You cannot be serious. McCarthy has been dishonest about everything and then thought it useful to blame the other party for his screw ups. The extreme right cannot be appeased, so pretending that extending an olive branch would be meaningful is an effort at wishful thinking. You are smarter than that, I hope.
Consider that the options are now Jim Jordan or Steve Scalise. Was McCarthy truly more partisan than either of these options? I'm not so sure... Scalise will be better than Jordan on this front, but Jordan is a partisan par excellence... and a fight to replace McCarthy only serves the extremes IMO.
Beyond that, olive branches are what makes politics good. Olive branches are what made America thru compromise -- not intransigence. Either both sides learn to see this, or we get the politics we deserve due to an intransigence of our own.
Both sides have to believe in democratic principles for the two-party system to work. We don't have that at present. There are also more options than you state and that is where it will end up. Neither Scalise nor Jordan have the full support of their caucus. They also need to change the speaker's rules and that hasn't happened yet. The quote of the week was on Colbert the other night. Something to the effect of Democrats having to routinely fix what the Republicans screw up. That is not necessarily a historical analysis, but it rings true for these past few years.
I suppose the problem is that Republicans could (and do) say the same thing about Democrats, which only sharpens the divide.
The wider question -- and the one I raise above, albeit in an oblique way -- is that the way the extremes dominate the discourse is purely through narrow partisanship. Because we refuse to embrace anything remotely resembling a center, we allow the far left and far right to stretch our polity so thin that we forget that our primary job is to do the business of the people of America.
Of course, today compromise is weakness. Win-win scenarios must be win-lose scenarios or else you have cut cards with the devil.
Once upon a time, Reagan and Tip O'Neill could sit down weekly and talk. Today, if a Democrat or Republican is caught talking to the party opposite? It is posted to social media and viewed as a rank betrayal. That's not good for democracy... and the fix has to start somewhere.
What people say is not as meaningful as what they do. The insurrection was not a bipartisan affair. Neither is promoting the Big Lie. Christian Nationalists are predictably of one party. We cannot talk about this by pretending there is parity between the two parties. One party has ceased to be an organization interested in ideas and in governing, and we are all the losers.
Likewise, the only difference between the Senate Judiciary Hearings with Kavanaugh and January 6th? The doors were locked for Kavanaugh... and likewise, the "big lie" of CRT and cancel culture remains at large. Democratic Socialists are predictably of one party. Sadly, etc.
So perhaps we can talk about "parity" in the sense that both parties have their extremes attacking the center. The problem comes in when we play the game of whataboutism (which as we see here, doesn't move us forward at all) rather than step back and address the wider problem of why extremism on the left and the right crop up (which is why I reference Simone Weil). Somehow "our extremism" is honorable and reactionary, while "their extremism" is always some subclass of either socialism or fascism.
Maybe -- just maybe -- there is an honorable middle willing to defend consensus against the extremes? But that's going to require a lot more of getting to the why behind other people's why -- a lot of talking and twice as much listening. Those of us who can't do this are most likely part of the problem... the real enemy is our own hubris. Everything we can do to tamp that down and recognize in in our political discourse (even locally) is desperately needed.
Never heard that one. How many cops were injured during the Kav hearings? Which Democratic leader has been charged as a result of his actions and inactions during those hearings? Pelosi, Schumer, Biden, Obama?
Which of them considered invoking the Insurrection Act to get their way?
The real enemy is not hubris. Other than the hubris of thinking that those you are attacking should never stand their ground. They should always excuse, concede, compromise. What you call the extemists of the Democratic Party of today would be termed the middle ground of the Republican Party a generation ago.
Don't believe me?
Check out the debate between HW Bush and Ronald Reagan from 1980 and tell me which party that fits.
It is the systematic attacks that occurred from the right, yet which folks such as yourself continually try to minimize or rationalize.
