Tuesday, September 03, 2024

Reagan would spit in these "republicans'" eyes!

I've been critical of modern Democrats' narrow view of the art of polemics. While the Lincoln Project lands some zingers - and I have modest hopes for the earthy wit of Tim Walz - there appears to be little aptitude for what Sherman did in an earlier phase of this ongoing U.S. Civil War... which is corner the confederacy, so that saner members might look around, smack their foreheads and snap out of the trance!

I offer such tactics, elsewhere. But here's a doozy!  I found it while sorting through old papers my brother stored for me. One memento of the last century stood out. A political flyer from Ronald Reagan's 1970 campaign to be re-elected governor of California.

This special, midweek posting reprints pages from that 1970 flyer!  

Read these excerpts! Because while Reagan's positions were conservative, in the context of that time - (you liberals will find much to disagree with!*) - you'll also be shocked by how mainstream and... progressive... were so many RR talking points.

What it shows... especially to any conservatives who scan here... is that consensus stances of the right wing of the Republican Party were hugely different back then, than those of today's MAGA-ism. 

In many cases diametrically opposite!

At least scan the TITLES to each page! Back then it was consensus among even right wing republicans that the state should protect the helpless, improve the environment and reduce pollution, develop new cleaner energy supplies, invest more in education and universities and public transport/rail, reduce drug costs, protect the consumer, and so on!


And that's just Reagan as Governor in 1970. How about the President who later confronted an aggressive Soviet Kremlin? Do you think he would have any truck with today's KGB-loving GOP, its adoration of Kim Jong Un and Vlad Putin's cadre of 5000 "ex" commissars, now spreading a new Evil Empire? 

Or today's MAGA all-out war vs all fact using professions, from science and teaching, medicine and law and civil service to the heroes of the FBI/Intel/Military officer corps who won the Cold War and the War on terror?  Ronnie would be outraged!


TO BE CLEAR: I still have grudges toward Reagan, especially his betrayal of America during the Iranian Hostage Crisis. And ignoring AIDS, making it far worse. Union-busting. And his insane Drug War! And sending us down the road of never-ever-correct Supply-Side voodoo 'economics.'

Still, show these pages to others! Read passages aloud to your MAGA aunts. (Your uncles are hopeless, of course.) Look at what Ronald Reagan bragged about achieving in his first term as California governor!  And remember that California was far more conservative then. And RR was from the party's 'far-right.' 

You may need to copy these jpegs onto your desktop, to read them. But read them!


Liberals today may snort at some 'conservative' positions, like school choice. Fine, there were then - and remain - legit arguments. (And forced school busing was not a wise position, either!)  Again, I never claimed Reagan wasn't Reagan!

Still, on balance the campaign brags from this 1970 campaign flyer show a Reagan who would hate Trumpism! It is today's MAGAs and Kremlin-lovers who are the RINOs!  Republicans in Name Only.


 

* All right, I admit it. I did not scan-in and include here every page of the campaign flyer. The page Crisis on Campus, for example, was totally law-n-orderly hostile toward the youth rebels who were then raging at universities. (Remember 1970 at all? Nixon? Cambodia? Vietnam? The then-recent, wretched horrors of 1968? OMG it's a wonder we survived.) It shows that campus protests and even occasional mini riots are nothing new - sometimes with righteous cause and sometimes driven by sanctimony-fetishism. RR's reflexive hostility - when campus protest truly was righteous - showed his dark side.

So? Again, I don't claim Reagan wasn't Reagan!  

What I do claim is that he wouldn't have anything to do with the monstrous, undead, vampire were-elephant that has taken over the Party of Lincoln, on behalf of the same Kremlin-led evil empire Reagan despised, masked only by a few altered symbols and Czarist lapel pins. Reagan would recognize Putin's obvious KGB scheme for what it is, and he'd denouce fools who fall for it. 

He'd also recognize Trump as a painted carnival barker and traitor-monster.

Hey, I don't like Liz Cheney either!  But I admit... she's an American.

Okay now, this next one is unbelievable! Efficient mass transit and rail service to augment highways! Safe cars and roads! "A well-balanced transportation system." And more...


What's to be made of all this? Just a silly old guy (me), rummaging mementos and yattering about old-timey, wordy political flyers that bear no relevance to our republic's current fight for its life?

