So, it turns out some MAGAs are willing to bet, after all! Many have staked their life savings on assurances by their cult’s leaders that massive “Democrat cheats that stole” 8 million+ votes will be exposed any day now!” Whereupon their Dear Leader will be re-installed for another four years. The scenario they are betting on? That a dozen Democratic *mayors* - with no power over election processes - overcame Republican executive, legislative, judicial, federal and state authorities perfectly, without a single leak or slip-up. But it will all collapse any day now.
Does this prove I’m wrong, and some of today’s confeds DO have the guts to bet?
As many of you know, I’ve given up arguing with MAGAs. If you offer mountains of real evidence, they’ll sneer that it’s all faked and that their counter-meme jpegs are the real deal, supporting every conspiracy theory dating back to Benghazi and Obama’s “black UN helicopters.” Experts are denounced and scientific consensus derided. When something is decisively disproved, they just move the goalposts.
And so for years I’ve used a tactic that works! It is the ONLY thing that ever works… and it works every time… causing members of the New-Confederate Cult to back off of any recent falsehood-spew. Sure, they mostly just run away! But with their macho pose — the only thing they care about — is left in tatters, exposed as cowards,
The method is to demand wagers! Turns out they care more about their money than their yammered loyalty to Trump and Putin and the rest. Year-in-year-out, not a single one of these jibbering, fact-hating, blowhard putzes has ever stepped up, escrowed large stakes with an attorney, and offered to back up their declarations of certainty with cash wagers, adjudicated by panels of retired senior military officers.
Not… once…
Well, of course not, since their cult is all about waging open war against every fact-centered profession, from science, teaching journalism, medicine and law to the half a million dedicated, skilled men and women who won the Cold War and the War on Terror, who the Mad Right now condemn as “deep state” traitors. All of them. Like these guys should talk.
I’ve long despaired of any Democrat - even AOC or Pete B. - ever having the agility or brains to see how this exposes the carotid artery of the Treason-Confederacy - their macho bluster - or that making this whole culture war about FACT would help every other cause, like environmentalism or battling racism, since those causes have fact on their side!
Alas, no one listens.
Now read about how some MAGAs have had the guts to step up and bet! Guts, indeed… and absolutely zilch for brains. In fact, many fanatically loyal followers of MAGA madness have doubled down, since the election, taking the word of dizzy ravers like Rudy Giuliani that proof to nail the “steal” will be presented ‘any day now’.
And yes, it just proves again. Cowards, bullies and idiots have the power to wreck this great Union, this great experiment, as they nearly did several other times, since the 1770s. And against such obdurately treasonous impulses, we are still looking for better generals.
== Our side has dopes, too ==
One added reason to fight for those GA senate seats? If the Dems win, Stacey Abrams will get her choice of jobs and she will (I hope) become DNC Chair and make all those prancing dopes yowling "DNC Corporatists!" finally Shut TF Up. We cannot afford to split this coalition and those who are already ragging on Biden for this or that poseur reason are only serving Putin.
I mean that. Anything that seeks to break our coalition right now is Kremlin agitprop. Try actually knowing about the 111th Congress and how well left & moderate dems work together in blue states. Progress is not helped by ignoramuses.
...and finally...
== Again, PLEASE let Kamala... ==
...take her oath at the Lincoln Memorial!
This win-win-win would:
- hearken to MLK and give her a real moment in the sun...
- spread out the inevitable crowds (and they ARE coming!) along the entire mall, encouraging social distancing... (especially with big screens set up on the Washington Monument, midway between)...
- keep her and Joe apart instead of at the same, predictable locale!
As I explained before, in more detail, there are zero drawbacks!
And after the Nashville bombing, can you truly not take this seriously? Spread word!
15 comments:
Yeek! Found out I was commenting on a dead thread; thanks for your patience, Mr. Brin.
We were having a conversation about what to do about the escalating threats, bluster and general craziness emanating not just from the "Fever Swamps" of the right-wing blogosphere, but from People Who Should Know Better.
