The White House Press secretary just used the word “screwed.” Like in “I keep getting screwed” said to Trump by an imaginary rally attendee. Let’s place bets on how soon he moves on to “fucked.”

44 responses to “Level of Discourse”

  1. Tal Hartsfeld Avatar

    Being that the U.S. is so third-world anyway, why waste any effort feigning any kind of civility or debonair/urbane demeanor?

    Like

    1. Clarissa Avatar

      “Being that the U.S. is so third-world anyway”

      • You’d never say this even as a joke if you ever had to live for 3 months in the summer in a huge industrial city with no running water and for two weeks in the Montreal-type winter with no electricity or heating. And this is an experience from a second-world country.

      Feeling sorry for yourself in the midst of the opulence you possess is kind of wimpy.

      Like

      1. Tal Hartsfeld Avatar

        I take it you’re using the word “opulence” in a relative way.
        I receive SSDI and SSI and use the computers at the library and ride public transit.

        I may reside in an apartment with running water and plenty of heat and air, and have a TV and a stereo system, but those are only opulent in comparison to how you grew up when you were younger.
        I’m hardly “suburbia”.

        Like

  2. Shakti Avatar
    Shakti

    I’m sorry, Tal. But you truly have no idea of what it’s like to live in a “third world” country, even if you’re just visiting your middle class grandparents for the summer.

    It’s not about civility or demeanor.

    And there are places in the US where people live without potable water because all of these civic institutions have failed.

    Like

      1. Tal Hartsfeld Avatar

        What’s tragic is that Flint was once a prosperous “typical” medium-size city during the 1960s.
        One of the numerous “hubs” of the automotive industry.

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        1. Clarissa Avatar

          The tragedy in question gave us cell phones and computers we are typing this discussion on. So it’s all relative.

          Like

      2. Clarissa Avatar

        By the way, no clean water and no running water are not the same thing. No running water means you can’t flush the toilet. That’s the greatest hardship of that situation.

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  3. NG Avatar

    I see that OBL (Our Beloved Leader ) has declared that January 20, his inauguration day, will from now on be referred to as the “National Day of Patriotic Devotion. ” Will he call America “The Fatherland” or “The Motherland.” Bets taken now.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar

      No, are you serious?

      I don’t even know what’s serious and what’s a joke anymore.

      Like

  4. NG Avatar

    Yes. I’m serious. Goggle “patriotic devotion.”

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    1. Clarissa Avatar

      Wow, he is imitating Putin. Creeps.

      Like

  5. Stringer Bell Avatar
    Stringer Bell

    Yet another example of the shining democracy Dreidel was vouching for last night.

    https://twitter.com/NAACPmpls/status/823883033610780673

    Like

    1. Dreidel Avatar
      Dreidel

      So this is the end of life as we know it?

      Okayyyyyy…..

      Like

      1. Stringer Bell Avatar
        Stringer Bell

        Every Federal department is now prohibited from sharing data with the public.

        But no, this is not the end of life, so it’s all good. Let freedom ring!

        Like

  6. Stringer Bell Avatar
    Stringer Bell

    Someone tell me what dem politicians are thinking, confirming Trump’s appointees. What political capital do they gain from this?

    https://twitter.com/emmaroller/status/823978411131543552

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    1. Clarissa Avatar

      Pussies. And not in a good, life-affirming way.

      Like

      1. Stringer Bell Avatar
        Stringer Bell

        Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is the only person who voted ‘no’ on every Trump appointee. Let’s remember that in 2020.

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        1. Clarissa Avatar

          Definitely. It’s rare that one gets to see a principled Democrat on a national level. I wish there were more Mike Madigans nationally.

          Like

  7. Stringer Bell Avatar
    Stringer Bell

    Hey Dreidel, this could literally be the ‘end of life’ as some people know it. Thoughts? This is not Trump-related. Just the every day actions of your beloved party.

    https://twitter.com/ABC/status/810059485385527296

    Like

    1. Dreidel Avatar
      Dreidel

      The Republicans aren’t my “beloved” party — just the preferrable one given the choices in this country.

