zn wrote:

There are many differences but here is one key one.

That has changed over the years. The right has gone from being conservative traditionalists who believe collective moral norms are paramount to being sociopathic individualists who defend the power of a wealthy few to dominate a society.

The left believes in using public resources to both limit the arbitrary power of the wealthy few over the majority and to give more individuals in general more opportunities to live comfortably well and pursue happiness.

Yes, and Taibbi nailed that one with precision: “The most successful trick was linking the corporate mantra of profit without responsibility to the concept of individual liberty.”

On the question of contempt for the poor, afaik that is a uniquely American thing. I think we are the only culture that equates net worth to spiritual worth.

Matt Taibbi is the very best.

Coupla bits I liked:

If this isn’t the end for the Republican Party, it’ll be a shame. They dominated American political life for 50 years and were never anything but monsters. They bred in their voters the incredible attitude that Republicans were the only people within our borders who raised children, loved their country, died in battle or paid taxes. They even sullied the word “American” by insisting they were the only real ones. They preferred Lubbock to Paris, and their idea of an intellectual was Newt Gingrich. Their leaders, from Ralph Reed to Bill Frist to Tom DeLay to Rick Santorum to Romney and Ryan, were an interminable assembly line of shrieking, witch-hunting celibates, all with the same haircut – the kind of people who thought Iran-Contra was nothing, but would grind the affairs of state to a halt over a blow job or Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube.

And this:

This avalanche of verbose disgust on the part of conservative intellectuals toward the Trump voter, who until very recently was the Republican voter, tells us everything we need to know about what actually happened in 2016.

I agree with Taibbi that the key to the Trump revolt is the fact that Republicans have been promising that they care about Main Street and its values for 40 years, and when elected, they do nothing to fulfill those promises. It isn’t just the heartland, though. It’s the 80 million evangelicals who have gone to the effort of putting planks on anti-abortion and gay “rehabilitation” into the platform. No way in hell are they ever going to have those promises delivered on by the Republican establishment that has been promising all that forever.

And I sure do love it whenever anyone mocks George Will and/or Andrew Sullivan. I can never get enough of that.

So RFL is sleeping around, huh?

Looked to me like Hayes and Donald were out of the game before the Cowboys first drive ended. I think they only played about 5 or 6 snaps. The entire starting unit was out quickly, in fact.

Goff threw mostly out of the shotgun. I expected they would work more on being under center, and they played him less than they said they would. I was less impressed with Goff than the other posters in this thread, I guess, but that one throw had a vapor trail on it the likes of which we have not seen in a while.

Mannion and Spruce were the standouts to me. Liked what I saw of both of them. Spruce is just one of those “gamers.” Oh, and Higbee. Nice touch giving him 89. He did not resemble his forebear in that jersey.

And she is likely the REAL author of Shakespeare’s plays.

nittany ram wrote:

Bowling Green has an underrated D line coach that gets a lot out of his kids.

That’s not necessarily good news for the Rams. Could mean the kid has already reached his ceiling.

You said the same thing about London Fletcher. Exact same words.

From 1998:

nittany ram wrote:

That’s not necessarily good news for the Rams. Could mean the kid has already reached his ceiling.

PA Ram wrote:

Two words: Eric Kush.

A star in the making.

I hate “reality” television.

But he’s good. Very good.

It was a little surprising to hear someone explain that inch-wide shoulder straps on tank tops are a more formal look than spaghetti straps.

nittany ram wrote:

For the brief time I was a high school science teacher I used to give incoming sophomores a little quiz on the first day of class just to see where they were at from a scientific literacy standpoint.

One question I would ask is “How many species of human exist today?”

A common answer was “Two – Men and Women.”

This was over 20 years ago so it demonstrates that Goff’s gaffe isn’t just a millennial issue (although his was much worse).

Dummies.

But back then there wasn’t as much awareness of the LGBTQ community as individual species, too.

Ozoneranger wrote:

Zooey wrote:

Goff went to UC Berkeley for chrissakes. UC Berekeley has a high bar for entry. I was stunned he didn’t know where the sun rises. It was slightly disturbing, really, but I work with young people – high school kids – and it is hilarious what they don’t know at times.

I borrowed HBO Go from a friend, and watched this last night.

I liked it. But there is no WAY I would waste time on this show if it wasn’t the Rams. It isn’t that interesting unless it’s your team.

I smoked a lot of pot in high school. A LOT. But I also read a lot of books, too. Anything I could get my hands on. That’s how I learned to tell the time of day by placing a stick in the dirt. Had to be at least six inches, though. And yes, I knew at a very young age, no matter how stoned I was, in which direction the sun rose.

Kids today. Sheesh.

I know. It is just amazing.

