the rest of his miserable life without ever again speaking a word to another human being (or even having the energy to tweet his bullshit).

52
LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:11:33pm

re: #49 lawhawk

[Embedded content]

Law and order for my opponents but pardons, clemencies, and leniency for those who treat me like a monarch.

53
LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:11:50pm

re: #51 EPR-radar

And not dying of it, but having a sufficiently severe case of it that he ends up in respiratory ICU for the rest of his miserable life without ever again speaking a word to another human being (or even having the energy to tweet his bullshit).

I’d be fine with this.

54
Charles Johnson  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:13:11pm
55
EPR-radar  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:13:11pm

re: #52 LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)

Law and order for my opponents but pardons, clemencies, and leniency for those who treat me like a monarch.

In other words, the archetype conservative view on what laws are for.

56
LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:15:34pm

re: #55 EPR-radar

In other words, the archetype conservative view on what laws are for.

Yeah actually. I was listening to a podcast about a country star who brutally beat his wife to death. Reagan took pity on the guy and gave him early release. Spade Cooley. Reagan’s tough on crime stuff was only for PoC. Yet another reason why Reagan was a full of shit huckster just like Trump.

57
The Ghost of a Flea  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:15:52pm

You’ve got all these people with authority—or more accurate, a mix of social, political, and cultural capital—and their only skill is optics.

I’ve mentioned it before with relation to pundits: their “real” skill is being aesthetes interpreting political events as entertainment, brushing up against the actual stakes only periodically.

On a fairly regular basis in politics, a person with a grasp of rhetoric and the social control possible through impression management will convince themselves that ultimately, every other skill is subordinate to rhetoric, making the base assumption that ideas are a market, and capture of the mass imagination grants so much power that veracity is valueless. This is the other half of the death of expertise: the ascendance of verisimilitude and the imagineers who work in the medium. And the result…which we saw how Iraq…is that, yeah, it turns out that they don’t actually make reality, or control it. So then they move to step two—denying that there’s a relationship between their rhetoric and what happened because of their rhetoric—until it’s time to try again.

So here we are at “…again.” The deceivers who’ve been getting high on “we’re in control because we tell stories” don’t have any fucking back up plan, and this time around the particularly bloc are especially crude and especially invested in the idea that reality ain’t real. We’ve moved from straight grifters working rubes to something much more dangerous; to deep narcissists who lie and believe those lies, speaking to an audience who will just roll with the contradictions so they can feel good about themselves.

And that flight into unreality causes body counts, because…no…they never have to come back out, and those deeply committed to an unreality will die, kill, and let other people die.

I keep talking about how there’s a problem manifesting that’s deeper than politics, and this it. And it’s not just Trump, it’s everybody in the world buying and selling that rhetoric is truth.

58
makeitstop  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:17:49pm

re: #43 calochortus

Karma would involve Trump getting COVID-19.

My wife said the same thing. I told her not to get my hopes up.

59
jaunte  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:18:37pm
60
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:18:46pm

re: #57 The Ghost of a Flea

On a fairly regular basis in politics, a person with a grasp of rhetoric and the social control possible through impression management will convince themselves that ultimately, every other skill is subordinate to rhetoric, making the base assumption that ideas are a market, and capture of the mass imagination grants so much power that veracity is valueless.

I read about a theory that our human sense of “logic” is more about winning arguments in social settings than in divining the objective truth. Which goes a way toward explaining why rhetoric and style are so important and why “pure science” seems so abstract and foreign to us.

61
The Ghost of a Flea  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:19:34pm

And yes, the idea there’s a “the marketplace of ideas” that will sort things out when a shitty idea arises is part of what I’m talking about.

62
Dr. Matt  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:19:35pm

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

63
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:19:37pm

re: #59 jaunte

This is a BLATANT attempt at stock market manipulation and not even a good one at that. Trump camp sounds desperate, knowing a shaky economy in the run-up to November is the biggest kiss of death for their Orange Fuhrer

This is right up there with the Soviet authorities telling us that Chernobyl was contained…

64
EPR-radar  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:20:32pm

re: #57 The Ghost of a Flea

The underlying problem is that lying sophistry/rhetoric works on such a large fraction of the population. These days I’m always thinking about that fatal 33% of the vote the Nazis had in 1932.

65
Joe Bacon 🌹  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:20:47pm

re: #56 LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)

Yeah actually. I was listening to a podcast about a country star who brutally beat his wife to death. Reagan took pity on the guy and gave him early release. Spade Cooley. Reagan’s tough on crime stuff was only for PoC. Yet another reason why Reagan was a full of shit huckster just like Trump.

Spade Cooley was the first country music star to get on TV in California. Spade was also a big Republican which is why Reagan pardoned him.

66
LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:23:19pm

re: #65 Joe Bacon 🌹

Spade Cooley was the first country music star to get on TV in California. Spade was also a big Republican which is why Reagan pardoned him.

I had never heard of him before Cocaine and Rhinestones. Didn’t know he was a big Republican but that doesn’t surprise me. As I said, tough on crime if you’re not white but if you’re white, deserving of great sympathy. Remember the Trump sons being called “kids” by the same people who acted like Treyvon Martin was a monster because he had pot in his syste?

67
calochortus  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:26:22pm

re: #59 jaunte

[Embedded content]

Let’s say we have magically contained the corona virus. What, precisely, does that have to do with supply chains being disrupted by the illness in other countries? The markets aren’t falling because we’re all gonna die, they’re falling because businesses are beginning to be unable to get parts they need to make things they want to sell. That will affect profits.

68
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:27:07pm

re: #64 EPR-radar

The underlying problem is that lying sophistry/rhetoric works on such a large fraction of the population. These days I’m always thinking about that fatal 33% of the vote the Nazis had in 1932.

It was fatal in that the NSDAP had 37% and the Communists had 14%…That means that there was no way to assemble a majority without taking one or the other parties on board.

Since the KPD was not acceptable to the “mainstream” parties, they had to make a pact with the devil.

A similar situation exists in the German state of Thuringia, where an ultra-right AfD minister was elected Prime Minister, which left the parties scrambling and deciding whether to align with the ex-Communist party, Die Linken

69
NO SMOCKING GUN!  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:28:15pm

re: #4 Mike Lamb

I have a family vacation scheduled for Rome and Florence towards the end of June. Trying very hard to sort through the wheat from the chaff in terms of actual, legitimate concerns. My reaction is that it is a serious issue, but at the same time, it is more akin to the flu—with the issue being that there is no preventative vaccine at the moment. A bad flu season wouldn’t be a reason to cancel a trip.

It will be a global pandemic by then, so Italy won’t be any more dangerous than staying home.

70
Mike Lamb  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:28:40pm

Dems should be hammering Trump with ads about the complete lack of preparation to handle something like the coronavirus and that in addition to the cuts he’s already made, his budget would degrade the capabilities even further. It doesn’t need to be even close to the salacious bullshit that Trump threw at Obama with Ebola—just straight facts: we’ve got something that is or is nearing a pandemic; Trump has already gutted the funding for the groups in charge of the US’s response to pandemics; and Trump would make it even worse based on his budget proposal. Elect someone that keeps us safe.

71
Mike Lamb  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:29:03pm

re: #69 NO SMOCKING GUN!

It will be a global pandemic by then, so Italy won’t be any more dangerous than staying home.

Ha. Good point.

72
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:29:06pm

Jimmy Fallon getting in on today’s diversion:

73
Belafon  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:30:21pm

re: #37 lawhawk

One of the lessons I teach my kids is that lying and delaying telling us the truth is far worse than if they’d told us up front.

74
NO SMOCKING GUN!  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:30:38pm

re: #5 Shiplord Kirel, Friend of Moose and Squirrel

CLed from last string. An associate of now-flat flat-Earth rocketeer “Mad Mike” Hughes has admitted what every reasonable observer already knew:
“Mad” Mike Hughes at times said his rocket launches aimed to prove the Earth’s shape, but a representative told BuzzFeed News that was all for publicity

As for why Shuster would admit this, why not? It’s not as though the flat-Earth faithful could sue Mad Mike, and it does help his legacy. I would certainly rather be remembered as a huckster who grifted flat-Earth idiots than as a flat-Earth idiot myself.

Not a flat earth idiot; an idiot who risked his life in stupidly dangerous stunts. But I guess that’s how he wanted to live.

75
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:31:10pm

re: #69 NO SMOCKING GUN!

It will be a global pandemic by then, so Italy won’t be any more dangerous than staying home.

Trump will make sure that the pandemic peaks in the blue states near election day while the red states are kept safe…

76
ericblair  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:32:17pm

re: #75 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

Trump will make sure that the pandemic peaks in the blue states near election day while the red states are kept safe…

Good luck with that.

77
NO SMOCKING GUN!  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:32:26pm

re: #70 Mike Lamb

Dems should be hammering Trump with ads about the complete lack of preparation to handle something like the coronavirus and that in addition to the cuts he’s already made, his budget would degrade the capabilities even further. It doesn’t need to be even close to the salacious bullshit that Trump threw at Obama with Ebola—just straight facts: we’ve got something that is or is nearing a pandemic; Trump has already gutted the funding for the groups in charge of the US’s response to pandemics; and Trump would make it even worse based on his budget proposal. Elect someone that keeps us safe.

