Fading Republicans

In August, at the height of the Tea Party Movement, I counseled that the temporary gains of Republican’s would turn out to be ephemeral. The new Washington Post/ABC News Poll proves my point.

Less than one in five voters (19 percent) expressed confidence in Republicans’ ability to make the right decisions for America’s future while a whopping 79 percent lacked that confidence.

Among independent voters, who went heavily for Obama in 2008 and congressional Democrats in 2006, the numbers for Republicans on the confidence questions were even more worse. Just 17 percent of independents expressed confidence in Republicans’ ability to make the right decision while 83 percent said they did not have that confidence.On the generic ballot question, 51 percent of the sample said they would cast a vote for a Democratic candidate in their congressional district next fall while just 39 percent said they would opt for a GOP candidate.

The Know-Nothing Party known as Republican’s is not a credible alternative. Obama’s comment to the Republicans, “Why don’t you grab a mop? Why don’t you help clean up? … Grab a mop — let’s get to work!” is exactly on point.

0 Responses to “Fading Republicans”


  1. Daniel in Asheville (formerly Denton)

    I’m eagerly looking forward to a future of increased Democratic Party rule. It was so great when they ended the occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan, enacted real health care reform and told Wall St. to pound sand. One thing’s for sure: They really know how to use their majority status to push through their agenda …

    /laments lack of third-party options
    //facepalm

  2. Daniel in Asheville (formerly Denton)

    I’m eagerly looking forward to a future of increased Democratic Party rule. It was so great when they ended the occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan, enacted real health care reform and told Wall St. to pound sand. One thing’s for sure: They really know how to use their majority status to push through their agenda …

    /laments lack of third-party options
    //facepalm

  3. Elux Troxl

    Unfortunately and contrarily, the Republican religionist Bob McDonnell appears to be on his way to defeating his Democratic opponent, Creigh Deeds, for governor of Virginia, ending eight years of Democratic governorship in the commonwealth.

  4. Elux Troxl

    Unfortunately and contrarily, the Republican religionist Bob McDonnell appears to be on his way to defeating his Democratic opponent, Creigh Deeds, for governor of Virginia, ending eight years of Democratic governorship in the commonwealth.

  5. billy-bob

    Dempublicans. Party of the oligarchy.

    Taplin are you still a stooge for Obama?

  6. billy-bob

    Dempublicans. Party of the oligarchy.

    Taplin are you still a stooge for Obama?

  7. Dan

    Not many people are cheering the Republican Party these days, but that doesn’t mean they’re all turning to the Democratic Party. A good chunk of those in the “GOP Kiss My Ass” group want something to the right of the Republican Party…way, way, way to the right.

    But when it comes down to the next voting cycle, they’ll vote Republican sooner than they’ll vote Democrat.

  8. Dan

    Not many people are cheering the Republican Party these days, but that doesn’t mean they’re all turning to the Democratic Party. A good chunk of those in the “GOP Kiss My Ass” group want something to the right of the Republican Party…way, way, way to the right.

    But when it comes down to the next voting cycle, they’ll vote Republican sooner than they’ll vote Democrat.

  9. Hugo

    I’m with Dan. The Republicans I know don’t seem down-and-out, just sort of patient. And nor can I see them switching, ever.

    They may be dissolute, especially as they haven’t found a standard-bearer, but they are still pretty sure of themselves. Their debate, as I take it, is not so much over the future of their party as over the proper role of conservatives within the GOP, of the modern meaning, therefore, of conservatism itself. That’s a respectable enough debate. Let’s let them have it.

    I wouldn’t bet on them, but on the other hand I wouldn’t want to discount them to the extent that the self-serving Post and ABC would wish to do. Were I working for the DNC I’d like to participate in the unit that watches the GOP very, very carefully.

  10. Hugo

    I’m with Dan. The Republicans I know don’t seem down-and-out, just sort of patient. And nor can I see them switching, ever.

    They may be dissolute, especially as they haven’t found a standard-bearer, but they are still pretty sure of themselves. Their debate, as I take it, is not so much over the future of their party as over the proper role of conservatives within the GOP, of the modern meaning, therefore, of conservatism itself. That’s a respectable enough debate. Let’s let them have it.

