I’ve been busy. If any of you watched and want to vent, or if you want to talk about anything else, go ahead.
17 thoughts on “Repubican Debate?”
As an Australian watching from afar, my only feeling is sadness that these ‘debates’ become another forum for conservative ideology to be slowly transformed into received community wisdom. For heaven’s sake can’t progressives find something else to discuss apart from Republicans? Every progressive blog is full of discussion of the debate, thereby subtly reinforcing Republican priorities and ideological frames.
(I’m not having a shot at you maha – the phenomenon is practically universal. Republicans set the national political agenda and have been doing so for years, with progressives obediently falling over themselves to move to the Republicans’ chosen field of discourse. We have the same thing here, where Labor has been treating ‘border protection’ as a major issue since 2011 when in fact it is trivial compared to other public policy matters. But the conservatives love it because it lets them engage in endless appeals to xenophobia and racism under the guise of keeping out terrorists.)
Wow!..What a lineup of losers… Bachmann must hold the record for being able to change the subject in one sentence or less.
Actually it wasn’t too bad if you’re into enjoying a Ronny Reagan lovefest.
Ken_L ….You’re right! Unfortunately, we can’t seem to break out of that mold.
The Australian gentleman is right. Progressives should be busy educating people about their ideas and agendas rather than analysing the repugnant Replublican hash over and over again.
The country seems to be angry. They see their empire falling apart at the seams and no one is explaining it to them. The times my friends they are a changing, and those conservative souls living in flyover land will listen and applaud the maddest hatter!
Hello Ken_L, nice to hear an Aussie prospective. I’ve been to Australia three times, and have a soft spot for the place.
I’d like to ask, how much influence does the Murdoch propaganda press have in Oz? As I’m sure you know, Fox News is America’s most trusted “news” source. That, plus AM talk radio, has so poisoned political debate in the USA that I’m not sure the country will ever recover. I’d like to see the Murdochs tried as war criminals.
If the worst thing that is happening down under is excessive paranoia about immigrants, consider yourselves lucky. America’s conservatives want to ban abortion (maybe contraception too), teach creationism in schools, expand the (privatized) prisons and military, do nothing about the global warming “hoax,” and give all the nation’s money to the rich. Immigrant fatigue is way down the list of the conservatives’ sins as far as I’m concerned.
I didn’t watch. I wondrous what the ratings were. My biased feeling is that outside of the core, there isn’t a great deal of interest yet. If my hunch is right, voters are giving this crowd the same attention they would give a disabled or homeless person. They are looking away.
Ken_L,
Thanks for making me feel better about my decision.
And it’s not that I couldn’t interest myself enough to watch them, because I know one of the could be elected President in 14 months, it’s just that I know what they’re going to say – the only difference will be who will go to the most extreme position with the most vehemence.
Instead, last night I continued re-reading one of the greatest American novels written in the latter half of the 20th Century, maybe of all time – “Blood Meridian” by Cormac McCarthy.
It may be the bloodiest book since the Bible, and tells the tale of a young man along the Texas-Mexico border in 1849-1850, and the band of murderers, cut-throats, scalpers, and worse – the Glanton Gang, that he falls in with. And has a 7-foot, hairless albino Judge, as … well, I won’t tell you, read it.
The novel it a tone poem to blood, murder, and epic violence, and that makes it as American as baseball, apple pie, and Chevrolet. If you get a chance, read this book, the language in the writing is sparse and biblical, and, best of all – NO APOSTROPHE’S!!! My kind of writer! 🙂
McCarthy also wrote “All the Pretty Horses,” that you might have heard of, and was turned into a movie; or “The Road,” which came out recently and was also made into a movie. All of his books are worth reading – from his early Faulknarian novels, to his Southwest novels, to his only play, to his apocolyptic end times novel. I consider him the finest living American novelist, and one of the greatest of all time. But don’t wait for “Blood Meridian” to be turned into a movie. A movie will never give the language justice, and I don’t think they’ve invented the technology where the audience can be drenched in blood before they walk out. The novel’s language makes you almost smell, feel, and taste the endless rivers of blood.
And so, last night, I found I’d rather read a bloody novel about wanton murder and violence, rather than watch the Republican candidates debate and want to committ them.
Last night, I found I’d rather read a bloody novel about wanton murder and violence, rather than watch the Republican candidates debate….
Agreed! For me it was the third book in the series behind that R-rated “Game of Thrones” series on HBO. It’s all about medieval cruelty, war, intrigue, economic injustice and religious obsession.
Pretty much the Republican presidential field in a nutshell.