Bah and posh and fiffle-faffle! Dig it, Ronald Reagan still has redolence with many of our neighbors!  THIS is what he stood for, before he went senile. And maybe 2/3 of it was moderate-consensus... American

Consensus that today's gone-mad GOP now undermines at all levels and in all ways, attacking all the ways that America actually became -- and continues becoming -- great.

You - yes, you - could use this!

Go and do so.


64 comments:

Tony Fisk said...

An opinion backed up by what I would consider a competent authority.

Tony Fisk said...

Oh, replying to your earlier comment: no, I certainly don't expect war to be gentle, especially where Russia is concerned. That link I provided was an independent report from (Oz) ABC allowed into Sudhza. If anything, it provided a contrast to the way Russia's been waging hostilities. Like buildings that are still recognisably buildings (although the border checkpoint has seen better days). Russian civilians who are only slightly dazed and confused, and who are grateful (in some cases, even supportive) of the food and medical aid they've been receiving from the UAF. Attitudes can change, of course, but nobody appeared to be giving out cursed sunflower seeds.

duncan cairncross said...

From the previous comments
Geothermal - unfortunately you tend to get lots of dissolved CO2 in the hot water - from the rocks - which then gets released into the atmosphere
Not a good idea!

Hawaii
Hawaii should be using OTEC - ocean thermal - lots of nice warm water at the surface and the deep (cold) water is very close
AND - one of the main power users in Hawaii is cooling - air conditioning - some of that nice cool 4C water could be used directly to cool water for cooling the buildings in the cities

I LIKE - OTEC - I do like a technology where the main byproduct is more fish

Tim H. said...

A more civilized time, when conservatives could be moved to build, instead of destroying the work of others.

Darrell E said...

Sometimes I just feel like giving up on humanity.

For instance, I spent my entire morning trying to find a critical fault in some software. For awhile I almost came to believe that the laws of physics had changed on me. Turned out to be a fucking space at the end of a character string. Someone got into a file that no human should ever be in and manually changed a job name. Could have worked, even though they shouldn't have tried, except they have sloppy typing skills and included an additional, superfluous, nearly impossible to see, space at the end of the name.

Tim H. said...

Geothermal with direct contact to deep rock should still be an improvement over burning hydrocarbons, but for a small hit in thermal transfer, the water needn't have direct contact. Picture a coaxial tube, cold water pumped down the middle, which ends before the outer section, warmed water goes up the outer section.

Dirtnapninja said...

Bringing up Reagans ghost shows your boomer sensibilities. Many young conservatives despise Reagan as the man who brought the neocons into power, financialised the American economy, and ensured California would become a permanent one party state. They would not care a single bit what Reagan thought of them.

David Brin said...

Wow! For the very first time, Dirtnapninja (and out of respect, I use his actual monicker) said something true! Everything he just said, true! Be still, my heart! And yes, those many young conservatives are stark jibbering insane traitors to a civilization that gave the ingrate fools everything. And cowards who won't bet $$$ over any of their masturbatory incantation assertions. Just like all their confederate predecessors...

... and sure, we'll have to rescue civilization despite the (real or spiritually) incel brats. Still. Yeah, we know, fellah. We know.

I posted about Reagan for the vestigially sane.

Alan Brooks said...

Perhaps DNN only fails the test on Ukraine. Russian soldiers are there not as they believe Kyiv is owned by Nazis, but because they want to loot ‘n shoot—and torture.

David Brin said...

I am sure, AB, that most RF soldiers would rather just go home, though more are realizing that Ukraine prison camps are called Club Med for a reason. No, what fills me with contempt is that they are fragging their own officers at a merely high rate, when it should be a massive purge-by-grenade, leading to a 1917 style Soldier's revolt.

David Brin said...

I am sure, AB, that most RF soldiers would rather just go home, though more are realizing that Ukraine prison camps are called Club Med for a reason. No, what fills me with contempt is that they are fragging their own officers at a merely high rate, when it should be a massive purge-by-grenade, leading to a 1917 style Soldier's revolt. Perhaps when their loved ones are shivering, this winter. Or when a Big Fog bring a nasty surprise from the skies.

Alfred Differ said...

hmpf. It wasn't Reagan who did that. It was the reactionary response from those who tried to make this an English-only state years later. The north end of the state isn't any more 'white' or culturally monolithic than the southern end.