    I wouldn’t bet on them, but on the other hand I wouldn’t want to discount them to the extent that the self-serving Post and ABC would wish to do. Were I working for the DNC I’d like to participate in the unit that watches the GOP very, very carefully.

  11. Hugo

    I’m with Dan. The Republicans I know don’t seem down-and-out, just sort of patient. And nor can I see them switching, ever.

    They may be dissolute, especially as they haven’t found a standard-bearer, but they are still pretty sure of themselves. Their debate, as I take it, is not so much over the future of their party as over the proper role of conservatives within the GOP, of the modern meaning, therefore, of conservatism itself. That’s a respectable enough debate. Let’s let them have it.

    I wouldn’t bet on them, but on the other hand I wouldn’t want to discount them to the extent that the self-serving Post and ABC would wish to do. Were I working for the DNC I’d like to participate in the unit that watches the GOP very, very carefully.

  12. Dan

    Debate is difficult with people who genuinely believe in death panels and Obama stormtroopers and Saddam’s role in 9/11. If the GOP as a party, as opposed to a conservative movement, is in deep trouble, it’s because a sizeable chunk of it has gone barking mad. They’ll never vote Democrat, obviously. But if an “America First For True Patriot One-Man-One-Woman Americans” party came down the pike, with a suitably “Face in the Crowd” Andy Griffith candidate, they might start throwing elections to the Democrats willy nilly.

    I wonder if I just contradicted myself.

  13. Dan

    Debate is difficult with people who genuinely believe in death panels and Obama stormtroopers and Saddam’s role in 9/11. If the GOP as a party, as opposed to a conservative movement, is in deep trouble, it’s because a sizeable chunk of it has gone barking mad. They’ll never vote Democrat, obviously. But if an “America First For True Patriot One-Man-One-Woman Americans” party came down the pike, with a suitably “Face in the Crowd” Andy Griffith candidate, they might start throwing elections to the Democrats willy nilly.

    I wonder if I just contradicted myself.

  14. Dan

    Debate is difficult with people who genuinely believe in death panels and Obama stormtroopers and Saddam’s role in 9/11. If the GOP as a party, as opposed to a conservative movement, is in deep trouble, it’s because a sizeable chunk of it has gone barking mad. They’ll never vote Democrat, obviously. But if an “America First For True Patriot One-Man-One-Woman Americans” party came down the pike, with a suitably “Face in the Crowd” Andy Griffith candidate, they might start throwing elections to the Democrats willy nilly.

    I wonder if I just contradicted myself.

  15. Rick Turner

    With the prevarication in Washington, I don’t think you’re going to see a lot of enthusiasm for the Democrats. Maybe it takes things being this screwed up to break from the two part system, but I see more fragmentation on the right than on the left, though it’s disturbing how Republican the Dems are looking these days. It’s all outrage and no action, and few inside the Beltway seem to give a hoot for those back at home.

  16. Rick Turner

    With the prevarication in Washington, I don’t think you’re going to see a lot of enthusiasm for the Democrats. Maybe it takes things being this screwed up to break from the two part system, but I see more fragmentation on the right than on the left, though it’s disturbing how Republican the Dems are looking these days. It’s all outrage and no action, and few inside the Beltway seem to give a hoot for those back at home.

  17. Rick Turner

    With the prevarication in Washington, I don’t think you’re going to see a lot of enthusiasm for the Democrats. Maybe it takes things being this screwed up to break from the two part system, but I see more fragmentation on the right than on the left, though it’s disturbing how Republican the Dems are looking these days. It’s all outrage and no action, and few inside the Beltway seem to give a hoot for those back at home.

  18. Hugo

    Each party is fairly expert, over time, at fracturing the other. I don’t know whether that’s good or bad. It’s an expertise of a kind, though.

    Dan’s right in saying that the Right are naturally fractuous just now, but then so is the Left pretty scattershot historically. I’m not recommending the Right–especially not to anyone here–but am just saying that they have more advantages than those to which their adversaries in the Media would wish to admit.

    Remember always that their is no longer such a thing as the Press; only a shifting assemblage of tententious niche “media”. That’s the kicker.

  19. Hugo

    Each party is fairly expert, over time, at fracturing the other. I don’t know whether that’s good or bad. It’s an expertise of a kind, though.

