Month: January 2017

 
From The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser:

If you came to my blog so you could let me know you are praying for me or you want to evangelize me, correct me, preach to me, lambast me, quote Bible verses to me, tell me I am going to hell, or tell me how wrong I am, I want you to know that I am not interested in what you have to say. After ten years of being psychologically brutalized by people like you, I have zero interest in what you have to say. Based on years of experience, I know you are likely not interested in dialog or in understanding my point of view. In your mind, you already know all you need to know. You have read one, two, or five posts and are now ready to pass judgment. You are ready to leave the mother of all comments, and I am sure you will be peacock proud when you are done.

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From MadMikesAmerica:

I remember when the 1% was the enemy. When companies like Bank of America were Robo-foreclosing on our parents and grandparents. When oil tycoons and house-flippers destroyed our economy in 2007. When “Occupy Everything” was in full swing.

I remember telling y’all in a pre-election warning post, that Trump WAS the 1%.

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From nojo Stinque:

We didn’t listen to pop music in our teens; we bought comedy albums.

Which is why we were deeply intrigued this week when the chatter went around that Donald Trump never laughs in public.

This is completely alien to our experience. We honestly don’t know how anyone can live like that. Without laughter — hearty, frequent laughter, verging on barking — we doubt we would have survived this long. Laughter is a relief from what ails ya. And, since song & dance is discouraged in polite company, it’s the only socially acceptable expression of spontaneity.

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From Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger:

The map above (from antiwar.com) is of the West Bank — land that belongs to the Palestinian people. But, through the continued building of illegal settlements and building of a wall, Israel now controls most of the land (brown areas on the map). It is obvious that Israel has no intention of allowing a “two-state solution” which would require them to give this land back to the Palestinians. Instead, they are boldly and illegally attempting to steal this land and increase the size of their country.

The world knows this (with the exception of right-wing Israeli apologists in the United States) and has attempted many times to condemn this in the United Nations. The United States has always vetoed those resolutions (thereby becoming an accessory in Israel’s land theft).

That changed a few days ago.

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From Iron Knee at Political Irony:

Donald Trump came out swinging, claiming that Ted Cruz would destroy the ethanol business because the Texas senator was bankrolled by oil companies:

He will destroy your ethanol business 100 percent. And look, I’m not really blaming him because he’s financed by oil people. The oil people don’t want ethanol, it’s very simple… Your ethanol business if Ted Cruz gets in will be wiped out within six months to a year. It’s gonna be gone.

And this worked against Cruz in Iowa, despite the fact that it was a lie. Cruz was actually proposing using up to 25% ethanol in gas mixtures. But regardless, how is that working out for Iowa farmers now that Trump has been elected?

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From Jon Perr at PERRspectives:

As his Inauguration Day nears, President-elect Donald Trump is trying to assemble the wealthiest and least vetted Cabinet in modern American history. The nominees possess combined riches of $10 billion, ironically the same figure Trump claims for himself. Like the 45th President, many have not yet released their tax returns or completed reviews by the FBI and the Office of Government Ethics. That’s why Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) warned his Republican counterpart Mitch McConnell (R-KY) that Democrats will not “green light” Trump’s Cabinet picks if they “are holding back tax returns, critical financial information, and are behind on their ethics certification.”

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From The Journal of Improbable Research:

The 1996 Ig Nobel Prize for literature was awarded to the editors of the journal Social Text, for eagerly publishing research that they could not understand, that the author said was meaningless, and which claimed that reality does not exist. The “research” paper was “Transgressing the Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity,” written by Alan Sokal, published in Social Text in Spring/Summer 1996, pp. 217-252. Ig Nobel Prizes, of course, are for achievements that make people laugh, then think.

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From John A. Farrell The New York Times:

… To them all, Nixon insisted that he had not sabotaged Johnson’s 1968 peace initiative to bring the war in Vietnam to an early conclusion. “My God. I would never do anything to encourage” South Vietnam “not to come to the table,” Nixon told Johnson, in a conversation captured on the White House taping system.

Now we know Nixon lied. A newfound cache of notes left by H. R. Haldeman, his closest aide, shows that Nixon directed his campaign’s efforts to scuttle the peace talks, which he feared could give his opponent, Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey, an edge in the 1968 election.

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From Blue Gal aka Frances Langum:

It’s about time someone told the rest of the media to stop cowering to Fox News. They. Don’t. Matter. And by the way? You are never going to get a job there, Mr. Reporter, so stop hedging your coverage of them.

—Rough Transcript—
 

 
From Jonathan Bernstein:

For my part, I was probably wrong to treat “party decides” conclusions with as much confidence as I did, and I was definitely wrong to be slow to realize media norms had evolved and why that was important.

I think I was a better guide to the general election in most respects. But I was at least partly wrong about one thing: My claim that partisans would wind up loving their party’s nominee, even if they supported another candidate in the primaries.

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