The Frankish Reich

I still think EJ needed more time and could have been above average.

From a poster ostensibly in North Carolina, tagging me (amongst others): "Care to weigh in?" How many times has this particular poster performatively "ignored" me while tagging me in his/her posts? I am living in their (gen neut) mind rent free!

Oops, I forgot about that other new right-wind "thought leader," Kanye. Seriously, all you new-style Republicans: who are your thought leaders now? Is there any serious person, or is it all crackpot celebrities? Is it Peter Thiel? Because we can have a good talk about that. Not the Koch brothers anymore; they're so 2012.

I actually had to do a few searches to determine whether RFK Jr. actually suggested this. He did. Loony Tunes. And this is one of the right wing "thought leaders" today, Joe Rogan. A guy who became semi-famous on a reality show where he made people eat bugs. Along with, from what I'm hearing, Russell Brand. An obnoxious drug addict comic who had to refashion himself as a political commentator to salvage a career. That's what the party of William F. Buckley has become ...

Well, I was a little kid in the 60s. But somehow I remember lining up at school to get jabbed with the polio vaccine, with the brand new German Measles/Rubella vaccine, etc. And hearing about how the original liberals of the 60s (including RFK Jr.'s uncle) were some of the hardest-ass cold warriors America has ever known. RFK Jr. bears little resemblance to his uncle or even his father. They were tough-minded American patriots, not wackos.

Not that there’d be anything wrong with that. I mean, if that’s what you’re into

I am not Billstime, and I am not a Marxist, but I invited you and yours to actually read Marx (it’s not that hard to do) and then to discuss to what extent his ideas inform various other modern-day -isms.

Well, I don't know about those spelling obsessed responders. I usually limit myself to correcting grammar. that's all I do. But let's take a step back, shall we? In the last two days, right here on this forum I have seen the following jaw-droppingly stupid mischaracterizations of Poli Sci 101, Introduction to Political Philosophy: - That Marx thought you were either a communist or a fascist, and that there's no in between. Which would make sense if "capitalist" = "fascist," which of course it doesn't. And of course Marx was long dead before anything like fascism existed. - That the core of conservative philosophy has been a focus on the individual and individual liberty, which probably comes as quite a surprise to Edmund Burke to William F. Buckley. Read Marx (at least a little). Read Burke (a little more). Read Buckley (a little less). Then come back and discuss like an intelligent human being instead of some kind of Twitterbot twit.

Go back to your S&M videos. Then wash your hands. Then tag me.

Which is very interesting indeed, given that Marx died some 36 years before Mussolini created (and coined the term) fascism. (where's that facepalm emoji when you need it?)

Mike Pence - MIKE PENCE - is starting to sound very reasonable and sane to me. I disagree with him on abortion rights, but the rest? Maybe I'm more of a Pence Republican than I thought. https://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trump-may-ditch-conservatives-pence-vp-2024-republican-primary-ukraine-abortion-b2983352?mod=WTRN_pos8&cx_testId=3&cx_testVariant=cx_171&cx_artPos=7#cxrecs_s “Donald Trump promised to govern as a conservative, and we did for four years,” Mr. Pence says. “He makes no such promise today. I mean, with regard to a whole range of issues, he and a few others in this field are moving away from a traditional conservative agenda.” During a visit to the Journal this week, Mr. Pence cites three of those defections. First, Mr. Trump’s “ambiguous” stance on aiding “Ukraine’s fight for freedom.” Second, Social Security and Medicare: “Donald Trump’s policy is identical to Joe Biden’s on entitlement reform.” Third, abortion. Mr. Trump blames the end of Roe v. Wade for the GOP’s 2022 doldrums. “I believe,” Mr. Pence says, “that the cause of life has been the animating core of our movement for 50 years, and that the American people and Republicans long to see leadership that remains dedicated to the principle of restoring the sanctity of life to the center of American law.” **** "He supports ideas like slowly phasing in a higher retirement age but also—and here he agreed with President Bush—letting workers invest some of their payroll taxes, via the Thrift Savings Plan that government workers use for retirement. Even a modest return could “double what you’re getting right now in Social Security.” On world affairs, Mr. Pence cites the Reagan Doctrine, America’s history of “forward-leaning policy” to support anticommunist forces, and its role as “the arsenal of democracy.” Amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, both parties seem to be winging it. “My former running mate said he couldn’t say who should win,” Mr. Pence laments, citing Mr. Trump’s comments recently at a CNN town hall. “We’ve got other people that have said it’s not in our national interest to be there.” That’s an apparent knock on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis..."