      And no, I don’t have to defend all — or any! — GOP actions to you, any more than I ask you to defend the actions of your “beloved” Democrats when they continually supply massive forgeign aid to that evil Jewish nation in the Middle East that you despise so much.

      Like

      1. Stringer Bell Avatar
        Stringer Bell

        Ok, the ‘beloved’ part was snark. Sorry. I’m trying to be better, I promise!

        I just think some things are clearly wrong, and they should transcend party lines. You’ve seen me criticize the dems (and Obama!) numerous times on this blog. Clarissa does it too. Fucking kill me if I ever get to the point where I’m carrying water for the party.

        You (and million others) seem to have this ‘my party – right or wrong’ mentality about you, which honestly weirds me out. But maybe that also explains why your party wins so much.

        As for Israel, I mean, let’s hear a moral defense of a military-enforced occupation. I can’t believe anyone who espouses western values of enlightenment would ever support this brutality. Now that the two-state solution is officially dead, I guess the idea is to continue this status quo until the Palestinians die out. Which, you don’t seem to have a problem with. Anyway, we both know what the other thinks, and I don’t think I can change your mind, or you mine. So let’s just leave it.

        Like

        1. Dreidel Avatar
          Dreidel

          ” I don’t think I can change your mind, or you mine. So let’s just leave it.”

          You’re right about that, at least. So yeah, let’s just leave it.

          Like

        2. Clarissa Avatar

          I think everybody realizes that if Democrats or any politician anywhere did anything like the Republicans have done in just the last couple of days, I would be hollering to the skies, calling them freakazoids and everything else.

          Like

      2. Clarissa Avatar

        Ah, Dreidel, so it isn’t love on your part, it’s just settling. ☺

        Like

        1. Dreidel Avatar
          Dreidel

          “Ah, Dreidel, so it isn’t love on your part, it’s just settling.”

          ALL politics is “settling,” in the real world.

          “I think everybody realizes that if Democrats or any politician anywhere did anything like the Republicans have done in just the last couple of days, I would be hollering to the skies”

          Sure you would, Clarissa, but what good would it do except letting off steam — which admittedly is what your webbsite is for? But all your hollering wouldn’t reverse a single executive order or a single policy.

          If I criticized Republican policies that I disagreed with on this website, the only result would be that you and Stringer Boy would say, “Well, nah, nah, it’s YOUR party, YOU voted for them, how can you even live with yourself?”

          In this country, you have exactly TWO all-or-none choices when it comes to the party in power. You either vote for party A or party B — it isn’t like a Chinese restaurant menu, where you get to selct three items you like from Column A and three that you like from party B.

          Like

          1. Stringer Bell Avatar
            Stringer Bell

            “Well, nah, nah, it’s YOUR party, YOU voted for them, how can you even live with yourself?”

            You’re mistaken here. I would have nothing but respect for anyone who criticized their party. It shows independence of mind, for starters.

            I’d be more likely to say how can you even live with yourself when you stay silent or even endorse heinous ideas your party sometimes espouses.

            Like

            1. Dreidel Avatar
              Dreidel

              “I would have nothing but respect for anyone who criticized their party. It shows independence of mind, for starters.”

              So I’d get a pat on the back from you for being “noble.” No thanks — I don’t need external validation from people whose worldview is dramatically different than mine.

              Like

              1. Stringer Bell Avatar
                Stringer Bell

                Then why did you say you reason for not criticizing your party was that it would entail us making fun of you?

                Seems like you do crave validation from us, like it or not.

                Like

          2. Clarissa Avatar

            Following this logic, one can say, why have opinions at all if a single person’s opinion can’t change anything? Or why even exist?

            Like

            1. Dreidel Avatar
              Dreidel

              “Then why did you say you reason for not criticizing your party was that it would entail us making fun of you?”

              What I’m saying is — and I’m not going to belabor the point — is that giving an opinion in a forum where it won’t be seriously considered as a valid opinion for discussion is A WASTE OF TIME. I don’t mind the “Nah, nahs” — they simply aren’t worth my time responding back.

              “why have opinions at all if a single person’s opinion can’t change anything?”