I’d like to see Bloomberg throw a few hundred million dollars into that attack ad!

78
Belafon  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:32:47pm

re: #72 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

Jimmy Fallon getting in on today’s diversion:

Roseanne.

79
calochortus  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:33:02pm

re: #76 ericblair

Good luck with that.

What with blue states probably providing better health care access and all.

80
NO SMOCKING GUN!  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:33:15pm

re: #75 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

Trump will make sure that the pandemic peaks in the blue states near election day while the red states are kept safe…

Not something Trump is actually capable of doing.

81
The Ghost of a Flea  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:33:57pm

re: #60 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

I read about a theory that our human sense of “logic” is more about winning arguments in social settings than in divining the objective truth. Which goes a way toward explaining why rhetoric and style are so important and why “pure science” seems so abstract and foreign to us.

I don’t even know how to talk about this without going and getting several PhDs and then righting a book, but…

We are raised with a cultural understanding of the mind that we are primarily rational and capable of discerning reality. It’s a hash of Enlightenment and Greek ideas about what a mind is and what an individual is.

But…do people behave that way?

I would answer no. I would say that the assembled body of study on human behavior says no. I would say that the successes of leaders, and con men, and ad people all postulate things about human behavior not being rational. I would say the consistency of what dysfunction looks like is suggestive that we think heuristically and cognition is constantly adjusting and seeking cues from other people and from culture.

82
Belafon  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:35:09pm

re: #34 Citizen K

And once again, people are reminded that Warren exists if only to scream about how she needs to drop out now and how she’s the divisive spoiler candidate that everyone should hate.

I missed where Warren complimented Castro, called herself a socialist, and ignored the warnings from others that we’re not going to solve race problems with economic solutions.

83
NO SMOCKING GUN!  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:35:54pm

re: #67 calochortus

Let’s say we have magically contained the corona virus. What, precisely, does that have to do with supply chains being disrupted by the illness in other countries? The markets aren’t falling because we’re all gonna die, they’re falling because businesses are beginning to be unable to get parts they need to make things they want to sell. That will affect profits.

As I said yesterday, if it’s going to trigger a recession, I hope it happens soon enough to hurt Trump’s reelection chances.

84
Eclectic Cyborg  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:36:32pm

The DOW had rebounded slightly, but it’s currently shitting the bed en route to a close of likely -900 or lower.

85
jaunte  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:38:29pm

Orders of magnitude of incompetence.

86
Joe Bacon 🌹  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:39:04pm

Hey Sam, Let’s Go To Fatburger!

87
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:39:18pm

re: #81 The Ghost of a Flea

We are raised with a cultural understanding of the mind that we are primarily rational and capable of discerning reality. It’s a hash of Enlightenment and Greek ideas about what a mind is and what an individual is.

the notion is that our early mechanisms of problem-solving developed more in order to give us tools in resolving issues within the group, and with other groups, and less for researching abstract aspects of mathematical, natural and scientific phenomena.

88
NO SMOCKING GUN!  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:40:41pm

re: #63 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

This is right up there with the Soviet authorities telling us that Chernobyl was contained…

So far it’s not working, as the market is down nearly 1,000 points today. I guess completely shredding your credibility by lying about everything has consequences!

89
Joe Bacon 🌹  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:43:14pm

Just wait till the pandemic in the red states that refuse to expand Medicaid…

90
Charles Johnson  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:43:15pm
91
LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:45:15pm

re: #90 Charles Johnson

It truly is frightening to me how a lot of this has been normalized. If you ask me, we haven’t had a real President since 1/20/17.

92
Chrysicat  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:45:46pm

From downstairs since once we left overnight mode we really left it this time:

re: #296 The Pie Overlord!

This is horrible.

[Embedded content]

93
Joe Bacon 🌹  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:45:48pm

re: #90 Charles Johnson

[Embedded content]

Wonder how many people will decline to sit on a jury for fear of retribution by Trump and Fox News….

94
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:48:24pm

re: #91 LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)

It truly is frightening to me how a lot of this has been normalized. If you ask me, we haven’t had a real President since 1/20/17.

That was the dawn of the New Media Reality. I remember how it started with Sean Spicer claiming, straight.faced that the 2017 inauguration crowds were bigger than 2013 and the press not laughing him off the podium…

95
Chrysicat  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:48:37pm
96
makeitstop  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:52:24pm
97
LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:53:09pm

re: #95 Chrysicat

Engle is the Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. Not sure if I want him primaried when FP is really an important issue. As for Manchin, he’s going to be up for re-election 2024. Who knows if he’s even going to run again. And I have to give him credit, he did in fact vote yes on both counts for Trump’s removal and he’s saved ACA. Would I be happy if he were my Senator? Nah but knowing how WV Republicans are is a risk I’m fine with having especially if we’re going to have a Majority.

98
Hecuba's daughter  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:56:09pm

re: #82 Belafon

I missed where Warren complimented Castro, called herself a socialist, and ignored the warnings from others that we’re not going to solve race problems with economic solutions.

Warren is a woman. Don’t you know that is a significant disqualifier, far worse than praising Castro or calling herself a socialist? The media is filled with men who are contemptuous of women as is the American voting public. Of course, Hillary did receive almost 3 million more votes than Trump, but what matters is the vote by state.

99
BeachDem  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:58:26pm

re: #27 Hecuba’s daughter

This isn’t a real picture promoted by the grifter family, is it? Could it have been put together by someone who isn’t a fan?

It’s every bit as real as Ivanka herself—i.e. a real picture of a totally bogus person

100
LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:59:21pm

re: #98 Hecuba’s daughter

Warren is a woman. Don’t you know that is a significant disqualifier, far worse than praising Castro or calling herself a socialist? The media is filled with men who are contemptuous of women as is the American voting public. Of course, Hillary did receive almost 3 million more votes than Trump, but what matters is the vote by state.

He knows. He’s calling out the double standard even in parts of the left that exist for Bernie and Warren.

101
lawhawk  Feb 25, 2020 • 12:59:38pm

So, we’re going to close out the trading day with another 900+ point loss. It’s another 3%+ loss. That’s more than 6% in 2 days.

Guess the markets aren’t liking what they’re hearing from Trumpworld and the economic concerns.

Trump continues to put his political needs above all else, so that means sending his team of liars out there to claim all is well.

102
Shropshire Slasher  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:00:19pm

re: #35 LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)

I have no idea. Something sinister is going on and I don’t like it at all.

I’m twirling my mustache as I type this.

103
The Ghost of a Flea  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:00:39pm
104
LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:04:24pm

re: #99 BeachDem

It’s every bit as real as Ivanka herself—i.e. a real picture of a totally bogus person

I think that’s the best description I’ve read of her. Her whole image is very manufactured. She’s the socially conspicuous one. The one who her father speaks the world of her and entrusts her and husband with tasks they are to put it kindly unqualified for. The one who posts positive tweets about empowered moms, happy families, etc. Yet the one who has never called her father out on his cruel and inhumane policies involving children.

105
goddamnedfrank  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:04:48pm
106
BeachDem  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:04:57pm

re: #76 ericblair

Good luck with that.

He’s working on it…

107
LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:05:01pm

re: #102 Shropshire Slasher

I’m twirling my mustache as I type this.

It’s curved I hope and feeling very British I trust.

108
Belafon  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:05:03pm

re: #96 makeitstop

I could see a conservative judge granting this just to make things worse.

109
GlutenFreeJesus  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:05:51pm

re: #99 BeachDem

110
The Ghost of a Flea  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:07:01pm

re: #104 LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)

I think that’s the best description I’ve read of her. Her whole image is very manufactured. She’s the socially conspicuous one. The one who her father speaks the world of her and entrusts her and husband with tasks they are to put it kindly unqualified for. The one who posts positive tweets about empowered moms, happy families, etc. Yet the one who has never called her father out on his cruel and inhumane policies involving children.

Behind every throne is an Instagram influencer, apparently.

ETA: In my reading/listening I’ve encountered several pieces about dictator’s kids, but specifically about dictator’s daughters. The latter tend to be deployed to soften the regime’s image, but doing nothing substantial…and if you dig into what they do otherwise, it’s exactly the same ruthless self-dealing.

111
GlutenFreeJesus  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:08:38pm

re: #106 BeachDem

112
retired cynic  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:09:24pm

WaPo In Cold War travels, Bernie Sanders found much to admire behind enemy lines. Now that’s a problem for his campaign.

A comment from 01SoCalGal:

This is perhaps the beginning of Sanders being properly vetted in the media. He wasn’t vetted at all at any time in the 2016 election - while Clinton was repeatedly raked over the coals. Not only is Sanders not a saint, but he’s a fraud as well. I’m waiting for the media to get around to taking a close look at Jane Sanders and Burlington College, and shedding some light on just what she did there. I know the college had to pay her $200k to get her to leave her VP position, but I’d like to know if (1) the reason Sanders didn’t release his taxes was because that $200k was going to show up and he’d have to explain it and (2) if that $200k was used to buy his cottage on 1000 Islands. I suppose both answers are yes. The last I heard little Burlington College went bankrupt, at least partially thanks to Jane Sanders and her poor judgment while VP of the school.