For example, the chair of the Arizona GOP, and a two-time senatorial candidate actually publicly said "Cross the Rubicon" to Donald Trump.
This is Kelli Ward, and her tweet includes shots of crowds of screaming pro-Trump cultists:
Mr. President
@realDonaldTrump
- we are with you in #Arizona. We are working every avenue to stop this coup & to stop our Republic from crumbing. Patriots are united. Those who are against us are exposing themselves. #Liberty & #freedom are on the line. #CrossTheRubicon
@GenFlynn
Sorry for double-posting. But we're getting into dangerous territory, if elected politicians and party officials are openly calling for violent, armed gangs to throw out the results of an election that they don't like, to install their Dear Leader.
@Dr. Brin: "...skilled men and women who won the Cold War and the War on Terror..."
It really depends on the point of view, I assume, but ...
...while capitalism may have bested socialism, authoritarianism is the true winner. The US and former Eastern European states like Poland and Hungary trying to reincarnate the fascism of the thirties, I wont call that a clear win.Or: We might have won, but we squandered our victory.
...while the socialist systems might have crumbled, they had, at least in theory, working healthcare and social security systems. Something we all could need now.
...the War on Terror is not over. Afghanistan is still a hellhole of extremism, and while we enjoy a period of relative peace, the wars in Jemen, Mali, Lybia and Syria are still not over. And at which price? One could even say: If Osama bin Laden's goal was to lure the US into prolonged campaigns in the Middle East, to increase outrage and hatred, then he has won. Doubly so considering all personal liberties lost after 9/11. I assume we have still ten or twenty years of reciprocal terror and genocide ahead.
...the War on Drugs is still in full swing, and a victory is VERY doubtful.
... Iran?
... the "Praetorians" in our societies - the prison-military-industrial-mercenary-intelligence complex - are a political group themselves, trying to extend their power base each day; and while they might pretend to be defenders of democracy, one has to be wary lest they do not serve the people anymore one day, but the other way round. I would like to point out: like it was in the USSR or Warsaw Pact states.
No, the mission is not accomplished.
David under the previous comments:
And yeah, I know - the whole "I am intolerant of intolerance" meme is one with which I am familiar. It has become a cliché, the type of thing the guitar-strumming hippie teacher in Beavis & Butthead would have airily declaimed, right before he got kicked in the harbls.
When we preach tolerance to Nazis, we mean that they are wrong in treating Jews as other than human. We don't mean that Jews are wrong to despise those who murder them in concentration camps. The notion that tolerance requires the victims of injustice and brutality to excuse the behavior of their tormentors--that that is equivalent to the requirement that all subgroups of humanity be treated equal--is absurd.
On the old "Cerebus" list, a conservative poster there accused liberals like me of compromising with "your murderers". He meant that I supported Democrats who "hate Israel", but I took his essential meaning to heart. When someone makes clear that his goal is to harm or kill me, there is no room for compromise. When locumranch calls that hypocrisy--essentially accusing me of trademark infringement--I can live with it.
same earlier post by "David":
Where a generation of Very Smart People thought they could control the anger, fear & hate they whipped up into a frenzy ... only to discover that societal inertia does exist.
I honestly thought we as a civilization had learned the lesson invoked in the line from Cabaret:
"Do you still think you can control them?"
I was obviously premature.
'David's" missive at the end of last post was very well-written and worthwhile. Glad some of you commented.
I answered that the Chinese politburo could kill us all by whipping up jingoism in their populations, and resentment that the USA - certainly - never earned.
Der Oger, in specifics, you raise important nitpicks... while ignoring the POLEMICAL POWER of the simple clarity of: "You pour 'deep state" hate on the men and women who won the CW and WoT."
@David (not Brin),
That tweet from Kelli Ward is from Dec 19. While not ancient history, it is not new information. Not newer than Mike Pence schooling Benedict Donald on the fact that Pence can't just declare Trump the winner from his perch in the Senate, for example.