    Dan’s right in saying that the Right are naturally fractuous just now, but then so is the Left pretty scattershot historically. I’m not recommending the Right–especially not to anyone here–but am just saying that they have more advantages than those to which their adversaries in the Media would wish to admit.

    Remember always that their is no longer such a thing as the Press; only a shifting assemblage of tententious niche “media”. That’s the kicker.

  20. Hugo

    Each party is fairly expert, over time, at fracturing the other. I don’t know whether that’s good or bad. It’s an expertise of a kind, though.

    Dan’s right in saying that the Right are naturally fractuous just now, but then so is the Left pretty scattershot historically. I’m not recommending the Right–especially not to anyone here–but am just saying that they have more advantages than those to which their adversaries in the Media would wish to admit.

    Remember always that their is no longer such a thing as the Press; only a shifting assemblage of tententious niche “media”. That’s the kicker.

  21. Hugo

    In the old days I’ve had a copy editor, so make that “there”, rather than “their”. Sorry. STOP/

  22. Hugo

    In the old days I’ve had a copy editor, so make that “there”, rather than “their”. Sorry. STOP/

  23. Hugo

    In the old days I’ve had a copy editor, so make that “there”, rather than “their”. Sorry. STOP/

  24. Rick Turner

    I think many of us would like to see post-posting editing be possible here. Is it not a feature with WordPress?

  25. Rick Turner

    I think many of us would like to see post-posting editing be possible here. Is it not a feature with WordPress?

  26. Rick Turner

    I think many of us would like to see post-posting editing be possible here. Is it not a feature with WordPress?

  27. rhbee

    Vote again, are you all fucking crazy? I am so sick of this mess and the politicians who maintain it that I couldn’t vote for dog catcher without becoming ill.

    I just finished a summer of working with people who were happy to have part time temporary jobs, who now face a winter without any prospect, who have families and responsibilty and will work any hours they can find only there aren’t any because those who said they would reinvest in the economy haven’t and those who said that rebuilding the work f0rce through a WPA haven’t. Meanwhile, those pols, who are still getting their pay envelopes and using their health care, keep talking about what they will do instead of actually doing it.

  28. rhbee

    Vote again, are you all fucking crazy? I am so sick of this mess and the politicians who maintain it that I couldn’t vote for dog catcher without becoming ill.

    I just finished a summer of working with people who were happy to have part time temporary jobs, who now face a winter without any prospect, who have families and responsibilty and will work any hours they can find only there aren’t any because those who said they would reinvest in the economy haven’t and those who said that rebuilding the work f0rce through a WPA haven’t. Meanwhile, those pols, who are still getting their pay envelopes and using their health care, keep talking about what they will do instead of actually doing it.

  29. rhbee

    Vote again, are you all fucking crazy? I am so sick of this mess and the politicians who maintain it that I couldn’t vote for dog catcher without becoming ill.

    I just finished a summer of working with people who were happy to have part time temporary jobs, who now face a winter without any prospect, who have families and responsibilty and will work any hours they can find only there aren’t any because those who said they would reinvest in the economy haven’t and those who said that rebuilding the work f0rce through a WPA haven’t. Meanwhile, those pols, who are still getting their pay envelopes and using their health care, keep talking about what they will do instead of actually doing it.

  30. rhbee

    As we say down here, fuck progress and the horse it came in on.

  31. rhbee

    As we say down here, fuck progress and the horse it came in on.

  32. JTMcPhee

    Anybody interested in some additional thoughts on what “we” as a group really are, and how we as a citizenry might do something at least different and maybe even better, could do worse than scan this little piece from the world of 2007, skipping over the opening self-promotion maybe:

    http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/160594/chalmers_johnson_nemesis_on_the_imperial_premises

    It’s not short and pithy like blog comments are supposed to be, but at least in my little pea-brain it produces a whole lot of shocks of recognition.

    And for a little more fun reading, if you are exercised by the machinations of the MIC, you might spend a few moments with this exegisis of how the military procurement lobbying process works — all those really smart people with no consciences and the desire to make a buck off mayhem: Can’t they play outside or find something else better to do?