Before conciliation, there has to be honesty and mutual respect. That's not occurring. And it is the Republicans doing it. As evidenced by the House's Republicans making a conscious choice to concede to any demand from their most extreme members, rather than offer anything to moderate Democrats, despite being offered that choice.
If you are the one with the power and you make a choice to take one path rather than the other, you should not blame those you leave behind for your choice.
Yet here you are trying to do exactly that.
Compromise without mutual respect between those being controlled and those in power is merely appeasement. Not the same thing. No matter how you spin it.
If one took a drink every time Mr Kenney referenced 2000 y/o+ Greek society like it came from Olympus on high, I'm afraid it would soon lead to rehab....
But just so's I'm clear, the Republican House Members, rather than reach out to create consensus with mainstream Dems, like Abigail Spanberger - chose to align with the likes of not only Perv Gaetz, but such solid citizens as Paul "BigLie" Gosar, MGT of Jewish space laser fame, and Lauren "don't sit in the seat after her" Boebert.
And the Republican leaders have allowed those irradicals to have ever more and more influence on the House's business. How much?
They were going to have the United States default on debt that THEY created.
Merely threatening such action reduced the country's formerly pristine credit rating. Thereby costing the American taxpayers billions in interest costs on the trillions of debt that they have passed to provide welfare for billionaires and corporations. Well done, guys and gals, well done. If that isn't conservatism, I don't know what is. And neither do you.
But neither of us are to blame. It's been a while since we've seen true conservatism around here. Rather than grandstanding grasshoppers with no thought for the future beyond the next election.
They are looking to abandon Ukraine, which ain't it peculiar how much that party does the bidding of Putin? What's that they say? Dictators of a feather, flock together.
They're looking, as a party, to bring back Donald Trump. The "man" (if you consider those acting like fraudulent megalomaniac sex pervs charged with multiple felonies to be men) - someone who came the closest to destroying our country of anyone in its history, before he even goes to court on any of the dozens of felony charges he has pending.
And they chose to kick out their own Speaker, based upon rules that THEY chose to rule by - rather than come to any agreement with any 8 Democrats and it is the Democrats responsibility to stop them?
Really?
At the same time they do ever more to appease their zealots?
They got an impeachment going on Biden to appease them. Which even their own members call BS on.
They are abandoning Ukraine, literally a democratic people fighting for their lives - literally - against a dictator. Putin thanks them. Neville Chamberlain understands them. Churchill would have despised them.
But anyway, back to the Mr Kenney's assertion. That the Democrats should be more accommodating of McCarthy as he kicks them in the face.
What are the facts? (Not that such things ever matter when speaking with a kult member).
The Democratic House leader, Mr Jeffries - wrote an open letter to the members of the Republican Party, despite all of the provocations and disrespect that they have shown - from embracing the Gaetz's, Gosars, and Santos's - to things as petty as kicking Pelosi out of her office while she was at a friend's funeral - that again offered to support a speakership of a Republican whom they could trust, and would work toward consensus.
It's in the NYT. Not like its a secret.
But with the ever growing indifference and arrogance shown by McCarthy and the rest of the "Main Street" Republicans (which I assume are the ones who only vote like they want to kill, rule, control, or own the rest of us, and don't actually say it) - toward the majority of this country which rejects their brand of totalitarianism - it would be laughable, if not so inestimably sad, to think it is the Democrat's responsibility to save them from themselves.
Why should they? When the Republicans only want to be saved so that they can continue upon the same path?
The Republican Party has no platform. It is an unholy troika of billionaires, mullahs, and racists taking the country in a death spiral of ignorance and debt - fueled by it's media hyperbole presenting as fact. Until challenged in court, of course. Then they admit that no one in their right mind would believe their lies.
Its leaders admit its members do not believe in the Constitution. It's kultgod wants to return to power, not only to avoid the justice he so richly deserves - but to wreak vengeance upon the country which would dare hold him accountable.
