You Can't Fix Stupid - Progress Pond

To answer James Fallows, I don’t think that there are enough Republicans who care about actually governing to fit on the head of a pin.

And I don’t think that there are too many more Republicans who are capable of computing the idea that something that makes them feel good right now (Fox News, Hate Radio) makes it harder for their party to win national elections.

You know, we talk a lot in this country about this person “hitting the crack pipe” and that person being “high on crack.” We don’t talk about what happens to your brain when you smoke that shit every few hours.
Crack cocaine will turn you into a broke, homeless prostitute. Fox News will make you 18-points less likely to know that the moon isn’t made out of Ranch Dressing. Either way, your MRI is going to look like cartoon cheese.

So, first of all, just because a couple of conservative political consultants happen to notice that the old Nuremberg Rally footage on the History Channel is starting to look appealing that doesn’t mean that you can stop the train now that everyone has already embarked and the festivities have begun. These people have invested in gold, my friend. There may still be a port
side suite available on the National Review’s Carnival cruise boat (complete with hot stone massage courtesy of Alan Keyes) but no one is going to dim the lights on the right-wing media carnival.

For a deprived conservative mind, having your news delivered by Steve Doocy is like having six orgasms followed by a chocolate sundae.

The pusher man knows, his subjects will pay any price to get more.

13 Comments

budr on May 18, 2015 at 8:10 am

Scientists: Earth Endangered by New Strain of Fact-Resistant Humans – The New Yorker

MINNEAPOLIS (The Borowitz Report) – Scientists have discovered a powerful new strain of fact-resistant humans who are threatening the ability of Earth to sustain life, a sobering new study reports.

The research, conducted by the University of Minnesota, identifies a virulent strain of humans who are virtually immune to any form of verifiable knowledge, leaving scientists at a loss as to how to combat them.

TarheelDem on May 18, 2015 at 8:27 am

Meanwhile, watch the shell game on the Fast Track authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

The Trade Adjustment Assistance Act, sponsored by Rep. David Reichert (R-Wash.), would rely on $700 million in reduced Medicare spending in 2024 to pay for [sic] healthcare coverage and other benefits for workers who lose coverage because of any agreements negotiated under fast-track trade authority sought by President Barack Obama.

Is it not time for President Obama to tell our negotiating partners, “Sorry, we can’t arrive at a deal that respects the interests of US workers.”

Policy is really beginning to circle the drain in the states as well as the federal government. Just because the Republicans will nickel and dime user fees (now $2 to park at an attraction in a National Forest) and excise taxes but will not bring order to income taxes. And allow contracting theft with the government (especially in the DoD) that is monumental.

But every politician who runs now is so well-heeled that not only do they no longer care, they no longer have any grasp of the realities of life for 99% of the country.

But South Carolina has plan for stimulating their economy. The legislature in all its wisdom dropped the licensing fee for distilleries from $50,000 to $50 and deregulated the industry. The result is a bubble in moonshine microdistilleries. All over the state. It goes along with the video poker and fireworks businesses at the state line on every major road entering the state. America! What a country!

Phil Perspective on May 18, 2015 at 5:22 pm

The article Tarheel quotes from is here:

http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-congress-plots-to-raid-medicare-20150518-column.htm
l

rikyrah on May 18, 2015 at 8:53 am

you are on point, BooMan

centerfielddj on May 18, 2015 at 10:34 am

BooMan getting all angrily and justifiably ranty on a Monday morning. It’s not the regular diet here on the Frog Pond, but yes, it is a good way to start the week. Everything in moderation…

Cervants on May 18, 2015 at 9:43 am

Yabbut the basic problem with the (increasingly CW) analysis that wingnuttery is a serious problem for the Republican party is that they control both houses of congress, and the majority of state governments. They win elections. They won hugely last year, in fact. Until that changes, I’m not buying it. They seem to be doing just fine. And the presidency isn’t worth jack with strong control of both houses by the opposing party. The lunatics are running the asylum, which may seem unsustainable but I don’t see the proof of that.