    Follow the money, down the rathole…

  33. JTMcPhee

    Anybody interested in some additional thoughts on what “we” as a group really are, and how we as a citizenry might do something at least different and maybe even better, could do worse than scan this little piece from the world of 2007, skipping over the opening self-promotion maybe:

    http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/160594/chalmers_johnson_nemesis_on_the_imperial_premises

    It’s not short and pithy like blog comments are supposed to be, but at least in my little pea-brain it produces a whole lot of shocks of recognition.

    And for a little more fun reading, if you are exercised by the machinations of the MIC, you might spend a few moments with this exegisis of how the military procurement lobbying process works — all those really smart people with no consciences and the desire to make a buck off mayhem: Can’t they play outside or find something else better to do?

    Follow the money, down the rathole…

  34. JTMcPhee

    Anybody interested in some additional thoughts on what “we” as a group really are, and how we as a citizenry might do something at least different and maybe even better, could do worse than scan this little piece from the world of 2007, skipping over the opening self-promotion maybe:

    http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/160594/chalmers_johnson_nemesis_on_the_imperial_premises

    It’s not short and pithy like blog comments are supposed to be, but at least in my little pea-brain it produces a whole lot of shocks of recognition.

    And for a little more fun reading, if you are exercised by the machinations of the MIC, you might spend a few moments with this exegisis of how the military procurement lobbying process works — all those really smart people with no consciences and the desire to make a buck off mayhem: Can’t they play outside or find something else better to do?

    Follow the money, down the rathole…

  35. Dan

    rhbee I share your sentiments.

    JTM did you see the article recently on how big banks can borrow money from the government at 0% and then lend it back at 3%? Nice work if you can get it.

    Plus the talk is bubbling again about how the commercial real estate market is about to go belly up.

    Down the rathole is where we’re all going, I think. They must have the American economy pretty much completely hollowed out by now. Soon it will collapse in a poof, like the turkey in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, and then good night.

  36. Dan

    rhbee I share your sentiments.

    JTM did you see the article recently on how big banks can borrow money from the government at 0% and then lend it back at 3%? Nice work if you can get it.

    Plus the talk is bubbling again about how the commercial real estate market is about to go belly up.

    Down the rathole is where we’re all going, I think. They must have the American economy pretty much completely hollowed out by now. Soon it will collapse in a poof, like the turkey in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, and then good night.

  37. JTMcPhee

    Dan, the part I liked about how we pay the Big Bankers with the Big Perks a steady 2 or 3% to hold our money for us was the words of the Big Bankers — “We are performing a necessary service, and we earn everything we get.”

    Yep, they make money the old-fashioned way: They EARN it.

    Reminds me of the story on NPR a couple of years ago that included an interview with a NYC mugger who actually called his “job,” which consists of going out via the subway 2 or 3 days a week and knocking old ladies down and taking their purses, “Getting paid,” and the days he was on the streets were his “paydays.”

    Must be something in the city water.

  38. JTMcPhee

    Dan, the part I liked about how we pay the Big Bankers with the Big Perks a steady 2 or 3% to hold our money for us was the words of the Big Bankers — “We are performing a necessary service, and we earn everything we get.”

    Yep, they make money the old-fashioned way: They EARN it.

    Reminds me of the story on NPR a couple of years ago that included an interview with a NYC mugger who actually called his “job,” which consists of going out via the subway 2 or 3 days a week and knocking old ladies down and taking their purses, “Getting paid,” and the days he was on the streets were his “paydays.”

    Must be something in the city water.

  39. JTMcPhee

    Dan, the part I liked about how we pay the Big Bankers with the Big Perks a steady 2 or 3% to hold our money for us was the words of the Big Bankers — “We are performing a necessary service, and we earn everything we get.”

    Yep, they make money the old-fashioned way: They EARN it.

    Reminds me of the story on NPR a couple of years ago that included an interview with a NYC mugger who actually called his “job,” which consists of going out via the subway 2 or 3 days a week and knocking old ladies down and taking their purses, “Getting paid,” and the days he was on the streets were his “paydays.”

    Must be something in the city water.

  40. JTMcPhee

    Dan, the part I liked about how we pay the Big Bankers with the Big Perks a steady 2 or 3% to hold our money for us was the words of the Big Bankers — “We are performing a necessary service, and we earn everything we get.”

    Yep, they make money the old-fashioned way: They EARN it.