They build their power upon ungovernable lies, and then expect everyone else to pretend and act otherwise.
And now they are reaping the whirlwind that they've sown, and still, rather than accept the hand which has been offered; they reject it while demanding those offering the hand jump into the storm with them to die. Because to accept it would require admitting they were wrong all along. So they'll choose the Gaetzs, MGTs, Gosars instead,
I've never read it, but I can honestly say that I've never heard of a more aptly named magazine/newsletter/whatever it is than Mr Kenney's Republican Standard.
Wellllll, I paid my $80, and am a strong believer in getting my money's worth.
If it makes you feel any better, I do see you as a step above Kevin McCarthy, just as I see him a step or two above Trump. But y'all all in the same slime, enabling and feeding off each other.
I promise you that if you say anything that makes any sense, I won't mind a bit saying so.
Now let's just focus on this issue, which YOU chose to speak upon. I'll even use the Socratic method a bit, just so's you feel comfortable. I see how you focus on such things. Though the way y'all act around Donald Trump reminds me a lot more of how the Romans tore down their Republic, than anything the Greeks did.
Democrats didn't get a say in the rules the Republicans, united" chose to run the House by, did they?
ALL of the Republicans agreed to them, not just McCarthy and Gaetz. Whitman, Cline, Good, Griffith. They voted as a united group - did they not? Along with the Gosars, Boeberts, Scalises, Stefaniks, correct? All of the nutbirds had to be appeased, and took what - 50 votes, weeks of stalemate - and a secret deal to get it done, right?
We don't even know what McCarthy and the "Main Street" Republicans - and by extension - you - their backers - agreed to, do we? A deal so shady, it cannot even be reported, that's what our country's House is run by?
We do know that the effects of that pact with the devil (sorry - Trump cult), have become ever more evident, with impeachments just to have them, democracies attacked - here and abroad, our finances shaken by threats of bankruptcy from a party whose leader tried to sell a 10000 sf house as a 30000 sf house and is charged with over 90 heinous felonies, correct?
And when that devil's deal finally comes to light and demands payment of McCarthy - to destroy the country, and he refuses - not out of any shred of patriotism, but because again, as with all things - he doesn't see that as best for Kevin McCarthy - then your first reaction is that the problem is Democrats don't bail him out from the people he made his secret deal with?
Your party, your kult, has a rottenness to its core.
Now maybe our system of government has enabled it. With you enjoying the Presidency 4 times out of 8, even when you lose the popular vote 7 out of 8 times. Kind folks like Mr Davis willing to look the other way in the name of comity over truth. Not calling BS when you tell us that corporations are people, but children in cages are bargaining tools to be used to terrorize their parents. Demonizing illegal immigrants at the same time you depend upon them. Policies that promote the welfare of those already the wealthiest, rather than the general welfare - with the sick idea that if we're good - and they can't find a better deal in China or Mexico - or decide not to hide it in the Bahamas - that they will trickle it back down to us.
But its unsustainable.
That ain't my fault.
Any more than McCarthy and House Republicans like Whitman making a deal with the kult for fundraising purposes, media attention, and political power like they have a mandate of 80-90%, when instead - they are hanging on by the narrowest of margins and only with the most bizarre dregs of right wing fanaticism being the ones calling the shots.
I'm not a fan of participation trophies, or telling someone they might be right when you know, and facts show they are wrong. As is the case in this fiasco created by House Republicans.
And it doesn't help when your first inclination is not to demand better of the people you support - but to blame others for not accepting it with you.
Don't you know?
Got to run, Winchester awaits. Feel free to play with yourself while I'm gone.
Didn't know I needed to run it by you, but I like doing paperwork in the mornings. And something light weight such as responding to your column, gives me a break from the heavy lifting that matters.
I also wrote a report, invoiced a client, and answered emails, anything more personal than that, I'll leave to your imagination. It seems fairly active.