It was possible in 2016 to go online and find nuggets of info about Sanders - a lot of it casting doubt on his character and judgment - but the media wasn’t interested. So today we have the likes of Susan Sarandon and Michael Moore and Cornel West all blabbering about Sanders and his “great” victories at 2 low turnout ridiculous caucuses where Sanders supporters bullied and harassed other attendees. It makes me wonder if collectively this trio has any brains/smarts at all or if they really know Sanders hasn’t won much of anything yet and are just trying to jerk us around — making them just as fraudulent as he is.

His campaign is one huge turnoff not only for me but for almost every Dem voter I know. Not sure what Biden’s going to do, but Bloomberg isn’t fading away because he’s scared of Sanders. In fact, Bloomberg has the resources to uncover every little tidbit about Sanders , and he probably will. Sanders got away with it in 2016: history is not likely to repeat itself this time.

another comment:

Yeah Batista was such a shining light of compassion, caring, and liberal values. It’s a fact Castro brought literacy, medical care, and education. He broke up the big farms and plantations. Yes he did do a lot of good. Facts are facts. And lies are lies. Believing lies are facts do not make them so. Sanders is telling facts; his critics are telling lies.

113
Ace Rothstein  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:09:46pm

re: #11 lawhawk

I just heard 18 months. Fucking moron.

114
lawhawk  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:10:43pm

For those hoping for the sweet meteor of death, here’s a comparison video.

ASTEROIDS Size Comparison 🌑

115
jaunte  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:12:11pm

re: #99 BeachDem

a robust plan to expand skills-focused learning

Ask Ivanka for details, and watch the gears grind.

116
retired cynic  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:12:14pm

Oh, hey. I passed 30,000 karma sometime recently. As Anymouse would say, I would like to thank the Academy…

117
Hecuba's daughter  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:13:09pm

re: #101 lawhawk

So, we’re going to close out the trading day with another 900+ point loss. It’s another 3%+ loss. That’s more than 6% in 2 days.

Guess the markets aren’t liking what they’re hearing from Trumpworld and the economic concerns.

Trump continues to put his political needs above all else, so that means sending his team of liars out there to claim all is well.

[Embedded content]

The stock market meltdown would probably be happening regardless of anything Trumpworld did. Under a competent president, the preparedness team might be making a difference in the ultimate trajectory of the disease but that doesn’t mean the market would not have panicked under the possible scope of the pandemic. We didn’t have any influence over the beginning of this epidemic — and as long as the Chinese tried to conceal what was happening, it’s likely that the situation would have spiraled out of control anyway.

118
jaunte  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:13:10pm

“A pamphlet directing re-skilling workers to private providers of paid courses.”

119
jaunte  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:14:07pm

Sorry did I say pamphlet, I meant robust web-based marketing program.

120
NO SMOCKING GUN!  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:14:56pm

SMOD defeats coronavirus in a landslide! (Very limited sample).

121
LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:15:27pm

re: #112 retired cynic

WaPo In Cold War travels, Bernie Sanders found much to admire behind enemy lines. Now that’s a problem for his campaign.

A comment from 01SoCalGal:

another comment:

Batista was once a reformer too. The difference between the two is that he got corrupted by our influences and Cosa Nostra and of course power. Castro, however altruistic his initial ambitions may have been became a dictator too just on behalf of the Soviets. Yeah, I’ll be the first to say it, a lot of our Cold War policy was hypocritical but the other side of the coin was just as bad. The Soviets and Chinese did their share of political imperialism in the name of greater socialism.

122
jaunte  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:15:43pm

re: #120 NO SMOCKING GUN!

SMD brings novel space virus for armageddon combo platter.

123
Joe Bacon 🌹  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:16:22pm

re: #122 jaunte

SMD brings novel space virus for armageddon combo platter.

SMD will veer off because it doesn’t want to get sick.

124
lawhawk  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:17:13pm

re: #117 Hecuba’s daughter

We would have probably seen the markets take a more rational approach if the potus was warning that there’d be risks and that we’d need to account for them. We would probably have seen 200 point losses every few days over a few weeks, instead of 2000 points in 2 days. This plays as much on inertia and irrational behavior as anything.

125
I Would Prefer Not To  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:18:39pm

re: #43 calochortus

Karma would involve Trump getting COVID-19.

Why do you hate COVID-19 so much?

126
jaunte  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:20:41pm
127
retired cynic  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:21:21pm

thisiscolossal.com
thisiscolossal.com

These are two posts about the Blanket Octopus, a creature beyond belief! Only the female has the wonderful web that she can unfurl. She can be up to 6 feet. The poor male is less than an inch in size, and usually dies after mating. Both posts have lovely video as the unfurling happens and the color changes from blue to purple. Amazing.

128
LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:24:34pm

re: #127 retired cynic

thisiscolossal.com
thisiscolossal.com

These are two posts about the Blanket Octopus, a creature beyond belief! Only the female has the wonderful web that she can unfurl. She can be up to 6 feet. The poor male is less than an inch in size, and usually dies after mating. Both posts have lovely video as the unfurling happens and the color changes from blue to purple. Amazing.

[Embedded content]

They ain’t wrong when they say the seas are as much a final frontier as space. That’s quite the contrast in physiological characteristics between male and female. I’ve always found the oceans fascinating.

129
goddamnedfrank  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:26:39pm
130
retired cynic  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:27:12pm

re: #128 LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)

They ain’t wrong when they say the seas are as much a final frontier as space. That’s quite the contrast in physiological characteristics between male and female. I’ve always found the oceans fascinating.

And we KNOW there is life there!

131
calochortus  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:27:14pm

re: #125 I Would Prefer Not To

Why do you hate COVID-19 so much?

Oh, I don’t know. Because it’s an unpleasant disease?
Or maybe because I’m in the middle of a bout of some random virus and wish to take it out on all virus-kind.

I tried to convince my daughter that coronavirus was running rampant at my granddaughter’s daycare (said granddaughter being the disease vector) but for some reason she didn’t seem to think it was coronavirus. Possibly because it’s a silly idea. Possibly because I didn’t get a fever. Who knows?

132
LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:29:06pm

re: #130 retired cynic

And we KNOW there is life there!

Exactly. I’m also fascinated by shipwrecks too. I’m not against NASA’s mission. It’s great. It’s just the oceans have always caught my imagination in a way space hasn’t. Plus I think exploring the seas could help us with a lot of environmental issues.

133
lawhawk  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:29:42pm
134
LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:30:00pm

re: #129 goddamnedfrank

And it’s something every American citizen has the potential to be. It’s such a disgusting yet typical attack from this crew.

135
Belafon  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:32:22pm

re: #133 lawhawk

We’ve got people who think lazy immigrants are taking their jobs, and others who think vaccinations are bad, so, even though I’m an optimist, I’m just not seeing the sober acceptance of risk.

What if the coronavirus is what happens when stupid people infect the flu?

136
retired cynic  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:35:17pm

Charlie Pierce: I Went Over to City Hall This Afternoon and Voted for Elizabeth Warren for President

But one of the ways she could get at [Sanders’] support without undermining the ideas they have in common would be to marry her anti-corruption programs to the notion that she could get them carried out while he could not. That’s the one policy chop she has that Sanders doesn’t. He believes that he can bum-rush his healthcare plan into law by applying outside pressure on the members of Congress who would have to vote for it. That is likely to be ineffective at persuading Mitch McConnell and his majority to go along. (Want to see those impeachment poll numbers again?) That is pure movement politics, and while valuable and fun to watch, it is no more suited to the historical moment than Biden’s Dad jokes are. That’s the finesse play for SPW if she wants to take it, and it’s also another reason why I voted for her.

137
goddamnedfrank  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:35:54pm

I …

138
Belafon  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:36:11pm

Part of me wonders if we’re in a world war, the problem being that it’s not between countries, but more like one giant civil war.

139
Charles Johnson  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:36:23pm
140
LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:38:48pm

re: #138 Belafon

Part of me wonders if we’re in a world war, the problem being that it’s not between countries, but more like one giant civil war.

That’s literally what a pogrom was like. But thankfully there are good people that care more about their shared humanity than tribalism. Need to watch that thing on Modi now, thanks.

141
goddamnedfrank  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:45:39pm

One of my dumber notions lately is maybe driving around in my SGE 400/3 gas mask just to see people’s reactions.

142
retired cynic  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:46:15pm

Juanita Jean: Here’s My Deal

Short but worth reading in entirety.

I want to make it perfectly clear that I like Bernie Sanders personally. I’ve had several opportunities over the years of being able to sit down with him and talk in small groups of three or four. A long time real life friend of mine was Bernie’s campaign treasurer for his senate campaigns for years and years. I like Bernie personally and I think he has some great ideas. …

This time they hired [as campaing manager in TX] a notoriously lazy guy who is unable to raise money, and who has run in four races all in a row and lost them all except the first one where he won by 100 votes in an 8,000 vote contest. The rest he generally came in a distant third. Why would you hired that guy? It scares me think who he’d hire for Secretary of State.