Candide: There is no doubt that right-wingers want to ban contraceptives and access to them along with abortion. Both are ways to give women power over their own bodies and their lives.
I’ve been into Michael Chabon lately. I’d love to see the Coen brothers make “The Yiddish Policeman’s Union” into a movie.
Yes purplegirl. — Regarding contraceptives, I learned that in India, they use Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulators (I hope I have that right), which are used in treating certain cancers, but are effective birth control in sufficient doses. The cost is about 80 cents for a three month quantity and better yet they only have to be taken weekly. In India, they are non-prescription and may yet be here. This may be cheap, safe and effective birth control that may elude the Elders of Gilead.
The so-called debates are old news – actually they were ‘old’ news before they ever started – same-old, same-old. I, on the other hand, want Obama (tonight, preferably) to assume the role that the Framers intended would be the role of the American president. He’s our guy. He alone represents the American people – not a political party, an ideology, a particular group of Americans – the majority of the people out here. He’s got to be a Martin Luther King, a Gandhi because at this time in our history the American people are his only hope and he’s our only hope. We’ll see.
I started to watch the freak show. They were trying to out do each other with their love for St. Ronald.
Candide News Limited dominates the newspaper industry here and has a consistently strident, conservative agenda. However there is no equivalent of Fox News TV and we are fortunate to have the Australian Broadcasting Commission, a publicly-funded radio and TV network modelled on the BBC, which is an Australian institution.
Well, I liked the idea of patroling the border with Mexico with predator drones.. And of course the wall separating the US from Mexico is also a briliiant idea. Maybe it won’t keep out illegal aliens, but at 15 million dollars per mile to build it certainly will be one hell of a job creator. If we hire illegal aliens to build the fence that will keep them out than they won’t be going further into the United States to find work. How smart is that?…
If we hire illegal aliens to build the fence that will keep them out than they won’t be going further into the United States to find work. How smart is that?…
Genius. 🙂
I caught a part of Obama’s jobs speech and saw Mitch McConnell sitting like a sour puss in the audience. He reminded me of a jury Foreman on an all white jury sitting in judgment of a niggra who done violated Jim crow laws back at the turn of the last century. I have no problem envisioning McConnell saying…” Get the rope boys”
“Get the rope boys, that uppity nigra fella is making us look bad….”
Swami, I finally realized what GOP means; Grumpy Old P****s.
Wanna buy a vowel?
As an Australian watching from afar, my only feeling is sadness that these ‘debates’ become another forum for conservative ideology to be slowly transformed into received community wisdom. For heaven’s sake can’t progressives find something else to discuss apart from Republicans? Every progressive blog is full of discussion of the debate, thereby subtly reinforcing Republican priorities and ideological frames.
(I’m not having a shot at you maha – the phenomenon is practically universal. Republicans set the national political agenda and have been doing so for years, with progressives obediently falling over themselves to move to the Republicans’ chosen field of discourse. We have the same thing here, where Labor has been treating ‘border protection’ as a major issue since 2011 when in fact it is trivial compared to other public policy matters. But the conservatives love it because it lets them engage in endless appeals to xenophobia and racism under the guise of keeping out terrorists.)
Wow!..What a lineup of losers… Bachmann must hold the record for being able to change the subject in one sentence or less.
Actually it wasn’t too bad if you’re into enjoying a Ronny Reagan lovefest.
Ken_L ….You’re right! Unfortunately, we can’t seem to break out of that mold.
The Australian gentleman is right. Progressives should be busy educating people about their ideas and agendas rather than analysing the repugnant Replublican hash over and over again.
The country seems to be angry. They see their empire falling apart at the seams and no one is explaining it to them. The times my friends they are a changing, and those conservative souls living in flyover land will listen and applaud the maddest hatter!
Hello Ken_L, nice to hear an Aussie prospective. I’ve been to Australia three times, and have a soft spot for the place.
I’d like to ask, how much influence does the Murdoch propaganda press have in Oz? As I’m sure you know, Fox News is America’s most trusted “news” source. That, plus AM talk radio, has so poisoned political debate in the USA that I’m not sure the country will ever recover. I’d like to see the Murdochs tried as war criminals.
If the worst thing that is happening down under is excessive paranoia about immigrants, consider yourselves lucky. America’s conservatives want to ban abortion (maybe contraception too), teach creationism in schools, expand the (privatized) prisons and military, do nothing about the global warming “hoax,” and give all the nation’s money to the rich. Immigrant fatigue is way down the list of the conservatives’ sins as far as I’m concerned.