Then I realized that maybe it was the volume of my response that perturbed you rather than the timing.
Being a nice person, I tried to put myself in your shoes. And when I thought about it, I realized that there may be something I know that is completely outside of your ken.
Based upon the little that I do know of you, from your writings.
Something that you may find amazing, once you learn it.
I welcome you to try it in all of your endeavors. I suspect we would all benefit, you especially. At least, that is my hope.
In that it is rather easy to write the truth.
It is those lying or "spinning" or however you choose to classify it - that have to think about every word they write or say.
You know, like when their party's deal with the devil finally implodes and they want to blame anyone but themselves for their troubles.
Someone asks me what 2+2 equals, I just say, 4. I don't have to worry about if it hurts the party, I just say it cause it's true. Don't take but a second.
For instance, when you ask most folks who live in a 2000sf home if it is a 2000sf home or a 6000sf home, they can tell the difference.
Even if they are not the biggest and greatest real estate genius ever.
It is a rare sentient being of the age of majority who owns a home and isn't able to tell the difference. I don't know of any. Do you?
And when I find someone trying to sell me a 2000sf home as a 6000sf home, and does it year after year, despite originally acknowledging it was a 2000sf home and being told that it was a 2000sf - still tries to sell it as 6000sf - they have a name for that action. Fraud. Lying for monetary gain.
But if you're just honest up front, you ain't got to worry. You just honestly answer the question and go on with your life.
The fact your avowed kultgod and soon to be party nominee doesn't get that concept - goes a long way to explaining to me why you would find my idea to be such an amazing concept. And would explain the state you and your party are in.
Again. Feel free to try it. Tell all of you kultklan friends. Please.
Don't know that I agree with your assertion. In that I find Neal Stephenson's works much more informative than a comic book. If you want to tell me trigonometry is the study of triangles - it is true.
But I suspect I will know it better after long and detailed study.
Still, I understand the idea. That if it can't fit into a 3-4 word slogan, it isn't worthwhile. If a story cannot be told in 30 seconds, who cares? Don't agree with it, but I understand it. The George Costanza method of science. That you don't like it if it makes you think too hard.
Interesting to see the same folks that make such claims note the dumbing down of America at the same time they create it. That your assertions should be trusted without proof. That would be the journalist's curse. Borne from the time when every inch of the paper was precious.
No one told you we're no longer paying for ink?
Still, interesting to see you so concerned with the length of my posts. And that you seem to be implying that their length imply they lack veracity, rather than that they record an overwhelming amount of facts that back up their assertions.
Information theory states that one of the best means of getting a message across is not only clarity, but repetition. Don't blame me, blame Claude Shannon.
Still, if what you say has merit, what does it tell us about your original column, which was longer than both of my posts, and evidently took you much longer to put together, in that it was longer?
They say it is the compulsive liar that believes everyone lies, the cheat who believes everyone cheats.
Feel free to rely on luck if you choose. I prefer facts myself. To each his own.....And as others have noted - your solution for Democrats is to choose between a Scalise, McCarthy, or Jordan - when none of the 3 offer any respect or concessions to Democrats - while they will do anything to appease the most virulent members of their caucus.
And then you complain that they are not compromising enough. And that makes them the problem, not the fact that NONE of the Republicans will accept in anyway giving such minimum respect to any Democrat or showing any sign of compromise.
Shaun,
You cannot be serious. McCarthy has been dishonest about everything and then thought it useful to blame the other party for his screw ups. The extreme right cannot be appeased, so pretending that extending an olive branch would be meaningful is an effort at wishful thinking. You are smarter than that, I hope.
Mary and Erik --
Consider that the options are now Jim Jordan or Steve Scalise. Was McCarthy truly more partisan than either of these options? I'm not so sure... Scalise will be better than Jordan on this front, but Jordan is a partisan par excellence... and a fight to replace McCarthy only serves the extremes IMO.
