What’s on your mind?
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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Recent Posts
- Day 14: Louisiana Senator Approvingly Compares Trump to Stalin
- Day 13: Elon Musk Flexes His Muscles
- Day 12: While Elon Musk Takes Over, We Podcast With Driftglass and Blue Gal
- Day 11: Harm of Fascist Regime’s Foreign Aid Freeze Comes Into View
- Day 10: The Fascist Regime Blames a Plane Crash on Nonwhite People
For what it’s worth, I’d like to wish a happy holiday to everyone here. It’s been a year of political and personal ups and downs, and I take comfort knowing I can come here and read and contribute and learn a lot.
I know things will change, but I wanted to thank Martin for his hard work and thoughtful insights. You’re smart, you’re funny, and you have a keen political sense. I hope you and your family have a peaceful Christmas and a great start in the New Year.
To all the Frog people, many hugs and happy holidays!
Thanks for posting such positive, upbeat thoughts. I read it and smiled. There really is such a thing as sharing holiday cheer.
In the 1970s, a lower middle class ignorant bigoted blowhard provided enlightening entertainment. Now, a billionaire ignorant bigoted blowhard is running for president. How time and money change things.
I watched the first season of Prime Suspect with Helen Mirren over the last two nights. The series came out in the UK in 1991, but I never watched it until this week. If you haven’t seen it, its about a Detective Inspector who is the first woman to be assigned to head up a murder case in London after years of being pushed aside in favor of her male peers. Naturally, she is an ace and solves the case using good old fashioned police work – but not without having to navigate through the resistance of a very anti-female group of male detectives.
Watching it had a very, very unexpected side-effect on my psyche: I actually WANTED to vote for Hilary Clinton after seeing it.
What did you think of Gillian Anderson in The Fall? It seems comparable.
I watched the first season of The Fall a few months ago. Very well done, although truly hard to watch because of the humanization of the suspect.
Very similar DI character, but its 25 years later…so the constant and overt misogyny in her police department isn’t there. I could also totally see myself in the Gilian Anderson character… and that is what is what struck me as important in Prime Suspect, I DON’T share DI Tennyson’s (Mirren’s character’s) experience — but when exposed to it, it appealed viscerally and turned on the emotions. For once, I started empathizing with Hilary, which heretofore I have been completely incapable of doing. I’m in my early 40’s and I wonder if watching this series would have the same effect on other women of a similar age. (Thinking of how to rally the troops in the 2016 General, assuming Clinton is the nominee.)
I love The Fall. Found it by accident on Netflix.
About to enjoy a holiday breakfast buffet hosted by a State Legislator (fundraiser, natch). Sausages, scrambled eggs and fruit are on my mind. Oh, and coffee.
Also thinking that I want to catch that movie about Dalton Trumbo before it leaves the theaters. And the Suffragette film.
Anyone see the film of the suffragette who martyred herself at the 1913 Derby? She just ran out in front of the thoroughbreds as they headed to the wire and allowed herself to get trampled. Is that crazy brave, or just crazy?
It’s strange to contemplate the idea that we don’t know if that woman’s sacrifice was worthwhile, or if the vote would have come to women in Britain just as quickly if she hadn’t done what she did. What she did was memorable, that’s for sure.
2015, the year my Parkinson’s and vision and pain issues made me become a full time stay at home Mr. mom to our 5 year old princess.
The honor of raising this child and the heavenly joy she brings, even while teaching her the ethics of life (With the attendant heartbreak that the occasional encounter with the word “NO” brings about.) is quite a book to be written in and of itself.
The knowledge that there will be such a complete, barring a disaster of course, digital record of home movies, GB’s worth of pictures, a scanned document of every days output at home and school makes me know, that if these things turn out to be more aggressive, the munchkin will know that daddy cared for her, and that mommy picked up the slack at work.
I know I am seriously sick, and my ability to do things are severely compromised. So what.
I am one of the happiest and luckiest guys on the planet. Hopefully you all feel the same in your seasons of your lives.
Bless you all.
That’s what is on my mind!
You made me tear up.
Just back from the AGU meeting, still going on in SF. Biggest scientific conference I’ve ever attended — 24K registered. My head is still spinning.
Don’t be Shy! Have a look!
http://www.how2overcomeshyness.com
remember, it was the Republican-installed ‘ Emergency Manager’ of Flint that did this.
…………….
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 12/15/15
Lead-poisoned children prompt emergency declaration from mayor
Mayor Karen Weaver of Flint, Michigan talks with Rachel Maddow about declaring a state of emergency after a change in water supply ended up delivering lead-tainted drinking water, and how she hopes to help her constituents recover – particularly the small children permanently damaged by lead poisoning.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/lead-poisoned-children-trigger-emergency-586757699558
More complicated than that as I detailed in “Elephants in the Water.” Two cities, one city council, three emergency managers, several public agencies, and of course, Gov Snyder are pieces of this elephant.
But, they don’t have anything else, if they don’t have fear. This is what they peddle in….and, since they don’t have anything else, the MSM will go along with it, because it’s the only way that they can pimp for the GOP.