              I didn’t say “a single person’s opinion can’t change anything.” I’ll repeat, giving an opinion in a forum where it won’t be seriously considered as a valid option for discussion is A WASTE OF TIME. Why did you stop giving your opinion over on Melissa McEwan’s website?

              “Or why even exist?”

              That’s an absolutely unrelated question, Clarissa — and you know it! 🙂

              Like

              1. Clarissa Avatar

                I only commented on Shakesville once to correct some outlandish statement about Russia. I very rarely comment on blogs at all, to be honest.

                Like

  8. Stringer Bell Avatar
    Stringer Bell

    Oh man, I’m always in the market for a David Brooks evisceration.

    Can’t believe this idiot is employed.

    https://blogs.swarthmore.edu/burke/blog/2017/01/24/you-will-never-be-good-enough-for-david-brooks/

    “So today Brooks is his usual self: the marches were very nice, you see, but they’re about the wrong thing. And also it’s the wrong time–it’s always the wrong time, strangely enough, for this kind of politics, according to Brooks, except at some point in the past that Brooks usually knows almost nothing about. (Protip hint, should he ever grow curious: there has never been a social movement in this country or any other which included everyone in all segments of society. Every “success”, like the civil rights movement, the favorite of sanctimonious pundits, had numerous enemies and was socially divisive.)”

    Like

    1. Clarissa Avatar

      I also read a really good take apart of the Brooks idiot today but now I can’t find it. He’s the king of dweebs, seriously.

      Like

    2. Clarissa Avatar

      People who are terrified of “divisive” things still haven’t gotten over the childhood stage when they were terrified of Mommy and Daddy fighting. So tiresome. I don’t even understand the word “divisive.” Yes, the world is filled with divisions, how shocking.

      Like

    3. Shakti Avatar
      Shakti

      Can’t believe this idiot is employed.
      He is employed because he is the literal child of the people MLK Jr was criticizing in his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” He is a concern troll.
      It has nothing to do with his stunning insights or scintillating prose.

      Like

  9. Stringer Bell Avatar
    Stringer Bell

    “I think everybody realizes that if Democrats or any politician anywhere did anything like the Republicans have done in just the last couple of days, I would be hollering to the skies, calling them freakazoids and everything else.”

    Imagine if Hillary didn’t show her tax returns, or indulged in outright fraud and embezzlement in her foundation, or opened a college to fleece students. God, the list is endless.

    Obama has been the most decent, scandal-free president this country has had in decades and this is what they think of him. Fucking hell, though, they won.

    😀

    Like

    1. Clarissa Avatar

      Or imagine if Bernie had proven support from the Russians. They’d yell and scream like babies in pain.

      Like

      1. Stringer Bell Avatar
        Stringer Bell

        Remember when Bill Clinton met Loretta Lynch in an airport for 30 minutes? Dreidel was so mad at the supposed corruption.

        https://twitter.com/nycsouthpaw/status/823956829151563776

        Like

        1. Dreidel Avatar
          Dreidel

          “Dreidel was so mad at the supposed corruption.”

          Was I, Stringer Boy? You quote a quote from me on that handy — or are you just making up other people’s opinions again?

          Like

  10. Stringer Bell Avatar
    Stringer Bell

    Like

  11. Stringer Bell Avatar
    Stringer Bell

    Back to shitting on this spineless party.

    https://twitter.com/cat_beltane/status/823976001491365897

    Like

  12. Stringer Bell Avatar
    Stringer Bell

    Dreidel, tell us again about those pesky social issues that were settled and republicans were fighting a useless fight against the arrow of time?

    “HR 7 — formally known as the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act of 2017 — is essentially an extension of the Hyde Amendment, which prevents federal funds from being used for abortion. There are already 10 states that prohibit insurance coverage of abortion for all providers, and another 15 who prohibit it for Obamacare recipients, but this federal bill would eliminate all insurance funding for abortion. Even if you had private insurance through a non-religious company in a liberal part of the country, you still wouldn’t be allowed to get coverage.”

    https://twitter.com/NARAL/status/824014753550827520

    Like

    1. Clarissa Avatar

      Fucking creeps.

      Like

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A conservative literary critic and college professor