Beyond that, olive branches are what makes politics good. Olive branches are what made America thru compromise -- not intransigence. Either both sides learn to see this, or we get the politics we deserve due to an intransigence of our own.
Both sides have to believe in democratic principles for the two-party system to work. We don't have that at present. There are also more options than you state and that is where it will end up. Neither Scalise nor Jordan have the full support of their caucus. They also need to change the speaker's rules and that hasn't happened yet. The quote of the week was on Colbert the other night. Something to the effect of Democrats having to routinely fix what the Republicans screw up. That is not necessarily a historical analysis, but it rings true for these past few years.
...and as if on cue! See there? Hope springs eternal!
https://twitter.com/themaxburns/status/1712463987647156253
I suppose the problem is that Republicans could (and do) say the same thing about Democrats, which only sharpens the divide.
The wider question -- and the one I raise above, albeit in an oblique way -- is that the way the extremes dominate the discourse is purely through narrow partisanship. Because we refuse to embrace anything remotely resembling a center, we allow the far left and far right to stretch our polity so thin that we forget that our primary job is to do the business of the people of America.
Of course, today compromise is weakness. Win-win scenarios must be win-lose scenarios or else you have cut cards with the devil.
Once upon a time, Reagan and Tip O'Neill could sit down weekly and talk. Today, if a Democrat or Republican is caught talking to the party opposite? It is posted to social media and viewed as a rank betrayal. That's not good for democracy... and the fix has to start somewhere.
What people say is not as meaningful as what they do. The insurrection was not a bipartisan affair. Neither is promoting the Big Lie. Christian Nationalists are predictably of one party. We cannot talk about this by pretending there is parity between the two parties. One party has ceased to be an organization interested in ideas and in governing, and we are all the losers.
Likewise, the only difference between the Senate Judiciary Hearings with Kavanaugh and January 6th? The doors were locked for Kavanaugh... and likewise, the "big lie" of CRT and cancel culture remains at large. Democratic Socialists are predictably of one party. Sadly, etc.
So perhaps we can talk about "parity" in the sense that both parties have their extremes attacking the center. The problem comes in when we play the game of whataboutism (which as we see here, doesn't move us forward at all) rather than step back and address the wider problem of why extremism on the left and the right crop up (which is why I reference Simone Weil). Somehow "our extremism" is honorable and reactionary, while "their extremism" is always some subclass of either socialism or fascism.
Maybe -- just maybe -- there is an honorable middle willing to defend consensus against the extremes? But that's going to require a lot more of getting to the why behind other people's why -- a lot of talking and twice as much listening. Those of us who can't do this are most likely part of the problem... the real enemy is our own hubris. Everything we can do to tamp that down and recognize in in our political discourse (even locally) is desperately needed.
Are you suggesting that CRT is a big lie? Comparable to the Big Lie? And socialism is on par with fascism?
Never heard that one. How many cops were injured during the Kav hearings? Which Democratic leader has been charged as a result of his actions and inactions during those hearings? Pelosi, Schumer, Biden, Obama?
Which of them considered invoking the Insurrection Act to get their way?
The real enemy is not hubris. Other than the hubris of thinking that those you are attacking should never stand their ground. They should always excuse, concede, compromise. What you call the extemists of the Democratic Party of today would be termed the middle ground of the Republican Party a generation ago.
Don't believe me?
Check out the debate between HW Bush and Ronald Reagan from 1980 and tell me which party that fits.
It is the systematic attacks that occurred from the right, yet which folks such as yourself continually try to minimize or rationalize.
Before conciliation, there has to be honesty and mutual respect. That's not occurring. And it is the Republicans doing it. As evidenced by the House's Republicans making a conscious choice to concede to any demand from their most extreme members, rather than offer anything to moderate Democrats, despite being offered that choice.
If you are the one with the power and you make a choice to take one path rather than the other, you should not blame those you leave behind for your choice.