I didn’t watch. I wondrous what the ratings were. My biased feeling is that outside of the core, there isn’t a great deal of interest yet. If my hunch is right, voters are giving this crowd the same attention they would give a disabled or homeless person. They are looking away.
Ken_L,
Thanks for making me feel better about my decision.
And it’s not that I couldn’t interest myself enough to watch them, because I know one of the could be elected President in 14 months, it’s just that I know what they’re going to say – the only difference will be who will go to the most extreme position with the most vehemence.
Instead, last night I continued re-reading one of the greatest American novels written in the latter half of the 20th Century, maybe of all time – “Blood Meridian” by Cormac McCarthy.
It may be the bloodiest book since the Bible, and tells the tale of a young man along the Texas-Mexico border in 1849-1850, and the band of murderers, cut-throats, scalpers, and worse – the Glanton Gang, that he falls in with. And has a 7-foot, hairless albino Judge, as … well, I won’t tell you, read it.
The novel it a tone poem to blood, murder, and epic violence, and that makes it as American as baseball, apple pie, and Chevrolet. If you get a chance, read this book, the language in the writing is sparse and biblical, and, best of all – NO APOSTROPHE’S!!! My kind of writer! 🙂
McCarthy also wrote “All the Pretty Horses,” that you might have heard of, and was turned into a movie; or “The Road,” which came out recently and was also made into a movie. All of his books are worth reading – from his early Faulknarian novels, to his Southwest novels, to his only play, to his apocolyptic end times novel. I consider him the finest living American novelist, and one of the greatest of all time. But don’t wait for “Blood Meridian” to be turned into a movie. A movie will never give the language justice, and I don’t think they’ve invented the technology where the audience can be drenched in blood before they walk out. The novel’s language makes you almost smell, feel, and taste the endless rivers of blood.
And so, last night, I found I’d rather read a bloody novel about wanton murder and violence, rather than watch the Republican candidates debate and want to committ them.
Last night, I found I’d rather read a bloody novel about wanton murder and violence, rather than watch the Republican candidates debate….
Agreed! For me it was the third book in the series behind that R-rated “Game of Thrones” series on HBO. It’s all about medieval cruelty, war, intrigue, economic injustice and religious obsession.
Pretty much the Republican presidential field in a nutshell.
Candide: There is no doubt that right-wingers want to ban contraceptives and access to them along with abortion. Both are ways to give women power over their own bodies and their lives.
I’ve been into Michael Chabon lately. I’d love to see the Coen brothers make “The Yiddish Policeman’s Union” into a movie.
Yes purplegirl. — Regarding contraceptives, I learned that in India, they use Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulators (I hope I have that right), which are used in treating certain cancers, but are effective birth control in sufficient doses. The cost is about 80 cents for a three month quantity and better yet they only have to be taken weekly. In India, they are non-prescription and may yet be here. This may be cheap, safe and effective birth control that may elude the Elders of Gilead.
The so-called debates are old news – actually they were ‘old’ news before they ever started – same-old, same-old. I, on the other hand, want Obama (tonight, preferably) to assume the role that the Framers intended would be the role of the American president. He’s our guy. He alone represents the American people – not a political party, an ideology, a particular group of Americans – the majority of the people out here. He’s got to be a Martin Luther King, a Gandhi because at this time in our history the American people are his only hope and he’s our only hope. We’ll see.
I started to watch the freak show. They were trying to out do each other with their love for St. Ronald.
Candide News Limited dominates the newspaper industry here and has a consistently strident, conservative agenda. However there is no equivalent of Fox News TV and we are fortunate to have the Australian Broadcasting Commission, a publicly-funded radio and TV network modelled on the BBC, which is an Australian institution.
Well, I liked the idea of patroling the border with Mexico with predator drones.. And of course the wall separating the US from Mexico is also a briliiant idea. Maybe it won’t keep out illegal aliens, but at 15 million dollars per mile to build it certainly will be one hell of a job creator. If we hire illegal aliens to build the fence that will keep them out than they won’t be going further into the United States to find work. How smart is that?…
Genius. 🙂
I caught a part of Obama’s jobs speech and saw Mitch McConnell sitting like a sour puss in the audience. He reminded me of a jury Foreman on an all white jury sitting in judgment of a niggra who done violated Jim crow laws back at the turn of the last century. I have no problem envisioning McConnell saying…” Get the rope boys”
“Get the rope boys, that uppity nigra fella is making us look bad….”
Swami, I finally realized what GOP means; Grumpy Old P****s.
Wanna buy a vowel?