……………….
How fear won the GOP debate
Yes, terrorism is important. But suddenly it’s crowding out everything else that matters.By Michael Grunwald
12/16/15 12:41 AM EST
Otherwise, it’s accurate to say that the debate was all about terrorism–how to fight it, how to keep Americans safe from it, and how much Americans should be freaking out about it. CNN’s panelists asked no questions about jobs, wages, the impending Fed rate hike, health care, energy, infrastructure, the federal budget, the federal deficit, the Supreme Court, financial reform, abortion, race, or any other domestic issue unrelated to homeland security. “Americans are more afraid today than they’ve been at any time since 9/11,” Wolf Blitzer declared, and the main theme of the debate–from the candidates, but arguably from the network as well–was that they ought to be even more afraid.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2015/12/republican-debate-recap-fear-won-000010#ixzz3uUzwGkcC
This was a GOP “foreign policy” debate. Thus, domestic policy issues weren’t intended to be covered. Not that foreign policy outside of “bomb, bomb, bomb” someone somewhere was featured.
BooMan, there was always more to the Republicans than internationalism vs isolationism. There basic premise was economic and was wrapped around laisse faire capitalism. And anything that limited business’ freedoms to act any way they wanted to was anathema. As far as the business Repugs, I don’t see any difference between now and the 1920s and before.
That is the BUSINESS Repugs.
But Newt Gingrich pulled a fast one and allied with the fundamentalists, who had very much stayed out of politics, especially stayed out as a voting bloc. But Newt not only galvanized them, he invited them into the Big Tent of the Republican Party. The basic premise was the one that’s gotten us into so much trouble in the middle east – “The enemy of my enemy is my friend”.
SOME DAY that idiotic truism will be left in the dust be EVERYONE. But that day is not THIS day. Fundamentalists are fundamentally whacked in their heads. (I know; I lived among them a long time.) By inviting them into the Repugs, Newt set up what is going down now. These oh-so-smart people who get short term gain at the expense of their long term benefit.
That the Repugs only used fundies for their votes and ignored their well being was going to come back to haunt them. And Haunting Day is now. and will be, until the two part ways again.
Why did Newt entreat them to join up in the good cause against the Liberals? Because the Repugs had basically never controlled Congress, not since the Crash of 1929. Why not? Because there simply aren’t enough aristocrat types out there or people who support aristocrats. So, not enough votes to gain ascendancy in Congress and keep it. The White House be damned, the balance of power in Congress was Democratic, Democratic, Democratic.
But out there was this huge populace that thought and did things differently from Democrats and their social programs. It was only necessary to beat the drums about those “social issues” to achieve a stampeded of what Nixon called “The Great Silent Majority” and Newt called “our voters”. So, the fundies all swept the Repugs into control of Congress.
But there was a time bomb i all of taht, one that Newt didn’t see. Repugs couldn’t indefinitely keep using the fundies for their votes and never give them anything back. Year after year, Repugs in Congress voted all sorts of goodies for businesses, the pals of the business Repugs, but they never gave the fundies anything back. Sooner or later SOME fundies were going to wake up to their being used and demand that THEIR candidates be allowed to run, too.
While that didn’t initially concern the business Repugs, it didn’t take long before the requests became demands became the Tea Party.
Essentially, the business Repugs and the Tea Partiers have nothing in common. The business dudes don’t give a crap about abortion and the Tea partiers don’t give a damn about capital gains. In name their coalition was under the aegis of the Republican Party, but in the real world it was a partnership like in a No-Tell Motel, and the Tea Partiers were the hookers.
Well, the sleeping Giant – Nixon’s Great Silent Majority – is rearing its head. But a funny thing about that…
The Great Silent Majority turns out to not be a majority at all. If the two split up, neither one of them alone will have enough to win Congress anymore. The Repugs will be back where they were since 1929. And the Tea Partiers will go the way of all American third party movements – into the history books.
And sanity will – SHOULD – prevail in these United States again.
I’ve seen all this coming since the 1970s. Honest. We live in the times of the Bastard Coalition. But the BC will not survive much longer. Strange bedfellows will ed up f***ing each other in more ways than one.
Have patience. It is all going to go away. Not fast enough for most of us, but they are all self-destructing as we speak. As evidence I give you Cruz, Trump, Carson, et al. One would have thought Dubya and Cheny was enough, but that was only the turning point.
So, Newt’s magic will have lasted something like maybe 20-25 years. And left the GOP the opposition party that they always should be. After all, there simply aren’t enough aristocrats…
At the same time, though, we wouldn’t be in all of this Syria mess (and all the earlier ones) if the internationalists (the BOMB-THE-HELL-OUT-OF-THEM-LIKE-BARRY-WOULD-HAVE-DONE! gang) hadn’t won out over the isolationists (who now are the BUILD-THAT-WALL! gang).
That comment was supposed to go under the one about the internationalist Repugs and isolationists…
It has been re-posted there. Sorry!