Yet here you are trying to do exactly that.
Compromise without mutual respect between those being controlled and those in power is merely appeasement. Not the same thing. No matter how you spin it.
Republicans are in a panic because they can't get rid of Trump and his buddies. To Republicans compromise means "you give me everything I want"
If one took a drink every time Mr Kenney referenced 2000 y/o+ Greek society like it came from Olympus on high, I'm afraid it would soon lead to rehab....
But just so's I'm clear, the Republican House Members, rather than reach out to create consensus with mainstream Dems, like Abigail Spanberger - chose to align with the likes of not only Perv Gaetz, but such solid citizens as Paul "BigLie" Gosar, MGT of Jewish space laser fame, and Lauren "don't sit in the seat after her" Boebert.
And the Republican leaders have allowed those irradicals to have ever more and more influence on the House's business. How much?
They were going to have the United States default on debt that THEY created.
Merely threatening such action reduced the country's formerly pristine credit rating. Thereby costing the American taxpayers billions in interest costs on the trillions of debt that they have passed to provide welfare for billionaires and corporations. Well done, guys and gals, well done. If that isn't conservatism, I don't know what is. And neither do you.
But neither of us are to blame. It's been a while since we've seen true conservatism around here. Rather than grandstanding grasshoppers with no thought for the future beyond the next election.
They are looking to abandon Ukraine, which ain't it peculiar how much that party does the bidding of Putin? What's that they say? Dictators of a feather, flock together.
They're looking, as a party, to bring back Donald Trump. The "man" (if you consider those acting like fraudulent megalomaniac sex pervs charged with multiple felonies to be men) - someone who came the closest to destroying our country of anyone in its history, before he even goes to court on any of the dozens of felony charges he has pending.
And they chose to kick out their own Speaker, based upon rules that THEY chose to rule by - rather than come to any agreement with any 8 Democrats and it is the Democrats responsibility to stop them?
Really?
At the same time they do ever more to appease their zealots?
They got an impeachment going on Biden to appease them. Which even their own members call BS on.
They are abandoning Ukraine, literally a democratic people fighting for their lives - literally - against a dictator. Putin thanks them. Neville Chamberlain understands them. Churchill would have despised them.
But anyway, back to the Mr Kenney's assertion. That the Democrats should be more accommodating of McCarthy as he kicks them in the face.
What are the facts? (Not that such things ever matter when speaking with a kult member).
The Democratic House leader, Mr Jeffries - wrote an open letter to the members of the Republican Party, despite all of the provocations and disrespect that they have shown - from embracing the Gaetz's, Gosars, and Santos's - to things as petty as kicking Pelosi out of her office while she was at a friend's funeral - that again offered to support a speakership of a Republican whom they could trust, and would work toward consensus.
It's in the NYT. Not like its a secret.
But with the ever growing indifference and arrogance shown by McCarthy and the rest of the "Main Street" Republicans (which I assume are the ones who only vote like they want to kill, rule, control, or own the rest of us, and don't actually say it) - toward the majority of this country which rejects their brand of totalitarianism - it would be laughable, if not so inestimably sad, to think it is the Democrat's responsibility to save them from themselves.
Why should they? When the Republicans only want to be saved so that they can continue upon the same path?
The Republican Party has no platform. It is an unholy troika of billionaires, mullahs, and racists taking the country in a death spiral of ignorance and debt - fueled by it's media hyperbole presenting as fact. Until challenged in court, of course. Then they admit that no one in their right mind would believe their lies.
Its leaders admit its members do not believe in the Constitution. It's kultgod wants to return to power, not only to avoid the justice he so richly deserves - but to wreak vengeance upon the country which would dare hold him accountable.
They build their power upon ungovernable lies, and then expect everyone else to pretend and act otherwise.