A demographic change was underway that had little to do with race and everything to do with whether one had the skills necessary to continue living in this state's primary job markets as it got more and more expensive to do so. Educated folks had a chance at least, but they reacted poorly to the English-only crap along with some other turn-back-the-clock ideas.

The reactionaries were a buncha dumbasses. They could have been sitting atop one of the most potent economies in the world. But no... they cared more about sh*t like which languages were used in schools.

duncan cairncross said...

Tim H
Yes that would help - but it would almost certainly mean that the cost would be so high that it would become uneconomic

David Brin said...

Well, Alfred, Ca is STILL the most prodigious economy and creative force in the world.

Unknown said...

Duncan,
Having lived on the Big Island for a few years, I can state that there are plenty of homes in Hawaii where air conditioning isn't even installed. The temps are pretty ocean-moderated. I guess upper class homes might have it, but it isn't really needed for the most part. According to the EIA,

"Hawaii's mild climate contributes to the state's residential sector energy consumption being the lowest in the nation."

Pappenheimer

TheMadLibrarian said...

We just installed Phase 2 of our solar panel system. It includes a honkin' big battery; MECO required it so that we could double the square footage of our array without them taking whatever we overproduced without compensation. Instead, we only have to let them access the battery during high draw hours in the evening (6-8 p.m.); the rest of the power is ours. This means that we could charge 2 electric cars and run every appliance in our house almost nonstop, and likely never pay an electric bill again. Now imagine if that could be extended to every building in Hawaii...

duncan cairncross said...

Hi Pappenheimer
I was thinking about big buildings - like Hotels - do they have air conditioning in Hawaii?

Unknown said...

Duncan,

At the big hotels, yes, they generally have air conditioning. Whether it gets used a lot is a different question, one I'm not qualified to answer. I suspect the big resorts install it because tourists expect it.

Pappenheimer

P.S. electricity costs were insane when I was there. Your 'lectric bill without airconditioning might be equivalent to a mainland house with it.

Pappenheimer

Alfred Differ said...

I think we know how to spell 'carbon capture' and even compare the amounts of CO2 released from the rocks compared to burning coal.

My experience with the power industry suggests two things have to be worked out.
1) Can they fund it through bonds paid back by local consumers? (Whatever the price unencumbered by legal issues turns out to be.)
2) Can they win the court cases at a price small enough that the economic argument from #1 still closes?

Hawaii is not a high population state, so #1 might actually be a challenge that doesn't get examined like #2.

TheMadLibrarian said...

A/C is sometimes a moral imperative, despite sea and land breezes. Many parts of Hawaii are closer to Mediterranean in climate, being hot and dry. Where you have rain, that hot and dry becomes hot and humid. With climate change, it's getting hotter.

Larry Hart said...

Heard on Stephanie Miller's radio show:

"First they came for the trans people, and I spoke up because I've already read the darn poem."

David Brin said...

A friend commented: "I occasionally imagine Trump as a cross between Asimov's "mule" and San Francisco's Emperor Norton." Of course he wants to be Nehemiah Scudder. Or Robspierre without R's inevitable end.

Unknown said...

Dr. Brin,

rumpt is missing Emperor Norton's firm grasp on reality. As for the Mule, he was fully aware his empire would not survive him, and that seemed to bother the dude. rumpt seems to be of the 'universe goes out when I die' school of thought.

Pappenheimer

Tony Fisk said...

Trump in a hot tub is a horror I am not prepared for.

(I always equated him to the Penguin running for Mayor, except they went a little off script...)

Larry Hart said...

Tony Fisk:

...the Penguin running for Mayor


The Grand Order of Occidental Nighthawks?

When I first saw that episode at age 6 or 7, I didn't get the significance of Paul Revere and the Raiders portraying themselves at the Penguin Rally. Or Little Egypt.

Tony Fisk said...

@Larry to be honest, I don't recall having seen that episode *since* I was 6 or 7, so your references are now going over *my* head.

Tony Fisk said...

I've been thinking there's been something a little off in Trump's appearance the last few times I've seen him (which admittedly isn't frequent)
Perhaps he's been overdoing the 'tan'?

Larry Hart said...

Penguin's henchmen wore shirts with G.O.O.N. across the front. They claimed to belong to the Grand Order of Occidental Nighthawks.