143
Flying Squirrel Girl  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:48:55pm

re: #136 retired cynic

I went during my lunch hour today and proudly cast my vote for Warren. :)

144
LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:50:30pm

re: #142 retired cynic

Juanita Jean: Here’s My Deal

Short but worth reading in entirety.

His staff just does not impress me and I don’t trust him to have a capable team. Of course, I’ll vote for him but there’s a lot about a potential President Sanders that concerns me in way I do not the others.

145
goddamnedfrank  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:51:18pm

I’m in for Warren too, on the theory that it’s a fucking primary so gotta go with the most capable person still running.

146
Hecuba's daughter  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:52:29pm

re: #138 Belafon

[Embedded content]

Part of me wonders if we’re in a world war, the problem being that it’s not between countries, but more like one giant civil war.

Some of the responses on Twitter say that this is a video from 2017 and not a current picture of what is happening.

147
goddamnedfrank  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:54:02pm

Glad to see someone is focused on the real problem

148
NO SMOCKING GUN!  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:54:35pm

re: #133 lawhawk

[Embedded content]

Based on the numbers in this article, with a 2% fatality rate, covid-19 could kill up to 100 million people worldwide.

149
Charles Johnson  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:55:03pm
150
Belafon  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:55:48pm

re: #146 Hecuba’s daughter

Some of the responses on Twitter say that this is a video from 2017 and not a current picture of what is happening.

OK. I still wonder if what we’re witnessing is the ultimate good vs. evil story, one that has stretched all the away around the world, and is ignoring the traditional boundaries.

151
retired cynic  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:57:24pm

Two by Nancy LeTourneau in Washington Monthly. First, On Election Interference, We’re Flying Blind
We can no longer believe anything that comes from the people who are supposed to protect our national security.

This also applies to pandemic response, of course!

The National Security apparatus is now working to walk back the briefing to Congress on Russian interference, using the same language AG Barr used …

when he mischaracterized the Mueller report by saying that the 2016 Russian efforts were designed to ‘sow discord among American voters.’ He completely left out the fact that the report clearly stated that the interference was an effort to disparage Clinton and support Trump.

Trump is doing the same thing to the intelligence community that he has done to the Department of Justice: turning it into nothing more than a political institution to support him and attack his enemies.

152
LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:57:38pm

re: #150 Belafon

OK. I still wonder if what we’re witnessing is the ultimate good vs. evil story, one that has stretched all the away around the world, and is ignoring the traditional boundaries.

thewire.in

I don’t know how valid this site is but it’s an Indian one as you can see. These are scary times. It’s a lot like the nationalism that sparked the first world war.

153
jaunte  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:57:49pm
154
retired cynic  Feb 25, 2020 • 1:59:56pm

re: #151 retired cynic

Second: Why Is Trump Attacking Justice Sotomayor?
Her name is in the news just as calls are being made for Justice Thomas to recuse himself.

The reason Trump is on the attack against liberal Supreme Court justices probably has more to do with a case that is being made against Justice Clarence Thomas. As we’ve seen, the president is in the midst of a purge of federal employees who don’t demonstrate enough loyalty to him. Jonathan Swan reported that Ginni Thomas—the wife of Clarence Thomas—has been deeply involved in lobbying on behalf of a purge, providing the administration with lists of who needs to go as well as potential replacements.

In response, there have been calls for Thomas to recuse himself on matters related to Trump and his administration. Trump’s call for Sotomayor and Ginsberg to recuse themselves is not only a way to further politicize the Supreme Court; it also provides his media enablers with a distraction from the issues surrounding Thomas and the ability to pretend that both sides do it.

155
jaunte  Feb 25, 2020 • 2:00:32pm
“reading news related to Trump and presidential politics during the trial”

Apparently this now disqualifies anyone from being on Team Trump.

156
Eclectic Cyborg  Feb 25, 2020 • 2:02:50pm

re: #153 jaunte

I really like Judge Jackson.

157
#thegreatpoolpondconversion (dangerman)  Feb 25, 2020 • 2:03:20pm

re: #155 jaunte

Apparently this now disqualifies anyone from being on Team Trump.

“reading news related to Trump and presidential politics during the trial

interesting that they dont make the claim that this was anti-trump news.
only ‘related’.

158
jaunte  Feb 25, 2020 • 2:06:11pm
159
Chrysicat  Feb 25, 2020 • 2:06:13pm

re: #138 Belafon

[Embedded content]

Part of me wonders if we’re in a world war, the problem being that it’s not between countries, but more like one giant civil war.

161
FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt'n😷Trips  Feb 25, 2020 • 2:10:36pm
162
Jebediah, RBG  Feb 25, 2020 • 2:11:49pm

re: #96 makeitstop

[Embedded content]

Fuck Sanders. Wanna run as a Dem? Join the fucking party. Or fuck off.

163
Belafon  Feb 25, 2020 • 2:12:30pm

re: #160 gocart mozart

[Embedded content]

Today would have been Harrison’s 78th birthday.

164
Shiplord Kirel, Friend of Moose and Squirrel  Feb 25, 2020 • 2:14:17pm

Remembering our allies is a preoccupation of mine.
Approximately 61,000 Australian military personnel served in Vietnam. 521 were KIA, about 3,000 were WIA.
Military history of Australia during the Vietnam War

Australian soldiers from 7 RAR waiting to be picked up by US Army helicopters following a cordon and search operation near Phước Hải on 26 August 1967. This image is etched on the Vietnam Forces National Memorial, Canberra.

165
Eclectic Cyborg  Feb 25, 2020 • 2:21:42pm

re: #163 Belafon

Today would have been Harrison’s 78th birthday.

Underrated musician IMO.

166
jaunte  Feb 25, 2020 • 2:23:28pm

re: #163 Belafon

Today would have been Harrison’s 78th birthday.

The only ex-Beatle I ever saw live. Buying shoes at the Beverly Center.

167
LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)  Feb 25, 2020 • 2:24:00pm

re: #165 Eclectic Cyborg

Underrated musician IMO.

My favorite Beatle and Traveling Wilbury.

168
Dr. Matt  Feb 25, 2020 • 2:24:11pm

re: #43 calochortus

Karma would involve Trump getting COVID-19.

Now that’s MAGA.

169
William Lewis  Feb 25, 2020 • 2:26:47pm

re: #164 Shiplord Kirel, Friend of Moose and Squirrel

Remembering our allies is a preoccupation of mine.

Likewise. Up here right now, Cadet Bonespurs is screwing as many of our Laotian/Hmong veterans and families as possible. < spit >

170
FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt'n😷Trips  Feb 25, 2020 • 2:27:13pm
171
The Ghost of a Flea  Feb 25, 2020 • 2:27:34pm
Part of me wonders if we’re in a world war, the problem being that it’s not between countries, but more like one giant civil war.

I don’t mean to be dark, but…

We’re in a giant pogrom.

There are a small number of people with a lot of power, intent on consolidating what they have and grasping more.

They’ve created, and are further elaborating, a series of cultural, and political structures that explain the results of their abuse of power as caused by outside forces. If you want to get what I mean, go start paying attention to how often rightists talk about “lack of gratitude” as the primary failing of the poor, the young, and the vocally critical…and how all other social ills emanate from a “lack of gratitude.” The subtext is: there are authority figures that must be supplicated, and that is the natural order. Indeed, there’s a utilitarian argument wedded to a sense of natural hierarchy: the greatest good comes from letting the people who already have power continue to have power unquestioned. Some make this argument cynically, others actually believe it. Most, though, rehearse that it is true and attempt to shut down doubts…both their own and those of others.

Previously it was to use whataboutism and talk about gaps in the system: people starve worldwide under capitalism because logistics, we can’t do it all…not because markets will not give what it think it can sell or write off. For a long time, they’ve used the cultural value of self-directed charity to individualize the same problems: well, regular people don’t give enough, so people starve, pay no attention to the vast pools of capital and resources who could give.

You can see these two things: whataboutism and individualization…used as rhetorical “outs” in every single issue that faces nations and the planet as a whole, precisely to deflect attention away from the people who have an outsize part of the blame (because they have all the power) and would pay an outsize part of a “fair” distributed cost to solve any of these problems.

All the while, they’ve created an financial and political system in which their capital can freely move, evading penalties and taxation that are hard manifestation of participation in the general welfare. They sponge off the successes of society at large, but believe that it is offensive that they called to see other society members as equal in dignity. They are happy to participate in ways that reinforce their sense of inherent worth: charity, so long as gratitude is performed. And they’re accelerating their sponging as they go along.

Thing is, shit’s getting worse for everyone else, since even the “good” plans to fix real problems implicitly include the proviso “…but we won’t acknowledge that all the capital and power we have means we have the power to fix it, because we cannot be the problem and what we have is ours and not for sharing.” The indices of desperation are rising, the criticisms getting louder.