And now they are reaping the whirlwind that they've sown, and still, rather than accept the hand which has been offered; they reject it while demanding those offering the hand jump into the storm with them to die. Because to accept it would require admitting they were wrong all along. So they'll choose the Gaetzs, MGTs, Gosars instead,
I've never read it, but I can honestly say that I've never heard of a more aptly named magazine/newsletter/whatever it is than Mr Kenney's Republican Standard.
Indeed.
I am so glad i give you purpose in a dark and cruel world.
Wellllll, I paid my $80, and am a strong believer in getting my money's worth.
If it makes you feel any better, I do see you as a step above Kevin McCarthy, just as I see him a step or two above Trump. But y'all all in the same slime, enabling and feeding off each other.
I promise you that if you say anything that makes any sense, I won't mind a bit saying so.
Now let's just focus on this issue, which YOU chose to speak upon. I'll even use the Socratic method a bit, just so's you feel comfortable. I see how you focus on such things. Though the way y'all act around Donald Trump reminds me a lot more of how the Romans tore down their Republic, than anything the Greeks did.
Democrats didn't get a say in the rules the Republicans, united" chose to run the House by, did they?
ALL of the Republicans agreed to them, not just McCarthy and Gaetz. Whitman, Cline, Good, Griffith. They voted as a united group - did they not? Along with the Gosars, Boeberts, Scalises, Stefaniks, correct? All of the nutbirds had to be appeased, and took what - 50 votes, weeks of stalemate - and a secret deal to get it done, right?
We don't even know what McCarthy and the "Main Street" Republicans - and by extension - you - their backers - agreed to, do we? A deal so shady, it cannot even be reported, that's what our country's House is run by?
We do know that the effects of that pact with the devil (sorry - Trump cult), have become ever more evident, with impeachments just to have them, democracies attacked - here and abroad, our finances shaken by threats of bankruptcy from a party whose leader tried to sell a 10000 sf house as a 30000 sf house and is charged with over 90 heinous felonies, correct?
And when that devil's deal finally comes to light and demands payment of McCarthy - to destroy the country, and he refuses - not out of any shred of patriotism, but because again, as with all things - he doesn't see that as best for Kevin McCarthy - then your first reaction is that the problem is Democrats don't bail him out from the people he made his secret deal with?
Your party, your kult, has a rottenness to its core.
Now maybe our system of government has enabled it. With you enjoying the Presidency 4 times out of 8, even when you lose the popular vote 7 out of 8 times. Kind folks like Mr Davis willing to look the other way in the name of comity over truth. Not calling BS when you tell us that corporations are people, but children in cages are bargaining tools to be used to terrorize their parents. Demonizing illegal immigrants at the same time you depend upon them. Policies that promote the welfare of those already the wealthiest, rather than the general welfare - with the sick idea that if we're good - and they can't find a better deal in China or Mexico - or decide not to hide it in the Bahamas - that they will trickle it back down to us.
But its unsustainable.
That ain't my fault.
Any more than McCarthy and House Republicans like Whitman making a deal with the kult for fundraising purposes, media attention, and political power like they have a mandate of 80-90%, when instead - they are hanging on by the narrowest of margins and only with the most bizarre dregs of right wing fanaticism being the ones calling the shots.
I'm not a fan of participation trophies, or telling someone they might be right when you know, and facts show they are wrong. As is the case in this fiasco created by House Republicans.
And it doesn't help when your first inclination is not to demand better of the people you support - but to blame others for not accepting it with you.
Don't you know?
Got to run, Winchester awaits. Feel free to play with yourself while I'm gone.
You wrote all of this at 5am?
Was there a curfew?
Didn't know I needed to run it by you, but I like doing paperwork in the mornings. And something light weight such as responding to your column, gives me a break from the heavy lifting that matters.
I also wrote a report, invoiced a client, and answered emails, anything more personal than that, I'll leave to your imagination. It seems fairly active.
Then I realized that maybe it was the volume of my response that perturbed you rather than the timing.