Ask your wife, or your daughter.

Biden strikes me as being in Leonard Cohen's final stage of the Six Stages of Man. You get so old you're actually cute/harmless. The Viagra'd-Up Trump is stuck at Stage 5. There's a difference. Y’know I was talking with some of the guys . . . some of the guys in the band are kind of over the hill. And they were talking about the various stages that a man goes through in relation to his allure to the opposite sex. It was not a scientific evaluation . . . just something that arose over a cup of coffee. It went something like this: You start off irresistible. And, then you become resistible. And then you become transparent – not exactly invisible but as if you are seen through old plastic. Then you actually do become invisible. And then — and this is the most amazing transformation — you become repulsive. But that’s not the end of the story. After repulsive then you become cute – and that’s where I am.

Oh, I agree. We have a formerly ulta-liberal governor who (like all governors and senators) seems to think he's presidential (vice presidential?) material. So he's been weirdly, unexpectedly moderate so far. He handled COVID remarkably well - I traveled to both anything goes red states and ultra liberal blue states during COVID, and I thought he threaded the moderate needle here perfectly. He's also stopped the state legislature from enacting some of their more wacko ideas. But if he's gone, then what?

Thank God. We are crowded enough.

I live in Colorado, a blue state with 2 Democratic senators, Democratic control of both state houses, and a (gay) Democratic governor. And somehow people keep coming. Too many people; they should have shut the door after I arrived. But on the larger scale, it's a pretty well-run state. Relatively low state taxes (a flat 4.4%), pretty efficient government services, etc., etc. No, we are not California. The whole "disaster area blue states losing people, well-run red states gaining them" is painting things with far too broad a brush.

He chairs the committee. The Republicans control the House. They promised hearings. Let's have a hearing! Put up or shut up.

Good for you. I understand there's a poster just north of you who might be interested in exchanging back slaps and high fives whenever you post a right wing Twitter comment. Sounds like fun. I'll be here if you decide you want to actually debate a point. None of that "look at me, I'm blocking you" stuff from me.

I've been around my fair share of the Flag Code Absolutists in my career. The "Old Glory must be in the dominant position" and even "an indoor flag should be fitted with an approved flag spreader so as to display the stars and stripes in a manner consistent with it flapping in the breeze." I even had someone try to explain why the flag I had was all wrong because it did/didn't have the yellow fringe around it. I can't remember what the rule was. There's more important things to think about. Just don't be an idiot and stick the Bills flag or the Pride Flag on top of the American flag, and don't use the flag on a pole as a battering ram.

There we go. It's the "everbody knows" explanation. This is just as silly as the other side saying Russian collusion/Russian-funded misinformation was the cause of Trump's 2016 victory. It was "rigged" in some abstract way that doesn't correspond with anyone's definition of what "rigged" means. In other words, Russian misinformation/Mainstream Media misinformation caused people to cast votes in a certain way, as if voters are mere automatons.

^ a friendly reminder. So ... rigged, but not by hack/fix of voting machines, and not by voter fraud. Just ... rigged. If I seem to be having trouble understanding, maybe these two quotes are the reasons why. Did you have some kind of epiphany between 6 hours ago and 13 minutes ago?

No. It's because you believe - without evidence - that there was voter fraud sufficient to change the results of the 2020 presidential election. A belief that is not supported by evidence is on the order of a religious belief, an article of faith, not of logic. You may support DeSantis, but that's not the point here. If you believe Trump does, in fact, talk nonsense for no reason, then at some point you have to admit that your belief that voter fraud turned the election is predicated on precisely that same nonsense.

Thank you for agreeing that TRUMP JUST SPOUTS BS AND YOU EAT IT UP WILLINGLY. B-Man, you read all the pro-MAGA Twitter feeds. Please point me to the one that includes the video Trump referenced, you know, the one where someone voted 28 times in 28 different polling stations, casting 7 ballots in each one. When you do that, I will happily admit I'm wrong, and I will happily stop "bothering" all of you.

And still not what any conservative philosopher would recognize as conservatism. You have described hardcore libertarianism, an outgrowth of classic liberalism.