The comments under that tweet are...well, if Republicans want to punish their own politicians by letting Democrats win, I won't cross their picket line. I thought only Democrats engaged in that sort of self-destructive idiocy. We actually have a chance to win two Senate seats in Georgia and hence control of the Senate because of this sort of thing. Revel in it.
I answered that the Chinese politburo could kill us all by whipping up jingoism in their populations, and resentment that the USA - certainly - never earned.
Well, American supported the losing side in the Chinese Civil War. American and Chinese troops fought each other in Korea. American military leaders threatened to use atomic bombs on Chinese cities.
I know that the Chinese haven't forgotten that, even if Americans have.
David:
But we're getting into dangerous territory, if elected politicians and party officials are openly calling for violent, armed gangs to throw out the results of an election that they don't like, to install their Dear Leader.
There is no way for them to "throw out the results of an election...and install their Dear Leader."
What they are doing is outing themselves as traitors. Although I don't expect this to happen either, Nancy Pelosi would have a legitimate argument toward not seating those Representatives who have declared treason against the United States of America. OTOH, if there was any feasible way for the Trump putch to succeed, don't you think Pence would be on board?
A tangnt--Republicans seem more anxious to cut off their own noses to spite their faces than I had previously noticed or believed. Ten or so years ago, they were threatening to boycott both the 2010 census and the flu vaccines. If only! So now they're going to punish ("destroy") the GOP by letting Democrats beat them in Georgia and Arizona? I'm wondering if I really will grow tired of winning. :)
Robert, sorry but bah! So America might have been mistaken continuing to support the Nationalist regime that fought by our side in WWII. We THOUGHT we were standing by China against Soviet aggression. Friends can do that. Meanwhile we came to China's aid SEVEN times. Can you name them?
And how convenient fo the Politburo to forget more recent things than Korea. Like preventing the USSR from nuking them. And setting up trade relations that uplifted them 100 years in just 15.
You've seen "American Gigolo", "American Beauty", "American Psycho", and "American Hero"...
... Now comes an epic tale of entitlement and petulance set in the swampy Florida links...
AMERICAN NERO
- filmed in Orange-O-Vision
Robert,
Those Chinese Nationals were our allies.
We DID fight the PLA in Korea and they kicked us around for the trouble.
We also force-ably retired the General who wanted to nuke them.
Most importantly, though, we opened normal relations to them helping to bring on their long-70's period. We deserve some credit for that as it both helped them and pointed out that we understood a thing or two about our earlier mistake.
Look up a fellow by name of Anson Burlingame.
Then look at where Sun Yatsen got all his support, trying again and again the oust the corrup Manch Chi'ings.
Then....
While I agree that the USA was more of a friend to China than any of the other nations a 100 years ago
Today and for the last 40 years the USA has been using China as an enemy
American forces are based to threaten - Iran, Russia and China
The American Press treats China as an enemy
The American Government treats China as an enemy
America uses its muscle to get other countries to treat China as an enemy
A Chinese government that did NOT classify the USA as an enemy would be insane!!
China will do business with the USA - and I do not believe that China will do anything aggressive - but in Chinese shoes I would ensure that my defensive forces were up to date and that my nuclear response to an American Nuclear attack was well oiled
Not really relevant to this particular post, but in recognition that 2020 is about to end, I wrote up my year end review.
https://adiffer.blogspot.com/2020/12/2020-will-be-remembered-for.html
I suspect Trump will be remembered by future generations about as well as we remember Harding with a dash of Hoover. Basically, we are blowing things out of proportion. Makes sense, of course. We ARE this civilization's immune system. Our children's children won't feel the same way, though.
One thing DID happen this year that WILL matter to them. A biggie.
No. Not the stack of body bags. Something related. 8)
Sorry Duncan, but that is baloney. Look at China under Mao vs. today. Who financed the change. Generous US trade policies and American consumers. And predatory theft of all our crown jewels.
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