    Reminds me of the story on NPR a couple of years ago that included an interview with a NYC mugger who actually called his “job,” which consists of going out via the subway 2 or 3 days a week and knocking old ladies down and taking their purses, “Getting paid,” and the days he was on the streets were his “paydays.”

    Must be something in the city water.

  41. JTMcPhee

    Anybody seen an aerial view of Wall Street/Financial District at closing or “shift change”? It reminded me of something that fascinated me as a kid — the way ants would rush out of their holes onto the carcass of a squirrel or possum, and eat away at the flesh until there was nothing left but the well-picked bones.

    Or maybe like these little fishies featured in MySpace (I especially like the comments on the bottom):

    http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=51659566
    And here’s another look at yet another stupid human trick, bringing in one pestilence to attack another.

    G’Day, Mate — toss another cane toad on the barbie?

  42. JTMcPhee

    Anybody seen an aerial view of Wall Street/Financial District at closing or “shift change”? It reminded me of something that fascinated me as a kid — the way ants would rush out of their holes onto the carcass of a squirrel or possum, and eat away at the flesh until there was nothing left but the well-picked bones.

    Or maybe like these little fishies featured in MySpace (I especially like the comments on the bottom):

    http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=51659566
    And here’s another look at yet another stupid human trick, bringing in one pestilence to attack another.

    G’Day, Mate — toss another cane toad on the barbie?

  43. JTMcPhee

    Anybody seen an aerial view of Wall Street/Financial District at closing or “shift change”? It reminded me of something that fascinated me as a kid — the way ants would rush out of their holes onto the carcass of a squirrel or possum, and eat away at the flesh until there was nothing left but the well-picked bones.

    Or maybe like these little fishies featured in MySpace (I especially like the comments on the bottom):

    http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=51659566
    And here’s another look at yet another stupid human trick, bringing in one pestilence to attack another.

    G’Day, Mate — toss another cane toad on the barbie?

  44. Dan

    Yet more in the barking mad department. Lamar Alexander, not generally someone I think of as a far-far right wingnut, has compared Obama to Nixon, and says that Obama is building an “enemies list.”

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091021/pl_nm/us_washington_summit_politics_enemies

    A quote:

    ‘…as a senior Republican aide put it, “This is going to tick them off. But they have to realize, you can’t behave like this and expect bipartisan cooperation.”‘

    I actually laughed out loud at that gem.

    Because being inflexible ideologues in the White House and demanding that you have your way on everything all the time is a strictly Republican prerogative, cue film highlights from 2001-2009. Freedom Fries! Support the Troops! Mission Accomplished! You’re Either With Us Or Against Us!

    Attention senior Republican aide: Nobody expects you to engage in any kind of bipartisanship under any circumstances. We would fall over stone dead if you did. So the pressure is off. Just carry on with your brain-damaged delusions that your party still carries a total and permanent lock on power.

    The sad part about this story is that Alexander, who isn’t up for re-election until 2014, has been dragged into the barking mad camp and been given an attack script to stick to. I’m sure there will be a chorus of “hear hear!” and plenty of additional talk about “enemies lists” and “hit lists” from other GOP pols. It’s just disappointing that they could bully Lamar into taking the lead on this garbage.

  45. Dan

    Yet more in the barking mad department. Lamar Alexander, not generally someone I think of as a far-far right wingnut, has compared Obama to Nixon, and says that Obama is building an “enemies list.”

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091021/pl_nm/us_washington_summit_politics_enemies

    A quote:

    ‘…as a senior Republican aide put it, “This is going to tick them off. But they have to realize, you can’t behave like this and expect bipartisan cooperation.”‘

    I actually laughed out loud at that gem.

    Because being inflexible ideologues in the White House and demanding that you have your way on everything all the time is a strictly Republican prerogative, cue film highlights from 2001-2009. Freedom Fries! Support the Troops! Mission Accomplished! You’re Either With Us Or Against Us!

    Attention senior Republican aide: Nobody expects you to engage in any kind of bipartisanship under any circumstances. We would fall over stone dead if you did. So the pressure is off. Just carry on with your brain-damaged delusions that your party still carries a total and permanent lock on power.

