Saved comments for September 2020

[neonvincent]

I guess he doesn't believe that "politics is the art of the possible," as Otto von Bismarck said. Maybe he should listen to Bismarck, who introduced a system of universal health insurance in Germany in 1884.

Based on his actual votes, which constitute his record, Markey has a Voteview score of -0.511. That makes him the fifth most liberal member of the Senate, just to the center of Sanders.
https://voteview.com/person/14435/edward-john-markey

In contrast, Kennedy has a Voteview score of -0.422, placing him just to the left of the center of the Democratic caucus and significantly to the right of Markey.
https://voteview.com/person/21335/joseph-p-iii-kennedy

The only take I heard that makes sense beyond Kennedy political entitlement was by @ClareMalone who said that Kennedy wanted to avoid a primary battle with Ayanna Pressley for Warren's seat. He'd probably beat her, but it would be bad for his presidential prospects.

My comment on Trump’s Kenosha Trip Report.

One of the reactions to the photo of Trump shuffling through Kenosha was from a fellow who makes YouTube videos about Disney World. He tweeted: "When you’re too short to ride Splash Mountain so you steal mom’s high heels & long pants." He zoomed in on Trump's shoes to make the point.

My comment on Things Get Seriously Weird...

In that case, it's the mirror image of conservative reactions to Hillary Clinton and a repeat of liberal reactions to Sarah Palin. I wrote the following in a diary I posted to Daily Kos 10 years ago and reposted to my personal blog 4 years later.

From 2000-2008, I was a regular participant on The Fourth Turning Forums. A lot of politics were discussed there, and one particular topic kept coming up during 2002-2004--Hillary Clinton running for President in 2004. The people who kept making that prediction were conservatives, not liberals. The liberals all knew that Madame Clinton wasn't going to run in 2004 and had plenty of reasons why she wouldn't. The conservatives on the site refused to listen. At first, I thought they were expressing a "don't throw me into the briar patch" wish--they'd have loved to run against her, as they knew (and still know) what to expect and how to attack her. Then, I realized something else--they were in lust with her. I decided to call them out on it.

"I think you guys are predicting that Clinton is going to run because you have a hard-on for her. Admit it, you want to jump her bones."

I thought telling them that would shut them up. It did. They had to wait until 2007 to start up again for 2008, when Madame Clinton did run.

Nowadays, there is a lot of speculation from both the left and right that Palin will run for president in 2012. Unlike 2002-2004, I don't hear a lot of voices from Palin's side of the aisle saying that she's not running; most of the skeptical voices are coming from the left. However, there are progressives who think she will run. Some of them are very openly hoping for a "don't throw me into the briar patch" situation, as they think Obama would trounce Palin. Others, however, don't seem to fit that pattern, and seem openly fearful. I suspect that they also have a hard-on for Palin, just as the conservatives had for Clinton in 2002-2004. Maybe if you all reading this find yourselves or other progressives obsessing over Palin running, you might ask yourself or the other progressive if they find Palin attractive, and see what happens.

You can read the reactions from liberals in the comments to the Daily Kos diary -- except one. Anyone could edit the tags on a Daily Kos diary and someone added "sexual objectification of politicians." They weren't wrong.

My comment on If we were vampires and white supremacy was intriguing.

It helps that Vlad the Impaler, the real-life inspiration for Dracula, was her great-uncle.

My comments on Saving June Cleaver’s Suburbs, Part Infinity.

That reminds me of the ad slogan: "Bandini is the word for fertilizer."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afSKGTxm_ZA

Speaking of Trump and suburbia, I wrote the following in response to a doomer who made a prediction about politics.

"As for Trump, you once predicted that Americans would elect maniacs who would promise that they could keep the entitlements of suburbia. Trump has shown you to be right and wrong about that. Yes, they'll elect maniacs to protect the entitlements of suburbia, but those entitlements turned out to be psychological and social, not physical. Trump's support is more a response to threats to the social environment as it is to losing SUVs and McMansions, which with the price of oil being low right now, are not issues like they were in 2008 and 2012. Instead, it's immigration, terrorism, and 'law and order.'"

I reposted it on my blog the morning after Trump won in 2016. Trump must think, since it was a winning formula four years ago, it will work now.


My comment on Magic Monday (my birthday edition).

I have two questions and a comment for you today. Since today is my birthday, I decided to indulge myself.

First, after reading your comments on affirmations, I realized that I had made an affirmation to leave my first wife for my then-mistress 25 years ago that I would repeat silently to myself every time my ex-wife and I fought. I worked; I left her. Unfortunately, the affirmation is still there 13 years after my ex-mistress, now ex-(open) girlfriend, and I broke up and I married another woman. The affirmation rises up to mock me and I wish to make it stop beyond responding to it with "I will never see her again" and "I love my wife and won't leave her." Do I just treat it as another bad habit of thought or do I need a stronger affirmation to replace it?

On a lighter note, I am a fan of a piece of joke wisdom called Oliver's Woofing Theorum (sic). It states that, all other things being equal, the team whose fans engage in more aggressive boasting about their team will lose. It was meant to be like Godwin's Law, which was intended to inhibit Nazi comparisons, to do the same for sports fans bragging about their teams and talking trash about their opponents. It even makes a reference to the "Woof Gods," however joking. Is there anything serious from an occult dimension about this beyond it being a reworking of the Evil Eye for the Internet?

Finally, I recall you and at least one commenter discussing the Libra Ingress chart for the U.S. a few weeks ago noticing that the chart shows turbulence in American politics and that one interpretation was that Justice Ginsberg would die or retire and that her seat would open, causing a fight over her replacement. Well, that happened. It shows that TSW, even when one doesn't want it to.