Being a nice person, I tried to put myself in your shoes. And when I thought about it, I realized that there may be something I know that is completely outside of your ken.
Based upon the little that I do know of you, from your writings.
Something that you may find amazing, once you learn it.
I welcome you to try it in all of your endeavors. I suspect we would all benefit, you especially. At least, that is my hope.
In that it is rather easy to write the truth.
It is those lying or "spinning" or however you choose to classify it - that have to think about every word they write or say.
You know, like when their party's deal with the devil finally implodes and they want to blame anyone but themselves for their troubles.
Someone asks me what 2+2 equals, I just say, 4. I don't have to worry about if it hurts the party, I just say it cause it's true. Don't take but a second.
For instance, when you ask most folks who live in a 2000sf home if it is a 2000sf home or a 6000sf home, they can tell the difference.
Even if they are not the biggest and greatest real estate genius ever.
It is a rare sentient being of the age of majority who owns a home and isn't able to tell the difference. I don't know of any. Do you?
And when I find someone trying to sell me a 2000sf home as a 6000sf home, and does it year after year, despite originally acknowledging it was a 2000sf home and being told that it was a 2000sf - still tries to sell it as 6000sf - they have a name for that action. Fraud. Lying for monetary gain.
But if you're just honest up front, you ain't got to worry. You just honestly answer the question and go on with your life.
The fact your avowed kultgod and soon to be party nominee doesn't get that concept - goes a long way to explaining to me why you would find my idea to be such an amazing concept. And would explain the state you and your party are in.
Again. Feel free to try it. Tell all of you kultklan friends. Please.
Seriously.
Pretty please.
We'd all be better off......
I dare to dream.
Usually the truth doesn't require so many words...
Good luck!
Don't know that I agree with your assertion. In that I find Neal Stephenson's works much more informative than a comic book. If you want to tell me trigonometry is the study of triangles - it is true.
But I suspect I will know it better after long and detailed study.
Still, I understand the idea. That if it can't fit into a 3-4 word slogan, it isn't worthwhile. If a story cannot be told in 30 seconds, who cares? Don't agree with it, but I understand it. The George Costanza method of science. That you don't like it if it makes you think too hard.
Interesting to see the same folks that make such claims note the dumbing down of America at the same time they create it. That your assertions should be trusted without proof. That would be the journalist's curse. Borne from the time when every inch of the paper was precious.
No one told you we're no longer paying for ink?
Still, interesting to see you so concerned with the length of my posts. And that you seem to be implying that their length imply they lack veracity, rather than that they record an overwhelming amount of facts that back up their assertions.
Information theory states that one of the best means of getting a message across is not only clarity, but repetition. Don't blame me, blame Claude Shannon.
Still, if what you say has merit, what does it tell us about your original column, which was longer than both of my posts, and evidently took you much longer to put together, in that it was longer?
They say it is the compulsive liar that believes everyone lies, the cheat who believes everyone cheats.
Feel free to rely on luck if you choose. I prefer facts myself. To each his own.....And as others have noted - your solution for Democrats is to choose between a Scalise, McCarthy, or Jordan - when none of the 3 offer any respect or concessions to Democrats - while they will do anything to appease the most virulent members of their caucus.
And then you complain that they are not compromising enough. And that makes them the problem, not the fact that NONE of the Republicans will accept in anyway giving such minimum respect to any Democrat or showing any sign of compromise.
You are special.
And yet you are okay mocking others who have also laid their life on the line in service to our country.
How noble.
Mocking?
Likewise, the only difference between the Senate Judiciary Hearings with Kavanaugh and January 6th? The doors were locked for Kavanaugh. - SK
BTW - the doors were locked for Jan 6th as well, until your cult bashed them in...
Didn’t you mean BLM?
How so?
In case you didn't recognize them, that's a cut and paste of your words, not mine.
So you're really not opposed to extremism then... just reaction.
Got it.
How so?