    The sad part about this story is that Alexander, who isn’t up for re-election until 2014, has been dragged into the barking mad camp and been given an attack script to stick to. I’m sure there will be a chorus of “hear hear!” and plenty of additional talk about “enemies lists” and “hit lists” from other GOP pols. It’s just disappointing that they could bully Lamar into taking the lead on this garbage.

  46. Dan

    Yet more in the barking mad department. Lamar Alexander, not generally someone I think of as a far-far right wingnut, has compared Obama to Nixon, and says that Obama is building an “enemies list.”

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091021/pl_nm/us_washington_summit_politics_enemies

    A quote:

    ‘…as a senior Republican aide put it, “This is going to tick them off. But they have to realize, you can’t behave like this and expect bipartisan cooperation.”‘

    I actually laughed out loud at that gem.

    Because being inflexible ideologues in the White House and demanding that you have your way on everything all the time is a strictly Republican prerogative, cue film highlights from 2001-2009. Freedom Fries! Support the Troops! Mission Accomplished! You’re Either With Us Or Against Us!

    Attention senior Republican aide: Nobody expects you to engage in any kind of bipartisanship under any circumstances. We would fall over stone dead if you did. So the pressure is off. Just carry on with your brain-damaged delusions that your party still carries a total and permanent lock on power.

    The sad part about this story is that Alexander, who isn’t up for re-election until 2014, has been dragged into the barking mad camp and been given an attack script to stick to. I’m sure there will be a chorus of “hear hear!” and plenty of additional talk about “enemies lists” and “hit lists” from other GOP pols. It’s just disappointing that they could bully Lamar into taking the lead on this garbage.

  47. Hugo

    JTM,

    The film essayist Godfrey Reggio, in his award-winning tone poem “Kooyanisqatsi”, captured those ebbs and flows wonderfully with time-lapse effects. Really arresting, and very much from your optic. In Reggio’s vision, as seen largely in aerial view, the workers resemble termites as they flow out of and later ebb into the subterranian railways. The film as a whole is a disturbing diatribe against modernism and, especially, the Systems Thinking.

  48. Hugo

    JTM,

    The film essayist Godfrey Reggio, in his award-winning tone poem “Kooyanisqatsi”, captured those ebbs and flows wonderfully with time-lapse effects. Really arresting, and very much from your optic. In Reggio’s vision, as seen largely in aerial view, the workers resemble termites as they flow out of and later ebb into the subterranian railways. The film as a whole is a disturbing diatribe against modernism and, especially, the Systems Thinking.

  49. Hugo

    JTM,

    The film essayist Godfrey Reggio, in his award-winning tone poem “Kooyanisqatsi”, captured those ebbs and flows wonderfully with time-lapse effects. Really arresting, and very much from your optic. In Reggio’s vision, as seen largely in aerial view, the workers resemble termites as they flow out of and later ebb into the subterranian railways. The film as a whole is a disturbing diatribe against modernism and, especially, the Systems Thinking.

  50. John Papola

    Grab a mop… let’s soak up what’s left in the private investment capital in US treasuries and ring it out into a bucket of electorally-optimized special interests and margin voters, outright destruction of “clunky” wealth, propping up of over-hung industries like real estate and autos through bailouts, payoffs and make-work nonsense.

    Oh, and while we’re at it, lets drop a thick fog of Knightian uncertainty over a large chunk of the economy with centralizing, rent-super-seeking so-called “reform” efforts in healthcare and energy. Lets do all this as we allow an insolvent banking system to loot the treasury with the help of the Fed.

    Yep grab that mop and soak up the red ink.

    Give me a break, Jon. This isn’t a team sports game. It’s our country’s future. The GOP is irrelevant. We’re in a bi-partisan oligarchic looting on a grand scale with Debt/GDP levels that make Reagan look frugal even as he was dealing with the 81/82 downturn. Be an ideas man, not a party man.

  51. John Papola

    Grab a mop… let’s soak up what’s left in the private investment capital in US treasuries and ring it out into a bucket of electorally-optimized special interests and margin voters, outright destruction of “clunky” wealth, propping up of over-hung industries like real estate and autos through bailouts, payoffs and make-work nonsense.

    Oh, and while we’re at it, lets drop a thick fog of Knightian uncertainty over a large chunk of the economy with centralizing, rent-super-seeking so-called “reform” efforts in healthcare and energy. Lets do all this as we allow an insolvent banking system to loot the treasury with the help of the Fed.