Paul Revere and the Raiders was a real rock band who played as themselves at the Penguin rally. Little Egypt was an actual belly dancer who performed in front of them.

Tim H. said...

He's rumored to be on Ozempic.

Larry Hart said...

https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-harris-election-09-05-24#h_02aaed32660cd5b52e9a7be21e649e02

Former President Donald Trump promised Thursday to make gasoline dirt-cheap again by slashing red tape and drilling for more oil.

“We’re going to get gasoline below $2 a gallon,” Trump said at the New York Economic Club.


Does no one (except me) remember that when gas was below $2 a gallon during Trump's term, he himself negotiated a deal between Russia and Saudi Arabia to raise the price of oil, and then bragged about "saving the oil industry"?

DP said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrU6F-S8VMo

Best summary ever of the current American electorate:


The way we got in this situation is pretty simple to explain

Basically when Nixon was discovered having committed a Watergate people thought the Republican party was washed up.

But a clever staffer on Nixon's in Nixon's White House came up with an idea for how to get more new Republican voters uh to replace all the people that were turned off by the corruption that had just been exposed and perhaps save the party.

His name was Lee Atwater, and he said I know where there's all kinds of disgruntled white people people all you got to do is appeal to them over their anger about the end of Jim Crow and about school desegregation and uh about uh the Civil Rights Act.

These are the words that you'll say to kind of trigger them, then we call these the racist dog whistles and you will send a message to them that they are welcome in the Republican party.

Starting in the mid-70s to the mid 80s there was a massive change in voter registration of from Democrat to Republican on the part of all these uh racists and low lives and ignorant people.

At the same time Trump started to have political Ambitions.

Now it turns out Trump has an IQ of about 73. He barely functions as an adult if it were not for the fact that his father gave him a lot of money he wouldn't be able to function as an adult.

Trump has less money now than he would have had if he' just taken the money he got from his father and put it in an index fund in the stock market and just let it sit it.

But he's gradually played around with it all these years and lost it in all his lawsuits and so forth and his six bankruptcies and uh it he has dissipated a fortune over his lifetime.

Now he's had the Russians for the last 20 years to bail him out.

But ordinary people cannot be as dumb as Trump and still function but Trump came out onto the public stage and started talking boldly like he wanted to do things politically and help the people of America and he speaks like a third grader because that's what somebody
an IQ of 73 talks like even if they're an adult.

Linguists have analyzed his speech and they've they've made it plain he speaks English at a third grade level.

This energized dumb people because for the first time they could understand a presidential candidate and they said things like oh he's got a big mind he's the first guy that doesn't use a bunch of bunch of fancy words and confuse me um now I finally understand what he's
saying

And of course what he was saying was a lot of things they wanted to hear.

They were the racist dog whistles and uh so you had a beautiful Alliance be from their perspective of racists and stupid people

The lower 12% of the IQ distribution corresponds perfectly to Trump's supporters now these people are so unintelligent that there's actually a federal statute that prohibits their induction into military service.

They didn't want to have a repeat, congress didn't want to have a repeat of the McNamara morons incident from Vietnam.

Which is notorious thing you can look up on your own

McNamara morons it's called.

Basically we had a secretary of defense who had the idea that hey why don't we recruit low intelligence people send them to war and see what happens.

And what happened was they died in droves and of course things got worse and so they didn't want that to happen again.

So they actually passed a law you're not allowed to recruit and induct into military service uh the lowest 12% on the IQ range.

But they're still allowed to vote.

And Trump energized them.

DP said...

(cont.)


He made dumb people think that they finally understood politics he made people strut around proud of themselves thinking that they had a grasp of the issues cuz they could tell on some level that Trump wasn't much smarter than they were but there he was a big shot so he seemed
like a champion for them.

Of course all these people forget that they aren't Rich they didn't have a dad hand them the equivalent of $412 million and they can't do the things that Trump does and they can't get away with the things Trump has gotten away with

Even Trump himself is not going to get away with them indefinitely.

But the stage has been set and this is where we're at.

Basically we have a fanatical core of low intelligence voters that are solidly behind Trump they will Bank him no matter what he does or says because they don't care what he does or says.

They just know he's their guy they understand him

They like him uh he talks to them in a way that they can comprehend and they are fanatical in their support of him.