We have watched rich people create counterfeit entire social structures to control criticism:

- declare the axiom of their right to continuing power
- reassert the inherent morality of their accumulation of power.
- invalidate criticism
- shift blame

Which is why we have fake science done by real scientists in real institutes that assemble journals that look like they’re legit. Which is why we have demonstrably-inaccurate economics taught, and why religions suddenly have new powerful denominations that praise power and money. Give a choice between any standard of “truth” that could lead to criticism, or authority and power that could check theirs, the powerful have chosen to subvert all truth entirely. If these people wore crowns, they would be recognizable as the kind of fool kings that appoint advisors that feed just their hubris and venality.

But now we’re at the point where alarms are going off, shit is still getting worse, and the desperation is screaming high.

So they’re going to do what kings used to do: kill critics to deal with specific criticisms and create scapegoats to fend off general antagonism.

We’re seeing worldwide is the latter.

172
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Feb 25, 2020 • 2:28:41pm

re: #171 The Ghost of a Flea

And here I thought I was the pessimist on this board…

173
Dr. Matt  Feb 25, 2020 • 2:29:44pm

Cue up some Huey Lewis and the News:

Gotta get back in time!

174
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Feb 25, 2020 • 2:30:20pm

We should note that religious strife on the Indian subcontinent is a very old thing.

It really is telling about us humans, how we cling to outdated notions just in order to identify with a group.

Because we need to be in a group.

Because we are social animals.

175
retired cynic  Feb 25, 2020 • 2:31:04pm

re: #167 LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)

My favorite Beatle and Traveling Wilbury.

Mine, too. Although I have learned to love them all as time has passed.

176
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Feb 25, 2020 • 2:32:07pm

re: #173 Dr. Matt

Yup, the whole stock market rally of the past few months, which was exploited by Trump as one of his achievements, has unraveled.

177
#thegreatpoolpondconversion (dangerman)  Feb 25, 2020 • 2:32:19pm

re: #160 gocart mozart

[Embedded content]

also cut by
delaney and bonnie (and friends)
David bromberg
Keb mo

178
#thegreatpoolpondconversion (dangerman)  Feb 25, 2020 • 2:33:02pm

re: #166 jaunte

The only ex-Beatle I ever saw live. Buying shoes at the Beverly Center.

i saw that concert too //

179
LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)  Feb 25, 2020 • 2:34:32pm

The economy becoming an issue. He may try something desperate.

180
jaunte  Feb 25, 2020 • 2:34:40pm

Texas Republican proves more money buys the court.

181
EPR-radar  Feb 25, 2020 • 2:36:44pm

re: #171 The Ghost of a Flea

You may want to consider synthesizing your observations and thinking along these lines and seeking a wider audience for it. IMO it’s of publishable quality, although the exact issues you identify suggest that actually getting it published will not be so easy.

182
EPR-radar  Feb 25, 2020 • 2:38:10pm

re: #179 LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)

The economy becoming an issue. He may try something desperate.

Honestly, I’m surprised Trump hasn’t started his reelection war yet. Perhaps that’s the only kind of official malfeasance he’s not into.

183
LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)  Feb 25, 2020 • 2:39:18pm

re: #182 EPR-radar

Honestly, I’m surprised Trump hasn’t started his reelection war yet. Perhaps that’s the only kind of official malfeasance he’s not into.

Well war means people would have to sacrifice. His whole big thing is portraying himself as the ultimate savior when it comes to prosperity which is why he repeatedly brags about the economic numbers.

184
retired cynic  Feb 25, 2020 • 2:43:36pm

re: #180 jaunte

Really good article. Thanks!

185
jaunte  Feb 25, 2020 • 2:45:48pm

re: #184 retired cynic

This part:

“…Abraham would’ve liked to share his numbers earlier. But he has always been a Republican, and for a while he was willing to stay in line. He said Republican leaders “at the highest level” asked him to sit on his findings, assuring him that a push on judicial selection would come during the 2019 session of the Texas Legislature. They warned that his figures would embarrass Republican judges ahead of an election.”

186
jaunte  Feb 25, 2020 • 2:46:22pm

Transparency hurts Republicans.

187
LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)  Feb 25, 2020 • 2:46:52pm

re: #186 jaunte

Transparency hurts Republicans.

So does truth.

188
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Feb 25, 2020 • 2:46:52pm

re: #171 The Ghost of a Flea

One thing lacking in our public discourse are serious critiques of the United States as a nation-state. We are always trumpeted as a success, because we have the biggest military, biggest national GDP, etc.

Conceptually it is not hard to show that “success” can be defined in many ways. But in our daily discourse, like even today with the equity markets crashing, we cast “success” in terms of monetary value.

And we use monetary value to provide a ranking system, of how to rank each member in our society.

One of the great failures of marxism in my lifetime has been a lack of really addressing the 21st century, instead trying to relive the battles of the 19th century.

Today we must deal with a world that is highly interconnected, and this brings about a complexity that is lost on so many ideologues.

189
The Ghost of a Flea  Feb 25, 2020 • 2:50:43pm

I grew up partly in India-Pakistan. I studied genocide in college because of the Hindu-Muslim conflict, both the Partition but also things like the Ayodha mosque, which was always the backdrop to talking with my older aunties and uncles.

Which is both why I’m the kind of pessimist I am—a childhood full of colonialism, caste, watching the gulf between opulence and poverty, alongside people in developed countries telling me it was simply natural that the people who were still being exploited as cheap labor in international markets were just trapped by some force that wasn’t “the British destroyed this region’s wealth and stability and now we pay them as little as possible,” as though it’s a mystery…

…but also why I specifically reject the idea that this kind of violence can be generalized as “this is continuous with the past and thus understandable.”

Remembering is an active process. The past isn’t materially real anymore: to anybody who didn’t live it, it’s just a narrative. When someone comes along and tells a story about the past to explain the present, they curate the past. When someone curates the past to create strong (but shallow) emotions about an aspect of the past, that’s a choice made in the present. When listeners incorporate that strong emotion into their worldview, as a source of understanding of why they’re in pain and who they should be mad at, that’s a choice made in the present.

And I don’t think it should be ignored that it is people with more power, be that just wealth or social/political/cultural capital, generally have the ability to dictate the terms of narratives, and I don’t think it should be ignored that most people are ignorant of the processes of culture and are naive consumers of what is laid down by authority figures.

And it isn’t just about “belonging.” It’s about how people don’t know how to fix their lives or deal with confusion, and seek out answers for themselves, inside themselves. Group membership is about believing a set of answers, about an internal feeling of ease that informs your choices because agreement is a source of verismilitude (or rump validity)…so when someone comes along and says “the new answer to the question is…hate those fuckers over there,” group membership is the medium of transmission but not the malady.

190
Chrysicat  Feb 25, 2020 • 2:55:36pm

re: #167 LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)

My favorite Beatle and Traveling Wilbury.

Beatle, yes.

Wilbury, I’m sorry but it has to be Orbison.

191
LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)  Feb 25, 2020 • 2:56:28pm

re: #190 Chrysicat

Beatle, yes.

Wilbury, I’m sorry but it has to be Orbison.

I am on record of loving Roy more than Elvis.

192
William Lewis  Feb 25, 2020 • 2:59:30pm

re: #190 Chrysicat

Beatle, yes.

Wilbury, I’m sorry but it has to be Orbison.

Tom Petty.

193
LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)  Feb 25, 2020 • 3:00:05pm

re: #192 William Lewis

Tom Petty.

I miss him too.

194
Joe Bacon 🌹  Feb 25, 2020 • 3:02:54pm

re: #191 LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)

I am on record of loving Roy more than Elvis.

Remember seeing Roy’s last concert at the old Ambassador Hotel “A Black And White Night” just before he died. Damn that man could sing!

195
LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)  Feb 25, 2020 • 3:04:35pm

re: #194 Joe Bacon 🌹

Remember seeing Roy’s last concert at the old Ambassador Hotel “A Black And White Night” just before he died. Damn that man could sing!

That’s a great live album. It’s on my old iPod Classic and my phone.

196
Barefoot Grin  Feb 25, 2020 • 3:05:53pm

A guy I worked with in a restaurant in Champaign, Il claimed to have seen George Harrison in Carbondale when the co-worker was a student at Southern Illinois University. He said that Harrison had a sister who married an American GI and moved to the area. The general story checks out, but I’ll bet there are thousands of “I saw George in small-town southern Illinois stories.”

197
Joe Bacon 🌹  Feb 25, 2020 • 3:06:34pm

re: #195 LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)

That’s a great live album. It’s on my old iPod Classic and my phone.

I got to see him live at the taping. One of a kind who we’ll never see the likes of again.

198
LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)  Feb 25, 2020 • 3:08:20pm

re: #197 Joe Bacon 🌹

I got to see him live at the taping. One of a kind who we’ll never see the likes of again.

Yeah there was no one else like Roy before or since.

199
retired cynic  Feb 25, 2020 • 3:09:08pm

re: #196 Barefoot Grin

A guy I worked with in a restaurant in Champaign, Il claimed to have seen George Harrison in Carbondale when the co-worker was a student at Southern Illinois University. He said that Harrison had a sister who married an American GI and moved to the area. The general story checks out, but I’ll bet there are thousands of “I saw George in small-town southern Illinois stories.”