Cervants on May 18, 2015 at 10:44 am

Here’s Mark Schmitt in Democracy:

“A combination of identity politics, partisan redistricting, ideological media, money, and the use of aggressive tactics to control who votes and who doesn’t makes it possible for an extremist party or an ideological faction to gain control and hold it. The median voter has become little more than an angry spectator. The mechanisms that should stabilize American politics and pull it back toward the center don’t seem to be working, and the inequalities of power in the economy and politics only seem to reinforce one another.”
centerfielddj on May 18, 2015 at 10:45 am

I hear you, Cervants. Yet the GOP majorities in Congressional and State Legislative Districts depend on the massive and horrible gerrymands they drew up after the 2010 sweep. These gerrymands are one of many factors driving their elected officials, and their rhetoric, into the gutter on the right side of the road.

So, two things we can look forward to: the GOP is likely to lose their thin control of the Senate in 2016, due to so many Caucus members being exposed to the 2016 electorate. And, the 2020 election, when the next group of Legislators will be picked to draw up Districts in most States, will be a Presidential election. The way things are going, it is hard to see the circumstance which will cause the GOP to moderate before then, and the electorate will be even more disfavorable to them unless they become successful in even more major suppressions of the vote, so the Republicans are probably looking at a pretty tough 2020 election.

If Scott Walker had been exposed to a Presidential electorate, we probably would have terminated his political career by now.
- Cervants on May 18, 2015 at 12:56 pm
  
  We’ll see. But they’ll have plenty of time to wreck the country before then.
- Phil Perspective on May 18, 2015 at 5:23 pm
  
  If Scott Walker had been exposed to a Presidential electorate, we probably would have terminated his political career by now.
  
  If Feingold had been brave enough to run against Walker in the recall, Walker’s career would have ended then.

Bonnie on May 18, 2015 at 7:17 pm

Fox News and Rush Limbaugh are the American equivalent of Tokyo Rose.

shan on May 18, 2015 at 9:38 pm

No Benedict Arnold. He was afraid of the future so he decided to trust in the past.

Neildsmith on May 19, 2015 at 4:56 am

You can’t fix stupid… this is true. And I submit that about 80% of the population fits that description. Why, then, do the remaining progressives insist that we can, in fact, fix America?

Population of America: 320 million.
Obama voters in 2012: 65 million
Democratic voters in 2014 House of Rep. elections: 35 million.

Progressives are a very small minority… 10 – 20% at most. It is time we acknowledged this and started focusing our efforts on people we can help… those who actually want our help. The rest of the country can watch its fox news, wage its wars on Islam, and give all its money to the super-rich. What concern is that of mine?

budr on May 18, 2015 at 8:10 am

Scientists: Earth Endangered by New Strain of Fact-Resistant Humans – The New Yorker

MINNEAPOLIS (The Borowitz Report) – Scientists have discovered a powerful new strain of fact-resistant humans who are threatening the ability of Earth to sustain life, a sobering new study reports.

The research, conducted by the University of Minnesota, identifies a virulent strain of humans who are virtually immune to any form of verifiable knowledge, leaving scientists at a loss as to how to combat them.
TarheelDem on May 18, 2015 at 8:27 am

Meanwhile, watch the shell game on the Fast Track authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

The Trade Adjustment Assistance Act, sponsored by Rep. David Reichert (R-Wash.), would rely on $700 million in reduced Medicare spending in 2024 to pay for [sic] healthcare coverage and other benefits for workers who lose coverage because of any agreements negotiated under fast-track trade authority sought by President Barack Obama.

Is it not time for President Obama to tell our negotiating partners, “Sorry, we can’t arrive at a deal that respects the interests of US workers.”

Policy is really beginning to circle the drain in the states as well as the federal government. Just because the Republicans will nickel and dime user fees (now $2 to park at an attraction in a National Forest) and excise taxes but will not bring order to income taxes. And allow contracting theft with the government (especially in the DoD) that is monumental.

But every politician who runs now is so well-heeled that not only do they no longer care, they no longer have any grasp of the realities of life for 99% of the country.