He has given them what they see as dignity and strength.

And then at the other end of the spectrum are smart people from all walks of life.

I actually used to be a republican myself I'm ashamed to admit it now but I know I'm not alone I mean millions of people who make sure that they turn out to vote against Trump uh used to be actual Republicans because the Republican party is now nothing but a
looney den of the very low intelligence.

And there's just no way that you can you can associate with him at all

So now it's going to be you know some range of conservative to Liberal Democrats again except that it'll mean something different than it used to mean.

I mean those Democrats won't be conservative because they're racist garbage people from the South they'll be conservative because they have some other philosophy about the the role of the market or of private Enterprise or something like that.in the economy at any rate.

This is the problem we have.

It's basically now just the very low intelligent versus the high intelligence

And the thing is going to be decided by undecided people who don't pay any attention people in the middle that don't pay attention to politics

No matter whether the politicians are smart or dumb they just show up on Election Day and try to do their best

Those are the people you have to reach you have to get them interested you have to explain to them what's going on they have to be told who Trump is and he wants to be a dictator

And he's got a million morons behind him that want him to be a dictator.

We cannot let that happen

David Brin said...

Well, DP. While there is an intelligence correlation. It's far more about wisdom... the wisdom to BOTH Question Authority AND - (amid many questions and scrutiny) - accept that experts are 'experts' because they know a lot and are generally passionate about their field and deserve some trust until questions reveal reason to ask more questions.

Also the wisdom to realise WHO WOULD WANT the current know-nothing campaign against expertise. Including waging all-out war vs ALL fact using professions, from science and teaching, medicine and law and civil service to the heroes of the FBI/Intel/Military officer corps who won the Cold War and the War on terror.

WHo would want that? No one but the domestic and foreign oligarchies who know their route to total power is blocked by those very same expert castes.

Alan Brooks said...

Oligarchs perceive eventual power as their manifest destiny, if we manifest weakness.
Therein is the flaw in forgiveness: such is frequently seen as weakness—or ruse.

locumranch said...

The political double-think accelerates, as the US progressive left first attempts to rehabilitate Dick Cheney (the lyingest liar of WMD war-mongering conservative neocons & Jon Stewart's former 'most evil man on earth') as a progressive left-leaning 'Kamala Harris Partisan', while now trying to do the same to Ronald Reagan (the man who ended the Cold War by bankrupting the former USSR), if only to 'prove' the absurd allegation that all 'real' conservatives are Democrat partisans who must necessarily support the 'Forever Wars' of the Biden/Harris Democrat Party & the US Military Industrial Complex.

It's a hilariously self-contradictory juxaposition, this amateurish Democrat attempt to 'retcon' the conservative opposition as closeted Democrats, but it does seem to indicate that US Democrats are absolutely terrified of both Trump & his RFK Jr/Tulsi Gabbard coalition of anti-war Democrats.

What's next? An absurd Democrat psyop to retcon the Harris/Walz ticket into Law & Order Patriots, American Firsters and Die Hard Constitutionalists?

My bad as the above psyop kicked in about 2 weeks ago & is still going strong, but should soon be countered by the pending "Tim Walz, Friend to Boys" meme.

It's Political Burlesque at its best.


Best


Dirtnapninja said...

@ Brin

"Wow! For the very first time, Dirtnapninja (and out of respect, I use his actual monicker) said something true! Everything he just said, true! Be still, my heart! And yes, those many young conservatives are stark jibbering insane traitors to a civilization that gave the ingrate fools everything. And cowards who won't bet $$$ over any of their masturbatory incantation assertions. Just like all their confederate predecessors...

... and sure, we'll have to rescue civilization despite the (real or spiritually) incel brats. Still. Yeah, we know, fellah. We know.

I posted about Reagan for the vestigially sane."

Traitors to what exactly? A system that has completely marginalised them from any voice?

Sane? Who? The people who want to imprison you for stating a man has a penis?

You are honestly utterly clueless about what is going on in with the right, especially amongst the young and completely unequipped to understand or deal with them because you are mentally stuck in the 80's. An entire new political theory is being built right under your noses, and most of you are almost completely ignorant of it and unwilling to even learn and so will have no idea how to engage or debate it.

Alan Brooks said...