He did used to come visit her. I used to dream of seeing him, but I lived in Mt Vernon at the time, and he never came there, and I wasn’t a fan enough to try to pursue him when he was visiting family. I think most people in southern IL just gave him room. There were interviews while he was there…

200
Barefoot Grin  Feb 25, 2020 • 3:10:18pm

re: #199 retired cynic

He did used to come visit her. I used to dream of seeing him, but I lived in Mt Vernon at the time, and he never came there, and I wasn’t a fan enough to try to pursue him when he was visiting family. I think most people in southern IL just gave him room. There were interviews while he was there…

That’s very cool!

201
LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)  Feb 25, 2020 • 3:10:23pm

re: #196 Barefoot Grin

A guy I worked with in a restaurant in Champaign, Il claimed to have seen George Harrison in Carbondale when the co-worker was a student at Southern Illinois University. He said that Harrison had a sister who married an American GI and moved to the area. The general story checks out, but I’ll bet there are thousands of “I saw George in small-town southern Illinois stories.”

Yeah I bet a lot of people have stories like that. And yep his older sister moved to the US. I’ve seen footage of him reuniting with her when the Beatles first toured the US. Really feel like watching the Scorsese documentary on him tonight now. I’ve always enjoyed his music.

202
Barefoot Grin  Feb 25, 2020 • 3:11:47pm

re: #201 LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)

Yeah I bet a lot of people have stories like that. And yep his older sister moved to the US. I’ve seen footage of him reuniting with her when the Beatles first toured the US. Really feel like watching the Scorsese documentary on him tonight now. I’ve always enjoyed his music.

It’s very good. I like that he spent some of his last years simply moving dirt from one place to another.

203
LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)  Feb 25, 2020 • 3:12:46pm

re: #202 Barefoot Grin

It’s very good. I like that he spent some of his last years simply moving dirt from one place to another.

Yeah I really think I’d rather watch that then the debate tonight. I’m increasingly finding solace in music during these times.

204
#thegreatpoolpondconversion (dangerman)  Feb 25, 2020 • 3:16:55pm

hey boys and girls,

if you’ve been following thegreatpoolpondconversion —————————->
(you all have been right?)

the liner arrived today.

stay tuned, more to come.

206
FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt'n😷Trips  Feb 25, 2020 • 3:18:13pm
208
FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt'n😷Trips  Feb 25, 2020 • 3:20:53pm
209
Patricia Kayden  Feb 25, 2020 • 3:27:03pm
210
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Feb 25, 2020 • 3:29:26pm

re: #189 The Ghost of a Flea

It will be something to see, how we work out the next few decades, because the momentum we’ve set up in our societies is going to take us to some very ugly places.

You write of India - one thing to note is that climate change will hit India hard not just because they are already well beyond the carrying capacity of the land, but because the temperatures will rise to a point where human habitation becomes quite difficult. Note that in the hottest spots here in the US - the low desert of California - have only been habitable because of massive water and cooling (electricity) infrastructure. Without these technological advances humans couldn’t live there.

It is troubling to see so many nations run after strong men (not just Trump but a whole set of bad actors). I suspect this is due to some growing fears but I don’t think we can easily list them. The fear of the “other” is real but we’re dealing with more than that here. We are dealing with how we view ourselves - what I call the worldview collapse.

When I read what our DHS units are doing, especially ICE, I think we have regressed backwards quite a bit. That so many Americans now cheer brutality as a policy ought to be disturbing.

211
makeitstop  Feb 25, 2020 • 3:30:00pm

re: #196 Barefoot Grin

A guy I worked with in a restaurant in Champaign, Il claimed to have seen George Harrison in Carbondale when the co-worker was a student at Southern Illinois University. He said that Harrison had a sister who married an American GI and moved to the area. The general story checks out, but I’ll bet there are thousands of “I saw George in small-town southern Illinois stories.”

That’s true. He came over to the US a year before Beatlemania hit here, hung out in Illinois and bought a Rickenbacker 12 string while here. Rolling Stone included it in an article today.

The Beatles had exploded on the British scene by September 1963 thanks to a string of Number One hits and a chart-topping debut album, Please Please Me. Flush with their newfound success after years of toiling in obscurity, they decided it was time for some much needed R&R. John Lennon took his then-wife Cynthia to Paris, while Paul McCartney opted for the sunny shores of Greece. Ringo Starr had originally planned on joining Harrison on his trip across the pond, but ultimately decided to travel with McCartney instead. So on September 16th, Harrison became the first Beatle to touch down on American soil, accompanied by his older brother, Peter.

The pair stayed at their elder sister Louise “Lou” Caldwell’s home at 113 McCann Street in Benton, Illinois, where she had recently immigrated with her husband Gordon, an engineer at a nearby coal mine. The quiet town was a welcome respite for Harrison, who dreaded dealing with the hassles of “Beatlemania” raging back home in Britain. In the States, he could come and go as he pleased, moving freely with total anonymity. The siblings spent several happy nights camping at the Shawnee National Forest. They even ate at a burger joint, where a fascinated Harrison gaped at the sight of waitresses on roller skates.

Louise introduced Harrison to her friend Gabe McCarty, an employee at the local dry cleaner who worked nights in a band called the Four Vests. The two musicians hit it off, and McCarty became Harrison’s guide for much of his stay in Benton. They visited the town’s only record store, where Harrison gleefully snapped up a stack of albums and singles. “I bought Booker T and the M.G.’s’ first album, Green Onions, and I bought some Bobby Bland, [and] all kind of things,” he says in the Anthology. He also purchased a record called “Got My Mind Set on You” by James Ray, which he would cover almost 25 years later.

212
EPR-radar  Feb 25, 2020 • 3:30:09pm

re: #209 Patricia Kayden

Republicans have been screaming about Marxism/socialism/communism in the US longer than any of us have been alive.

213
The Ghost of a Flea  Feb 25, 2020 • 3:31:25pm

re: #188 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

One of the great failures of marxism in my lifetime has been a lack of really addressing the 21st century, instead trying to relive the battles of the 19th century.

Today we must deal with a world that is highly interconnected, and this brings about a complexity that is lost on so many ideologues.

Okay, so one of the things that makes me insane is that no capitalist ideology addresses the reality of the 20th century or the 21st century, yet it’s the framework we’re supposed to accept when delivering critique, but Marxism’s prescriptive failures are used to invalidate his descriptive work. “Capitalism versus Marxism” is a false comparison, since the latter is bounded by being by one guy who wrote several books*, while “capitalism” is a vague cloud of ideas and theorems such that it can never be wrong because one can just sift the cloud for another interpretation. Specific capitalist theorems, like supply-side, are conceptual geckos: when caught failing, they just shed a part, escape, and re-grow the same damn appendage.

And…again, prejudiced by growing up in the developing world…capitalism also has an aggressively revisionist narrative not just in the USA, but worldwide. The denial that mercantilism and colonialism created the capital holdings that permitted the transition to a “free market,” the obvious coordination between “free trade” capital and political institutions in the post-colonial era to create a different kind of power-imbalanced trade, the direct military and espionage involvement in creating international trade by suppressing local resistance, the outright theft. The idea of “capitalism” of whatever stripe creating freedom is sustained entirely by erasing how comfortably and easily wealthy individuals and wealth-pooling institutions like banks and corporations are with tyrannies.

The irony of the modern interconnected world is that people in the developed world are shocked and disillusioned because they’re suffering, and their suffering is being excused by the exact same rhetoric that previously excused the suffering of people in far off places. There’s not a thing happening in the US labor market that wasn’t tested on poor people in the developed world first. And it’s happening because the cloud of capitalism isn’t questioned, and it’s history is so carefully curated that people unthinkingly attribute freedoms won through resisting capital…labor rights, even civil rights, union contracts…as triumphs of capitalism itself.

The concept endures not because it is solid, but because it is empty.

Which is why Marxism is a comparative failure: it is solid. It says specific things about a specific time, making claims that can be tested and propositions that can fail. It failed in application for dissectable, understandable reasons. I’m not up on them, but there’s a ton of Neo-Marxists who try to address those flaws. Post-modernists, too.

* eta: I changed “one book” to several books. While I was thinking of the Communist Manifesto, Capital and his other works addressed the same subject. My bad.

214
EPR-radar  Feb 25, 2020 • 3:35:15pm

re: #210 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus


When I read what our DHS units are doing, especially ICE, I think we have regressed backwards quite a bit. That so many Americans now cheer brutality as a policy ought to be disturbing.

Among many other things, the Trump era has put an end to the profoundly stupid idea that “it can’t happen here” in the US.

But the worldwide nature of these political aberrations is also important. Any one nation/empire can sink into political madness, usually when its ruling class decides personal greed is a higher priority than nation/empire building.

But for the whole world to do this all at once is something different, with few precedents. Worldwide fascism in the first part of the 20th century may be the best available point of comparison.

215
makeitstop  Feb 25, 2020 • 3:36:20pm

re: #205 gocart mozart

[Embedded content]

Video

Kim Shattuck passed away not too long ago. Of all the female rockers, she was definitely among the most cool.

216
#thegreatpoolpondconversion (dangerman)  Feb 25, 2020 • 3:36:56pm

ronny jackson, md is the the doctor on the lipozene commercials
(no not literally)….