But just yesterday…I teach dual-credit classes now. I am the only English teacher with a masters degree, so I am the only one who is “qualified” to teach college classes on this campus. The district recently formed a relationship with the community college down the street to offer classes here. And I teach them. So I have this class of Seniors who have GPAs over 3.0, and pass an admissions test to college, and have passed by English 1A class last year to qualify for the second college class, English 1B. They are motivated kids with above average brights.

Yesterday I learned that not one single one of them knew what Roe vs Wade was. Someone finally guessed it was probably a court case.

Now that’s not quite as astonishing as not knowing in which direction the sun rises, but it’s a bit of a surprise. Still I get these little jaw-dropping ignorances from time-to-time in my classroom.

It’s not like we refer to directions much anymore. Heck, kids think in terms of right turns, and left turns, to the extent that they think of directions at all. Nobody ever says, “Go north on Manzanita, turn west on Alhambra, and then veer Northwest on Allegheny.”

But still. I’m even now shaking my head.

Ozoneranger wrote:

I have a hard time taking Trump seriously no matter what comes out of his mouth. The thing with him is, he says whatever pops in his mind in the last second…He cannot help himself (I had the same problem early in my marriage- I recognized this flaw in the earliest days of his campaign.). I don’t for a second believe his words implied violence of any sort. More like blowback from gun advocates if she picked justices who may erode the 2nd in any way, shape or form.

That said, if elected his lack of disciplined thought and speech is dangerous. The president speaks for the country, his\her words are interpreted as policy and position, particularly overseas. That’s what scares me.

I don’t know. I am inclined to think it was talking smack rather than a seriously felt call for violence. But that doesn’t excuse it. It’s dangerous to say shit like that. Sarah Palin posted a map of the US on her website with crosshairs on candidates she thought should be targeted for political elimination. Well, one of those people was Gabrielle Giffords, who subsequently got shot in the head. So I don’t think it makes it any better if Trump was mildly kidding. I don’t have to convince anyone here that this country has an ample supply of examples of nutjobs who have gone off with guns, including Giffords’ assassin. Hell, Trump’s comment could have been an OBVIOUS joke and it would still have been completely reckless, irresponsible, and possibly criminal. I mean…go to an airport and jokingly announce your shaving cream is a bomb and see what happens to your ass. You can’t joke about killing politicians and judges. There is some asshole in the audience who may get to thinking hard about the idea. And, let’s face it: there already ARE several assholes out there who have fantasized about it, and along comes a hero of theirs who gives a little wink to the idea, and that is enough to push someone into action.

And you’re right. A president REALLY, REALLY can’t go off. As much as the red meat crowd would love it if President Trump insulted the French, and the Germans, and the Japanese, and Whoever, it’s just….

I cannot believe that Hillary Clinton is actually preferable to somebody else. But she is.

sdram wrote:

wv wrote:

90,000 ? Holy shit. That should be a thread all by itself.

w
v

That’s a lot of preseason fans. Two things come to mind.

One is I think they’ll be very big until they’re not the new kid in town anymore. Kind of like the new restaurants in the town I live in – they’re popular until everybody eats there a few times. Many of those fans will get introduced to the NFL’s style of money grubbing.

The second is I watch the Dodgers almost every evening and Vinny reads the attendance figures about the 7th or 8th inning. I’m thinking – there’s rarely even half that many people in the park – he’s listing the paid attendance which includes season ticket holders and they seemingly only show up when Kershaw starts or the Giants are in town.

I don’t think there will be a lot of no shows at this football game. Whether they are there in the 4th quarter or not….

Goff went to UC Berkeley for chrissakes. UC Berekeley has a high bar for entry. I was stunned he didn’t know where the sun rises. It was slightly disturbing, really, but I work with young people – high school kids – and it is hilarious what they don’t know at times.

I borrowed HBO Go from a friend, and watched this last night.

I liked it. But there is no WAY I would waste time on this show if it wasn’t the Rams. It isn’t that interesting unless it’s your team.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/10/opinion/trumps-ambiguous-wink-wink-to-second-amendment-people.html

• This reply was modified 9 years, 9 months ago by Zooey.

We can’t do a thing for the less fortunate unless we have a stronger economy.

I don’t believe that.

The economic numbers are actually really good right now.

Everyone thinks the economy is weaker than it really is because all of the money is going to the top 1%.

So. We can do plenty for the less fortunate.

Yeah, I think he can win.

Hillary is awful, you know. And it isn’t hard to make that case.

So what we have here is a contest between which candidate makes the voters gag the most. Rather than a contest between which is more desirable.

And Hillary’s undesirables are huge.

But I think that the entire establishment…which includes people of all stripes…mostly doesn’t want Trump. Although Trump has supporters, I think most of the people in the media don’t like him, and will spin shit against him. He is on an uphill battle in the media. The coverage of him is going to be negative.

So I think Hillary is likely to win with the media’s assistance, but I can’t rule out the anti-establisment sentiment entirely. A LOT of people are sick of this shit.