But South Carolina has plan for stimulating their economy. The legislature in all its wisdom dropped the licensing fee for distilleries from $50,000 to $50 and deregulated the industry. The result is a bubble in moonshine microdistilleries. All over the state. It goes along with the video poker and fireworks businesses at the state line on every major road entering the state. America! What a country!
- Phil Perspective on May 18, 2015 at 5:22 pm
  
  The article Tarheel quotes from is here:
  
  http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-congress-plots-to-raid-medicare-20150518-column.htm
  l
rikyrah on May 18, 2015 at 8:53 am

you are on point, BooMan
- centerfielddj on May 18, 2015 at 10:34 am
  
  BooMan getting all angrily and justifiably ranty on a Monday morning. It’s not the regular diet here on the Frog Pond, but yes, it is a good way to start the week. Everything in moderation…
Cervants on May 18, 2015 at 9:43 am

Yabbut the basic problem with the (increasingly CW) analysis that wingnuttery is a serious problem for the Republican party is that they control both houses of congress, and the majority of state governments. They win elections. They won hugely last year, in fact. Until that changes, I’m not buying it. They seem to be doing just fine. And the presidency isn’t worth jack with strong control of both houses by the opposing party. The lunatics are running the asylum, which may seem unsustainable but I don’t see the proof of that.
- Cervants on May 18, 2015 at 10:44 am
  
  Here’s Mark Schmitt in Democracy:
  
  “A combination of identity politics, partisan redistricting, ideological media, money, and the use of aggressive tactics to control who votes and who doesn’t makes it possible for an extremist party or an ideological faction to gain control and hold it. The median voter has become little more than an angry spectator. The mechanisms that should stabilize American politics and pull it back toward the center don’t seem to be working, and the inequalities of power in the economy and politics only seem to reinforce one another.”
- centerfielddj on May 18, 2015 at 10:45 am
  
  I hear you, Cervants. Yet the GOP majorities in Congressional and State Legislative Districts depend on the massive and horrible gerrymands they drew up after the 2010 sweep. These gerrymands are one of many factors driving their elected officials, and their rhetoric, into the gutter on the right side of the road.
  
  So, two things we can look forward to: the GOP is likely to lose their thin control of the Senate in 2016, due to so many Caucus members being exposed to the 2016 electorate. And, the 2020 election, when the next group of Legislators will be picked to draw up Districts in most States, will be a Presidential election. The way things are going, it is hard to see the circumstance which will cause the GOP to moderate before then, and the electorate will be even more disfavorable to them unless they become successful in even more major suppressions of the vote, so the Republicans are probably looking at a pretty tough 2020 election.
  
  If Scott Walker had been exposed to a Presidential electorate, we probably would have terminated his political career by now.
  - Cervants on May 18, 2015 at 12:56 pm
    
    We’ll see. But they’ll have plenty of time to wreck the country before then.
  - Phil Perspective on May 18, 2015 at 5:23 pm
    
    If Scott Walker had been exposed to a Presidential electorate, we probably would have terminated his political career by now.
    
    If Feingold had been brave enough to run against Walker in the recall, Walker’s career would have ended then.
Bonnie on May 18, 2015 at 7:17 pm

Fox News and Rush Limbaugh are the American equivalent of Tokyo Rose.
- shan on May 18, 2015 at 9:38 pm
  
  No Benedict Arnold. He was afraid of the future so he decided to trust in the past.
Neildsmith on May 19, 2015 at 4:56 am

You can’t fix stupid… this is true. And I submit that about 80% of the population fits that description. Why, then, do the remaining progressives insist that we can, in fact, fix America?

Population of America: 320 million.
Obama voters in 2012: 65 million
Democratic voters in 2014 House of Rep. elections: 35 million.

Progressives are a very small minority… 10 – 20% at most. It is time we acknowledged this and started focusing our efforts on people we can help… those who actually want our help. The rest of the country can watch its fox news, wage its wars on Islam, and give all its money to the super-rich. What concern is that of mine?

You Can’t Fix Stupid

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BooMan

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