217
EPR-radar  Feb 25, 2020 • 3:37:04pm

re: #213 The Ghost of a Flea


The irony of the modern interconnected world is that people in the developed world are shocked and disillusioned because they’re suffering, and their suffering is being excused by the exact same rhetoric that previously excused the suffering of people in far off places. There’s not a thing happening in the US labor market that wasn’t tested on poor people in the developed world first. And it’s happening because the cloud of capitalism isn’t questioned, and it’s history is so carefully curated that people unthinkingly attribute freedoms won through resisting capital…labor rights, even civil rights, union contracts…as triumphs of capitalism itself.

The concept endures not because it is solid, but because it is empty.

This. 10,000x this.

218
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Feb 25, 2020 • 3:42:36pm

re: #213 The Ghost of a Flea

I criticize marxists because they want to sell their ideas as the antidote to the bad side effects of capitalism.

But if you’re going to sell me an antidote, then I want it to really be an antidote, not just the hope that it’s an antidote.

Here is a difficult problem that creationists have with evolution: creationists often ask why this or that particular trait exists, as said traits appear to be designed, and said creationists then dismiss evolution.

The underlying misconception is the belief that evolution has to have an end goal, that evolution somehow implies improvement.

I’m afraid that this is a difficult thing to accept, but perhaps there is no ideal means of living as humans, we just exist and change a little bit here and there.

I’m not proposing inaction in the face of wrongdoings. But where I’m at today is that I just want to see specific issues addressed as they come up. In our US today that means funding the social safety nets properly, which implies we have to raise taxes, which have been lowered (by offering dubious promises) the past four decades.

So I’ve give up on the idea of paradise. All I want is to see the most important problems addressed. Which again, in my opinion for the US in 2020, is fully funding our social safety nets.

219
Dread Pirate  Feb 25, 2020 • 3:44:15pm
220
retired cynic  Feb 25, 2020 • 3:45:59pm

re: #219 Dread Pirate

He cannot tell the truth. It’s built in.

221
Shiplord Kirel, Friend of Moose and Squirrel  Feb 25, 2020 • 3:47:22pm

Evil degenerates have once again assaulted this revered art work.

Lubbock’s Sinclair dinosaur was shot - same dinosaur that was vandalized before

Last year the same dino was abducted, tortured, mutilated and dumped in a dry playa lake.
Stolen dinosaur recovered in Lubbock Co. playa lake

The dinosaur’s feet were cut off, its throat was cut, and someone painted the eyes to make them look like they were bleeding.

Dino History, Sinclair Oil

222
gocart mozart  Feb 25, 2020 • 3:49:03pm
223
Quoth the raven, Covfefe.  Feb 25, 2020 • 3:49:46pm

Evening Lizardim.

224
FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt'n😷Trips  Feb 25, 2020 • 3:50:08pm
225
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Feb 25, 2020 • 3:51:57pm

re: #221 Shiplord Kirel, Friend of Moose and Squirrel

The Anti-Dino movement is in full swing in Texas?

226
Dread Pirate  Feb 25, 2020 • 3:52:03pm
227
Eclectic Cyborg  Feb 25, 2020 • 3:52:10pm

re: #224 FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt’n😷Trips

Sure, let’s ignore the threat posed by a dangerous disease.

What could possibly go wrong?

///

228
FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt'n😷Trips  Feb 25, 2020 • 3:53:44pm
229
calochortus  Feb 25, 2020 • 3:54:32pm

re: #227 Eclectic Cyborg

Sure, let’s ignore the threat posed by a dangerous disease.

What could possibly go wrong?

///

Compare the minor risk of illness and death to the horror of dropping market indices and you’ll have your answer.
//

230
Eclectic Cyborg  Feb 25, 2020 • 3:56:53pm

re: #229 calochortus

Compare the minor risk of illness and death to the horror of dropping market indices and you’ll have your answer.
//

I wonder if stocks would jump if Trump announced meaningful action on the Coronavirus?

231
unproven innocence  Feb 25, 2020 • 4:00:18pm

re: #230 Eclectic Cyborg

I wonder if stocks would jump if Trump announced meaningful action on the Coronavirus?

Jump up or down? /

232
Quoth the raven, Covfefe.  Feb 25, 2020 • 4:00:46pm

re: #231 unproven innocence

Jump up or down? /

The Great Leap Forward Downward.

233
Dread Pirate  Feb 25, 2020 • 4:02:17pm
234
calochortus  Feb 25, 2020 • 4:03:10pm

re: #230 Eclectic Cyborg

I wonder if stocks would jump if Trump announced meaningful action on the Coronavirus?

I wouldn’t think so, at least not much. I suspect the biggest problem is supply chains being disrupted and that is international. Although I noticed a couple Freepers becoming positively giddy at the idea that we would return a lot of manufacturing to the US because we’re so much more reliable.

235
EPR-radar  Feb 25, 2020 • 4:03:50pm

re: #224 FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt’n😷Trips

This motherfucking turd is fucking up US pandemic preparedness for his loathsome fucking reelection campaign.

May Trump contract a singularly revolting and painful disease that take 20 years of agony to kill him.

236
Barefoot Grin  Feb 25, 2020 • 4:05:34pm

That’s the conundrum now for this administration on anything. They no longer get the benefit of the doubt. Even if somehow someone got to Trump and somehow convinced him that he should quickly re-establish the office and personnel with expertise that was created to deal with such things, no one would believe it was good-faith and above-politics in action.

237
Patricia Kayden  Feb 25, 2020 • 4:06:30pm

Whoa. I thought this was already a law.

238
EPR-radar  Feb 25, 2020 • 4:11:08pm

re: #237 Patricia Kayden

Unanimous vote in the Senate. Interesting. I wonder if the Orange piece of Shit will veto this.

240
Dread Pirate  Feb 25, 2020 • 4:18:30pm
242
LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)  Feb 25, 2020 • 4:22:41pm

re: #238 EPR-radar

Unanimous vote in the Senate. Interesting. I wonder if the Orange piece of Shit will veto this.

I think he will but he won’t give Booker and Harris credit.

243
Charles Johnson  Feb 25, 2020 • 4:23:23pm
244
Quoth the raven, Covfefe.  Feb 25, 2020 • 4:23:37pm

re: #238 EPR-radar

Unanimous vote in the Senate. Interesting. I wonder if the Orange piece of Shit will veto this.

He will just because of the author.

245
Colère Tueur de Lapin  Feb 25, 2020 • 4:24:35pm

re: #235 EPR-radar

Want him gone from this mortal coil much sooner….

246
The Ghost of a Flea  Feb 25, 2020 • 4:28:54pm

re: #218 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

Academic Marxism is a toolset not an antidote. When I write, I freely use Marx because his descriptive work is useful and he invented language to describe things that happen that same way in different national and cultural frames…by which I mean, language of class and capital…because there’s a common experience of people that own stuff and people that work for a wage. I am exceedingly wary in the current day of the “Marxism bad” thing because it routinely crosses over into “the USSR was terrible, and therefore Karl Marx’s language cannot be used to discuss the problems going on right now”…and a lot of that is in bad faith. It’s done by people who are happy with the language of class that isn’t Marxist—ideas of natural, just hierarchy such as “meritocracy” or “job makers”—et cetera.

Right now, the public forums are full of people who are autodidacts on this stuff because they’re trying to figure what they fuck is going on and the official line…the cloud of capitalist explanations…don’t make sense and seemed to be handed down by grifters and nutters. Nonetheless, they are still using the toolset. I also think allowances have to be made for the persistent irony and hyperbole of social media discourse. The kids aren’t asking for paradise, they’re asking why shit is the way it and why they’re being told the rules are just, when observably the rules just keep changing.

But…let’s talk about the Communist Manifesto’s antidotes, as prescribed in section two. They include:

progressive income tax
banning child labor
centralized national bank
more public land
public transport

They also include stuff like “no inheritance or public property” so they’re not batting 1000 relative to what I’m comfortable with (and I am absolutely bourgeois), but when some says “they proposed nothing that works”…I’m going to raise my finger. I mean, this is what I meant when I say capitalism appropriates the successes of capitalism-resisting forces as successes of capitalism.

Whether or not a classless society in the Marx/Engels mode is possible is beyond my pay grade, but it was a proposition framed to solve a problem present in the world they lived in—and specifically the call to resist was framed in terms of the active suppression of labor movements that was ongoing, the observation that the property holders were already locking shit down. So while the world has moved on and globalism is a thing, I’d argue that much of what they say about class struggle remains viable. But not perfectly accurate because Marx never solves the problem of the lumpenproletariat, and a lot of shit we see going wrong emulates Louis Napoleon’s takeover of France…so, yeah, there’s a whole there.

Admittedly I’m pessimistic today, but how have things changed? Aren’t laborers getting further and further crushed, aren’t there new and more elaborate strategies to screw people out of wages? Isn’t the rent too high and the paycheck dwindling? The same pressure build-up they saw…the powerful consolidating power…is happening, and their prescription was “yeah, this should be fought against because it will just get worse.”