    Yep grab that mop and soak up the red ink.

    Give me a break, Jon. This isn’t a team sports game. It’s our country’s future. The GOP is irrelevant. We’re in a bi-partisan oligarchic looting on a grand scale with Debt/GDP levels that make Reagan look frugal even as he was dealing with the 81/82 downturn. Be an ideas man, not a party man.

  52. John Papola

    Grab a mop… let’s soak up what’s left in the private investment capital in US treasuries and ring it out into a bucket of electorally-optimized special interests and margin voters, outright destruction of “clunky” wealth, propping up of over-hung industries like real estate and autos through bailouts, payoffs and make-work nonsense.

    Oh, and while we’re at it, lets drop a thick fog of Knightian uncertainty over a large chunk of the economy with centralizing, rent-super-seeking so-called “reform” efforts in healthcare and energy. Lets do all this as we allow an insolvent banking system to loot the treasury with the help of the Fed.

    Yep grab that mop and soak up the red ink.

    Give me a break, Jon. This isn’t a team sports game. It’s our country’s future. The GOP is irrelevant. We’re in a bi-partisan oligarchic looting on a grand scale with Debt/GDP levels that make Reagan look frugal even as he was dealing with the 81/82 downturn. Be an ideas man, not a party man.

  53. John Papola

    Grab a mop… let’s soak up what’s left in the private investment capital in US treasuries and ring it out into a bucket of electorally-optimized special interests and margin voters, outright destruction of “clunky” wealth, propping up of over-hung industries like real estate and autos through bailouts, payoffs and make-work nonsense.

    Oh, and while we’re at it, lets drop a thick fog of Knightian uncertainty over a large chunk of the economy with centralizing, rent-super-seeking so-called “reform” efforts in healthcare and energy. Lets do all this as we allow an insolvent banking system to loot the treasury with the help of the Fed.

    Yep grab that mop and soak up the red ink.

    Give me a break, Jon. This isn’t a team sports game. It’s our country’s future. The GOP is irrelevant. We’re in a bi-partisan oligarchic looting on a grand scale with Debt/GDP levels that make Reagan look frugal even as he was dealing with the 81/82 downturn. Be an ideas man, not a party man.

  54. JTMcPhee

    I prefer a thick fog of Heisenbergian uncertainty myself, but I like the basic sentiment I sense, the frustration leading to rage leading to what happens with infections in our bodies that don’t kill us: a mad rushing of phagocytes and killer cells and various taggers-by-antigen, killing the parasitic opportunistic pathogens in an effort to restore some kind of healthy physiological balance.

  55. JTMcPhee

    I prefer a thick fog of Heisenbergian uncertainty myself, but I like the basic sentiment I sense, the frustration leading to rage leading to what happens with infections in our bodies that don’t kill us: a mad rushing of phagocytes and killer cells and various taggers-by-antigen, killing the parasitic opportunistic pathogens in an effort to restore some kind of healthy physiological balance.

  56. JTMcPhee

    I prefer a thick fog of Heisenbergian uncertainty myself, but I like the basic sentiment I sense, the frustration leading to rage leading to what happens with infections in our bodies that don’t kill us: a mad rushing of phagocytes and killer cells and various taggers-by-antigen, killing the parasitic opportunistic pathogens in an effort to restore some kind of healthy physiological balance.

  57. JTMcPhee

    I prefer a thick fog of Heisenbergian uncertainty myself, but I like the basic sentiment I sense, the frustration leading to rage leading to what happens with infections in our bodies that don’t kill us: a mad rushing of phagocytes and killer cells and various taggers-by-antigen, killing the parasitic opportunistic pathogens in an effort to restore some kind of healthy physiological balance.

  58. JTMcPhee

    “Koyaanisqatsi,” Hopi as I recall for “A world out of balance,” which of course is a spiritual notion for the Noble Savage.

    Hugo, I think I actually have a PURCHASED copy, legal and all, of that “presented by Francis Ford Coppola” movie on VHS or maybe it was Beta, stashed away in storage. Stared at it many times.

