Friday, January 20, 2017

Professional Left Podcast #371


"Don't blame me, I'm an independent!"  -- Pontius Pilate, April 3, 33 AD


Links:
  • Twitter account of Daniel Dale, Toronto Star reporter who asked Trumpshirts "Why?"
  • Charlie Pierce writes real good.

8 comments:

The Kraken said...

Thank goodness you guys survived the day.

jjstraka said...

Rough day for everyone, thanks for the extra 30 minutes.

bluicebank said...

Everyone leaves out the extras bonus points of denial after whatever the fuck:

1. Humor.
2. Paying the writer.

Sending you change. Also, remiss I didn't invent a time machine.

Rob said...

I see a fundraising opportunity with Cornfield Rebellion/McGuffin's muffin's T-Shirts.

I'd buy a couple.

Keep up the great work.

Robt said...

AS the conservative preaching and damnation continues in my local paper's public comment section.
"Swallow the Trump" they order from the thrones has been on the rise.

These folks find the need to scold non Trumpeters. "Time to grow up, liberals", You need to stop being childish and accept Trump", "We respected the liberal president and it is time you did the same".
Just to mention a few of humble and proud real Americans offering their wise advise in the demand and scold method of uniting communication.

The memory hole is a deep and wide chasm for some of these same commenters who had wrote in in the past demanding Obama;s Kenyan birth certificate disqualified him. As the press has induced the Birther in Chief coma on these people. They feel embolden to preach from the holy podium of the ideology that allows them to be superior than thou in the relentless arrogance they gain thorough never holding themselves accountable of their own failed actions in life that disqualifies them from offering their visions of grander, let alone commanding others how to behave.
Even trying to employ the "shaming" of childishness in disappointment of president trash mouth.
There are times you can explain and convince with facts. Times putting them on display in dramatic role playing helps. Those that are so zombified it is just too late. with an exception of the occasional self awareness come to jesus moment as the Obamacare republican at Paul Ryan's town hall expressed (wait I had a life experience and now I see the light". Where the life of self empathy begins in the republican womb..

Hey, I heard that some short fingered vulgarian grabbed the presidency yesterday, right in the pussy.

dinthebeast said...

You're right. It's time for each of us to find our role and play the holy hell out of it, when we can. This is sort of an all-hands-on-deck situation.
Perhaps the challenge will end up making us stronger as a movement, even as it destroys some of us as individuals. We certainly do have experience to bring to this fight. I just keep thinking of something I wrote back in the Reagan years:
"Be careful what you get good at, because you might end up doing a lot of it."

-Doug in Oakland

Unknown said...

First, thank you for the pod cast and your continuing commitment to us, your listeners.

As I listened, my OT (officious twit) module kicked in: I think that Bluegall was conflating Ward Cleaver with Ricky Ricardo.

I could not recall what "the Beaver's" father did for a living, so I did a bit of research According to Wikipedia, "Ward [Cleaver] represent[s] the successful, college-educated, middle-class professional with a steady but obscure office job, and June, the competent and happy homemaker. When Beaver expresses interests in lower-class occupations (such as trash collector), his parents squirm with embarrassment and discomfort." I was certain that Ricky Ricardo, Lucy's husband in I Love Lucy was the band leader at a club in NYC; still I checked the outside source to confirm this. Perhaps a band leader at a union club in NYC at that time could earn enough to live in the apartment complex managed by the Mertzes? Not that it was specified that Ricky's was a union club, but the musician's union in New York City is still fairly strong, and I suspect had even more clout in the mid 50's.

I also would like to make an observation about Bluegall's concern that we who supported Obama constitute a cult. I'm sorry if she lost any sleep over it. Douthat's accusation is nothing new. Please recall that opponents of Barack Hussein Obama have been making that accusation since the 2008 campaign, in an attempt to turn the size of the crowds turning out to hear him speak into something sinister or illegitimate. At the present time such claims are another example of projection by the GOP and its shills in media. It is no more true today than it was in 2008.

And, apropos of nothing in particular, I haven't heard anyone mention that President Obama's first Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu, was a winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics. I think that Donald Trump's nominee can tie his shoes by himself, but I don't think he or any of the others deserve recognition for successfully meeting the minimum standards for disclosing their financial standing as required. Bluegall's noting of Perry's "humility" brought to mind Winston Churchill's disparaging remark about Clement Attlee, the head of the Labour party who succeeded him as PM: "Mr. Attlee is a very modest man. Indeed he has a lot to be modest about." A wonderful turn of phrase: some of those Conservatives do have a way with words, so I would like your readers to know that it was Attlee's government that put in place the National Health Service. I see nothing comparable in Mr. Perry's record as Governor of Texas or his performance as a candidate, so if would be fair comment to replace "Mr Attlee" with "Mr Perry" and use, with attribution of course, the Churchill remark.

And one last bit of quibbling. I think that Driftglass misspoke: I heard him say that the Senate minority leader was attempting to rush through the nominations. I think he was referring to Mitch McConnell (about whom I share Bluegall's unfortunate compulsion) who is, alas the majority leader of the Senate and a man without compunction.

OGIC

Cliff said...

Bluegal mentioned that there was a bunch of "Twitter activism" about the Medicare For All Day last week.
I know I'm grouchy because of all the bad news coming out of the Trump Administration, but believing in "Twitter activism" seems like the height of folly. It seems like hoping the Polish cavalry is going to win against Germany's Panzer tank assault. Except the Polish cavalry actually existed, while Twitter is the massed ephemeral musings of a society of technology addicts.