We can get the same thing from Limbaugh archives.

scidata said...

I'm worried that SpaceX is beginning to plateau. Musk is spending more and more time on grievance and retribution. Gosh I wish I could have a 10 minute chat with him. I'd just tell him my own story in 300 words. Our youthful dreams are still out there, waiting. Puff the magic dragon and all that.

David Brin said...

scidata used to get more than 10' with him. Now I get none. Because the LEFT insanely believes that shrieking into the face of an Aspergers will bring long term satisfaction. While the pupeteer oligarchs of the Right know the power of flattery. Kim Jong Un sent a couple unctuous praising notes and Trump 'fell in love.' DT chose JDVance (can't dance) because "He loves me!" Alas, it was that easy with you know who.

I am not worried about Spacex. Shotwell and the team have skills and E's sole role now is to apply pressure and ask incisive questions. We'll see if the chopstix landing works!

Poor locum is certifiably insane. I despise Dick Cheney with deep passion and will until I die. Few are praising him, personally, though noting that dissing Trump means only one thing. He's not being blackmailed by the KGB. Anyone sapient who cares about his children would make the same announcement and it doesn't make me his pal.

As for Reagan. I despise him only slightly less. But It's just fine to point out "You can have one deity or the other. Reagan or Trump. Because they'd kill each other. Choose.

Tim H. said...

Elon's super power is in money, enthusiasm and iterative development. His kryptonite may be if he begins to feel sticking to those is a limit on his authority. That some random lefty annoyed him and he turned NAZI-adjacent* is not a good sign. *Perhaps that's his comfort zone?

Larry Hart said...

Dr Brin:

I despise Dick Cheney with deep passion and will until I die. Few are praising him, personally, though noting that dissing Trump means only one thing. He's not being blackmailed by the KGB.


It means more than that. You don't have to like anything else about the Cheneys to acknowledge that their endorsement of Kamala Harris--a step further than simply dissing Trump--might influence some fence-sitting anti-Trumpers who have trouble imagining themselves actually voting for a Democrat. The Cheneys may essentially give them permission to do so.

"You can have one deity or the other. Reagan or Trump. Because they'd kill each other. Choose.


The MAGAts have already made clear their choice between Trump and Jesus Christ. Why expect Reagan to be more of an influence?

Larry Hart said...

Dr Brin:

While the pupeteer oligarchs of the Right know the power of flattery...


You've mentioned this before, in the sense that liberals would have done better to flatter Musk or Trump than to complain about them. I'm not sure I buy it, though. The argument has pragmatism to its credit, but sucking up to powerful monsters in order to gain favor and mitigate its opposite sticks in my craw. Collaborationists with the German Nazis acted in a similar "pragmatic" manner, but there's a reason they were treated as they were after liberation.

duncan cairncross said...

There is a difference between "sucking up to monsters" and spitting on the people who are doing the most to help the problems

duncan cairncross said...

Which does NOT mean Trump as he is a monster who has never solved a problem in his life

Larry Hart said...

I wasn't advocating the spitting. I only know about that from this site, and I'm still not intimate with the details of what leftists did to Musk.

It's the flattery that bothers me. That first televised meeting with Trump and his cabinet in which they all told him how wonderful he is almost made me throw up.

Larry Hart said...

Stonekettle on Threads:
https://www.threads.net/@stonekettle

The only thing I loathe more than Dick Cheney is being on the same side with Dick Cheney.

note: Those who've followed me since Iraq know that once upon a time I did indeed loathe Donald Rumsfeld slightly more than Dick Cheney, but Rumsfeld is dead and Cheney, damn his black clockwork heart, is still here. Now he's on my side. It's like you lived through the V2 blitz on London then one day a few decades later you're working for NASA and they introduce Werner von Braun as your new team lead

Alan Brooks said...

As you write, Cheney might influence fence-sitters: in fact will indeed influence a certain number.
Could mean a few thousand—or even less—votes that would tip the scale to Kamala.

Alan Brooks said...

...Scenario: with the aid of prominent Republicans who follow Cheney’s lead, we might avoid a 2000 election redux.

scidata said...

Woe to the 'journalists' who eviscerated JB for months (years) as being feeble and incoherent, who now regard DT with deafening silence.

Unknown said...