The only reason a lot of American and European folks didn’t notice shit getting worse was…shit was made worse in brown people countries you didn’t hear about. Things got better in the developed world specifically because they were the global bourgeoisie, even if individuals in those countries, because of relative value of wealth, were still impoverished?

In US politics, there’s this loop: propose something to make things better, then it gets accused of being socialist, then if that lands it gets either dropped or watered down to avoid the stigma. Because of that, in this context I don’t know what to do with “I want solve specific things, not everything” as a statement. Every specific solution is deemed unreasonable because it’s seen as subcomponent to an impossible overhaul.

We joke about everything being “socialism” or “Marxism”…but if we discard off the wry humor, what does it mean that the words have been so stripped of actual content, but continue to convey danger, unreasonableness, and naivety?

We’re supposed to accept the strong connotations, the implications, but ignore the self-serving creep of the denotation. We’ve been put through dozens of cycles of this, and what does remains the same is who prospers once the thing is made taboo.

(Which ties back in to the other thing I’ve brought up a bunch: everything that touches communism is bad because gulags and famines—it is known—but no other element of ideology carries the same quantity of collective blame, even the ones that built concentration camps and famines. The pattern of “who gets how much collective blame” reflects who has power, not an attempt to measure culpability in any meaninfful way)

247
Shiplord Kirel, Friend of Moose and Squirrel  Feb 25, 2020 • 4:29:22pm

re: #225 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

The Anti-Dino movement is in full swing in Texas?

Maybe some local preacher managed to prove it was fake, and therefore part of some evil-utionist indoctrination campaign.

248
Shiplord Kirel, Friend of Moose and Squirrel  Feb 25, 2020 • 4:31:29pm

re: #243 Charles Johnson

[Embedded content]

I think I posted that at one time or another.

249
Patricia Kayden  Feb 25, 2020 • 4:32:26pm
250
William Lewis  Feb 25, 2020 • 4:32:50pm

re: #246 The Ghost of a Flea

Good analysis there.

Have you ever read any of Mike Harrington’s books on Socialism? Very Marxist yet with a deep appreciation of democracy and incremental change.

251
plansbandc  Feb 25, 2020 • 4:34:09pm
252
unproven innocence  Feb 25, 2020 • 4:37:08pm

re: #243 Charles Johnson

And the photo shows a US flag with 48 stars, so it’s likely from the 1950s or early 1960s.

253
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Feb 25, 2020 • 4:38:01pm

re: #246 The Ghost of a Flea

… Every specific solution is deemed unreasonable because it’s seen as subcomponent to an impossible overhaul.

Well, I do see positive change here and there, over my lifetime. Not every proposal gets shot down.

You can say because I’m an old white guy that I can’t relate to the poor brown people around the world… but when I was young we were very poor. And I remember the daily difficulties. So when I look at my life today, I see that at least here in the US there has been positive change since then, to help people, to address social inequalities, etc.

254
A hollow voice says, Guilty, guilty, guilty!  Feb 25, 2020 • 4:38:25pm

re: #236 Barefoot Grin

That’s the conundrum now for this administration on anything. They no longer get the benefit of the doubt. Even if somehow someone got to Trump and somehow convinced him that he should quickly re-establish the office and personnel with expertise that was created to deal with such things, no one would believe it was good-faith and above-politics in action.

They could seek out people whose expertise would leave no room for doubt. (I know, DT administration, but I’m talking about the range of theoretical possibilities.)

255
The Ghost of a Flea  Feb 25, 2020 • 4:38:54pm

re: #250 William Lewis

Thanks for the name.

I’m completely out of touch with theory and have been for ages. Mostly I’m just alone with my own thoughts and this is what I think about. Periodically I locate someone with the actual academic chops and citations who’s doing a far better job than I am, for which I’m grateful.

256
Jebediah, RBG  Feb 25, 2020 • 4:39:20pm

re: #215 makeitstop

Kim Shattuck passed away not too long ago. Of all the female rockers, she was definitely among the most cool.

This show is happening “Celebrate the Life of Kim Shattuck: Create a World Without ALS” at the El Rey (which is now within easy walking distance for me, no need to go easy on the beers)
https://www.theelrey.com/events/detail/391062

257
Patricia Kayden  Feb 25, 2020 • 4:40:30pm
258
Shiplord Kirel, Friend of Moose and Squirrel  Feb 25, 2020 • 4:40:38pm
259
The Pie Overlord!  Feb 25, 2020 • 4:42:07pm
260
Patricia Kayden  Feb 25, 2020 • 4:43:50pm
261
VegasGolfer  Feb 25, 2020 • 4:45:14pm

latimes.com

Ever since Tim Apple refused to open an iPhone to investigators, trumps minions have been targeting Apple. Like it’s only to use an iPhone as opposed to other phones.
And trumps gonna keep getting worse with shit like this

262
goddamnedfrank  Feb 25, 2020 • 4:46:02pm

re: #243 Charles Johnson

263
DodgerFan1988  Feb 25, 2020 • 4:49:50pm

Right after the Trump-Modi FascistFest.

264
makeitstop  Feb 25, 2020 • 4:50:12pm

re: #256 Jebediah, RBG

This show is happening “Celebrate the Life of Kim Shattuck: Create a World Without ALS” at the El Rey (which is now within easy walking distance for me, no need to go easy on the beers)
https://www.theelrey.com/events/detail/391062

I wish I could see that.

One of my hero rock stars, Ginger Wildheart of The Wildhearts, was devastated by Kim’s passing. I’m sure he’s wishing he could be there, too, but I think his band is touring Europe at present.

265
makeitstop  Feb 25, 2020 • 4:54:28pm

Oh, and Rolling Stone is pissing me off right now. When I went to their home page, this was front and center:

Not too leading of a graphic. /

I can’t be sure, but I have my suspicions that Bernie Bro punk Taibbi is behind it. Fuck that guy.

266
EPR-radar  Feb 25, 2020 • 4:58:43pm

re: #265 makeitstop

Maybe that will give me enough motivation/energy tonight to fill out my ballot for Warren in CA. That’s always been the plan, but procrastination is too easy.

267
The Pie Overlord!  Feb 25, 2020 • 4:59:18pm

WHO SHOULD DROP OUT?
Steyer
Bloomberg
Tulsi (if she hasn’t already)
Bernie (who am I kidding, but yeah he should)

268
The Ghost of a Flea  Feb 25, 2020 • 4:59:57pm

re: #253 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

You can say because I’m an old white guy that I can’t relate to the poor brown people around the world… but when I was young we were very poor. And I remember the daily difficulties. So when I look at my life today, I see that at least here in the US there has been positive change since then, to help people, to address social inequalities, etc.

That’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying…most people in the developing world didn’t know and didn’t know how to think about the issue, but it affected their lives. Even if they didn’t do better…which is case for most people whose country ruled a subject people…it’s still affected them. Indeed, empires often makes shit change in bad ways for the supposed citizen beneficiaries of empire: now their village is wrecked and they have to go to a factory, and now they have city laborer woes, but they don’t have a framework to understand why. And…this is something that was done to them, a second crime to cover up the first crime.

“What’s it like far away” was information that wasn’t available, so bad things could happen far away and just not be anyone’s business. And because of the relative value of wealth lots of people who would care are just tied down with their own struggles and can’t process it. And when things went so wrong that complaints got long, the victims of the first crime were accused of being the perp.

I mean, there’s a different conversation to be had about how chauvinisms, like racism and ethnocentrism, that make people not-see commonalities with people from elsewhere, about how that feeds empire…not right now though.

But what I am saying is this a thing that has been done. It happened, it had consequences. I’m not asking you to take responsibility for that past, just acknowledge it.

And the reason we need to acknowledge is…the same tactic is being run right now.

Appalachia’s been fucked over by coal companies, but they’re being told they’ve been fucked by environmentalists and liberals. At the same time, as conditions in Appalachia really show the harm…the addiction crisis, the crushing poverty, the despair deaths…there’s an attempt to reframe “what happened?” as their fault, as the natural outcome of their failings that exist independent of the system, built by people with all the financial resources and political connections.

All the shit that was done elsewhere is coming home.

269
A hollow voice says, Guilty, guilty, guilty!  Feb 25, 2020 • 5:01:21pm

re: #265 makeitstop

Oh, and Rolling Stone is pissing me off right now. When I went to their home page, this was front and center:

[Embedded content]

Not too leading of a graphic. /

I can’t be sure, but I have my suspicions that Bernie Bro punk Taibbi is behind it. Fuck that guy.

Clearly, they highlighted the picture of the person they want to stay in.

/////

(Dropped my ballot into the box this afternoon. For Elizabeth Warren.)

270
LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)  Feb 25, 2020 • 5:01:29pm

Aw hell im gonna watch the debate. I vote next week.

271
BeachDem  Feb 25, 2020 • 5:03:58pm

Norah and Gayle? Seriously? SERIOUSLY?

Oh, and Twitter—that will really help

272
LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)  Feb 25, 2020 • 5:06:28pm

Wow Bloomberg went there.

273
goddamnedfrank  Feb 25, 2020 • 5:16:46pm

It looks good on you though


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