    For them as are unfamiliar with it, here’s a link to the whole shootin’ match: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sps6C9u7ras

    And you could do worse than follow up with a dose of “The Gods Must Be Crazy.”

  59. JTMcPhee

    “Koyaanisqatsi,” Hopi as I recall for “A world out of balance,” which of course is a spiritual notion for the Noble Savage.

    Hugo, I think I actually have a PURCHASED copy, legal and all, of that “presented by Francis Ford Coppola” movie on VHS or maybe it was Beta, stashed away in storage. Stared at it many times.

    For them as are unfamiliar with it, here’s a link to the whole shootin’ match: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sps6C9u7ras

    And you could do worse than follow up with a dose of “The Gods Must Be Crazy.”

  60. JTMcPhee

    “Koyaanisqatsi,” Hopi as I recall for “A world out of balance,” which of course is a spiritual notion for the Noble Savage.

    Hugo, I think I actually have a PURCHASED copy, legal and all, of that “presented by Francis Ford Coppola” movie on VHS or maybe it was Beta, stashed away in storage. Stared at it many times.

    For them as are unfamiliar with it, here’s a link to the whole shootin’ match: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sps6C9u7ras

    And you could do worse than follow up with a dose of “The Gods Must Be Crazy.”

  61. JTMcPhee

    “Koyaanisqatsi,” Hopi as I recall for “A world out of balance,” which of course is a spiritual notion for the Noble Savage.

    Hugo, I think I actually have a PURCHASED copy, legal and all, of that “presented by Francis Ford Coppola” movie on VHS or maybe it was Beta, stashed away in storage. Stared at it many times.

    For them as are unfamiliar with it, here’s a link to the whole shootin’ match: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sps6C9u7ras

    And you could do worse than follow up with a dose of “The Gods Must Be Crazy.”

  62. Dan

    “bi-partisan oligarchic looting on a grand scale with Debt/GDP levels that make Reagan look frugal even as he was dealing with the 81/82 downturn

    Your sacred cow is running loose again.

  63. Dan

    “bi-partisan oligarchic looting on a grand scale with Debt/GDP levels that make Reagan look frugal even as he was dealing with the 81/82 downturn

    Your sacred cow is running loose again.

  64. Dan

    “bi-partisan oligarchic looting on a grand scale with Debt/GDP levels that make Reagan look frugal even as he was dealing with the 81/82 downturn

    Your sacred cow is running loose again.

  65. John Papola

    I’d love to know what you’re talking about.

  66. John Papola

    I’d love to know what you’re talking about.

  67. John Papola

    I’d love to know what you’re talking about.

  68. Hugo

    JTM,

    I really like the thought of your owning, somewhere, a copy of “Kooyanisqatsi”. In the 1980s I drew the unenviable job of teaching a bunch of grad students in sociology about the meaning of postindustrialism. I scratched my head for a couple of weeks, and sought advice–How to teach a topic so deliberately obscured?–and suddenly it hit me: all I have to do is to screen that film, and solicit responses in the prescribed context! It worked like a bloomin’ charm. They got it.

    I love the film’s climax, in which “Iguana Man”, as one of my students called him in her essay, is walking anonymously down Market Street in SF, his eyes hollow, a completely broken person, and then Philip Glass chooses that scene as the moment at which to depart from his somewhat atonal incantations and to introduce melody, and his score’s heartbreaking coda. It’s so artful, and humane.

    The movie, by the way, was dedicated to Ivan Illich.

  69. Hugo

    JTM,

    I really like the thought of your owning, somewhere, a copy of “Kooyanisqatsi”. In the 1980s I drew the unenviable job of teaching a bunch of grad students in sociology about the meaning of postindustrialism. I scratched my head for a couple of weeks, and sought advice–How to teach a topic so deliberately obscured?–and suddenly it hit me: all I have to do is to screen that film, and solicit responses in the prescribed context! It worked like a bloomin’ charm. They got it.

    I love the film’s climax, in which “Iguana Man”, as one of my students called him in her essay, is walking anonymously down Market Street in SF, his eyes hollow, a completely broken person, and then Philip Glass chooses that scene as the moment at which to depart from his somewhat atonal incantations and to introduce melody, and his score’s heartbreaking coda. It’s so artful, and humane.

    The movie, by the way, was dedicated to Ivan Illich.



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