Alan,

I doubt any prominent GQPers currently in office will raise a peep about rumpt. Their jobs would be on the line and their families threatened by 2A shouty people. One can hope for the best, but the most likely road to victory is greater turnout by Democrats - esp. women.

Pappenheimer

P.S. re: the Supremes, agreed. Unless it's a blowout, the Slimy Six will put their collective rumps on the scales of Justice to tip it to TFG. Maybe even if it IS a blowout; there's 5 votes for straight up fascism.

David Brin said...

No one asked for manipulative flattery from our side. But while he exaggerates, in order to be an asshole, Bill Maher is almost always ... *cough* ... right.

David Brin said...

And yeah. will we hear from GWBush? GrOPers in Congress may be asking him to denounce Trump, but urge Republicans come out and vote for THEM.

A fantasy. I am pretty sure that Justice Amy Barrett is not blackmailed or a brownshirt. and Roberts has a fierce sense of self-preservation. Both will defend gerrymandering to their last breath. The other males are blackmailed monsters, sure.

Larry Hart said...

Dr Brin:

The other males are blackmailed monsters, sure.



I'm not sure about Clarence Thomas. He seems more "bought" than "blackmailed."

Actually, he seems more "sold" than "bought". It's not so much that others approached him and he tool the bribe. He made clear to them that he was offering his services for money.

Larry Hart said...

Blagojevich and some others demonstrated that flattery with Trump can pay off, at least for a single goal. I don't dispute that. I just find it distasteful to go down that route. Vonnegut's "Be careful who you pretend to be," is always there.

Even "Chuck and Nancy" got onto Trump's good side for a week or so. It didn't last, though, and it never does. Sooner or later, he hardly knows you, and you just brought coffee a few times.

Unknown said...

re: "Justice" Thomas, who very obviously does not believe in justice...pretty sure he'd do most of it for free, but I'm sure it's nice to get freebies from people whom you know would never give you the time of day due to to your skin color, if you weren't in the position you hold. He'll be there til he dies, but will keep threatening to resign if he doesn't get more goodies. At least that's my take.

Pappenheimer

Alfred Differ said...

As much as I think his campaign promises are sh*t, this one would actually hurt Russian interests... so it won't happen. Driving down the price of oil is actually a strategy for bankrupting Russia.

Alfred Differ said...

Don't fret too much. Gwynne Shotwell mostly runs the place. They have a decent COO who gets it.

Alfred Differ said...

Tim H,

Nah. I suspect he thinks he's using Two Scoops to accomplish minarchist goals.

There's a little phrase tossed around when referring to E and some of his team's accomplishments. "Turning the impossible into the merely late." I suspect he looks at a Two Scoops administration as another kind of save-the-world-from-itself kind of project.

He's not really nazi-adjacent.
He's chock full of hubris.

Alfred Differ said...

This all rhymes with Hamilton endorsing Jefferson. 8)

Larry Hart said...

without further comment...

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/06/opinion/tucker-carlson-holocaust-denial.html

Candace Owens, another anti-woke right-wing celebrity who has lately become Hitler-curious, has also come to question received wisdom about the shape of the earth. “I’m not a flat-earther,” she said in July. “I’m not a round-earther. Actually, what I am is I am somebody who has left the cult of science.”

scidata said...

Larry Hart: somebody who has left the cult of science

If I had $1 for every time I've heard that in my citizen science work. The good news is that I also hear: "Oh, so that's how evolution works, I get it now" and "Wow, the ancients figured out the shape and size of the Earth, makes me proud to be human".

Unknown said...

I suspect the Phoenicians figured out the shape pretty early, but decided the knowledge would be a trade advantage*. Eratosthenes deserves a lot of credit for mathing out the size, though.
Way too many people in my life have told me that Ancient Aliens, Angels, or Guiding Spirits have put us where we are today. These jamokes just didn't bother to hand out the germ theory of disease until WAY late. Twain said it very well - The Almighty was just about to cure smallpox, but we uppity humans did it first - and some of us still give Him credit for it.

*guild, state or trade secrets get lost - example = Greek Fire

Pappenheimer

David Brin said...

"Actually, what I am is I am somebody who has left the cult of science.” Then eschew the fruits of science. Farm a couple acres with heirloom, never hybridized crops and dig your own well. Even the Amish aren't that trog... or else hypocritical

David Brin said...

onward

onward