Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

More fun copyright legal news - https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.cd19ac5e1e85

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

I used to be in The Italian American Bar Association- all they wanted IP people to do is pro bono oppose Trademark registration applications for restaurants with mafia themed names.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

So, what, the Mob's got to meet in the back room of Olive Garden now?

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Remember when we used to make fun of that one guy for going to Applebees in Jersey? <sniff> Today's Daily Dose is a funk original. The Isley Brothers with the oft-covered "It's Your Thing." Just genius. If you have a chance, listen with earphones and check out the interplay between the rhythm guitar in the right ear the restrained piano licks in the left ear. Genius. Did I say that already?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MD-9eOWsp8o

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

The Mob is a myth created by the Jews that run Hollywood.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

The World's Biggest Applebee's is in Times Square, there's a sign that says so. Which reminds me of the first year I spent October in NYC and I convinced ppnyc that my plan was to eat 30 lunches and 30 dinners in 60 Times Square restaurants, because, NY! I miss her:confused::( Now I'm the dumbest here:(:(????? Am I??

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

I'm just glad Marlon Brando is gone. Can you imagine him, sitting in an Olive Garden (do they even serve espresso in an Olive Garden), plotting to marry his daughter to Matthew Broderick?

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

What I said: Trump's business empire and its entanglements with his presidency are going to give Congress an excuse to impeach him if and when it wants to. This will be attractive to conservatives who want to cut him loose when he becomes politically damaging, and want to find a way to distance him from conservatism.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

I know we have 4 years of you posting "why Trump should be impeached today" stuff. I just hope it is 4 years only.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Nah. They're going to redefine conservatism around him.

Most of the elected officials just want something that bears a passing resemblance to what they used to believe when they were boys that they can sell to their constituents. Trumpism will do. The donors just want power. The conservative press will just do Trump's bidding or get replaced and lose their audience (it was nice knowing you Megyn, enjoy peddling white Santa in Siberia). And conservative academics? Who cares.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

I'm not saying he should be impeached today. I'm saying that I think there's a good shot that Hill Republicans will want to impeach him, lest he drag them down in the 2020 race. [And when they do, they will use the corruption issue.]

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

They're out there. And they have weapons.

http://ithacavoice.com/2016/12/man-a...nally-proudly/

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Agreed on every point, most notably the last. Bill Kristol and the rest of the Never Trumpers will be in exile until their inevitable "change of heart."

Intellectually rigorous conservatism is dead. What you have now is a resurgence of what Bill O'Reilly recently called the "white male establishment" (watch that clip; quite, uh, Freudian).

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

The assumption he's going to be a drag in 2020, rather than their most essential campaign attraction, is pure speculation.

We may be seeing the love child of Nixon, Wallace, and Reagan, with FDR's spending policies, grabbing the wheel of the Republic. That's a force that may not only win eight years, but define the country and the world for a generation.

You want to be the GOP Congressman daring to put together an anti-Trump coalition? This guy knows no limits with his enemies. And he doesn't give a fuck about burning bridges in the Beltway.

I think the GOP will bend to whatever our Everyman's Caligula wants rather than the other way around.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Indeed. He's in the great beyond, hanging with Michael Jackson, eating 400 White Castle burgers a day, and date raping angels with butter.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Of course they have weapons. Would you deny the mentally disabled their second amendment rights? I mean, if they're white.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Of course, the value of your predictions has been calculated as the cost of a glass of blended scotch on the rocks minus $10, so I'll factor that into the analysis.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Get ready. It's going to be like the Bush Presidency on steroids.

Paul Krugman was already lost his fucking mind. He was hot about W, but his recent shit on Trump betrays a guy whose core is now totally unspooled. He almost sounds suicidal.

It's a shame. I liked his columns during the Obama Administration, where he had his head together. I also liked his anti-Iraq war stuff during W's reign. Actually, I loved it. Now he's just bleating.

And Slate? Well, no one reads it anymore... not since Hitchens died. But, man -- that place has gone batshit. Every piece is about how the election was stolen by Comey and the Russians and we're all doomed! Doomed, I tell you!

I'm long manufacturers of Xanax and white wine.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

That's my own valuation of my ability to predict. My ability to value things is also worth nothing more than the cost of a blended scotch minus $10.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

He just lost the popular vote by 2% and got only 46%. He is the most unpopular incoming President since Neolithic times. He is staffing his administration with a bunch of hard-right ideologues who are preparing to do big things to the government and the economy that no one supports and that he actually ran against. And this is even before he is mugged by events that he can't control, like a recession or a natural disaster or a war. I suspect he'll cope a little better than some people think, because I don't discount the business and military experience of many of his employees, but I also don't think he's ever going to be popular. When one party gets control of the government, the country has a way of moving back to divided government.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

What does this even mean? I think you're pointing out that Trump and Republicans don't even pretend to engage on the level of serious policy analysis anymore, because Trump actively disdains expertise and most Republicans are a bunch of ideologues more interested in cutting taxes and getting re-elected than in whether government works, and so Krugman has no one to engage with. If so, it's a fair point, but framing it as a criticism of Krugman only makes sense in a world what you value is politically relevance.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

The only analogue for Trump is Reagan. Both from entertainment, neither interested in policy, both in favor of massive debt-fueled spending... I could go on for a while.

They're still worshiping that guy.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Read Krugman's Twitter feed. He's like a left wing Alex Jones at the moment. The Russians and Comey fixed the election, Trump's a Manchurian candidate. It's cuckoo pants shit.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Reagan won in a landslide. Trump, uh, didn't. Reagan had been governor of California and in politics for a long time. Trump hasn't. Reagan replaced an unpopular president. Trump isn't. Reagan had support to build the military and roll back regulation. If you think people want to cut Social Security, Medicare and even the ACA, I don't know what you're smoking.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

We all knew Sebby would end up licking Trump's boots, didn't we?

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

I just read his Twitter feed for the last few days, and you are completely full of shit. Find me a tweet that's like a left-wing Alex Jones -- for example, the left-wing version of denying that Sandy Hook was a conspiracy theory. Find me the craziest tweet from the last week, the one that you think is "cuckoo pants shit," whatever that is.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

I suspect that people who smoke more pot are less likely to think the government should get rid of those programs, if asked when not stoned.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

I wasn't really paying attention to the substance of your debate because, like, totes boring, amirite??? I just saw you wondering what Sebastian was smoking and I was like, I think I probably got an idea. Just maybe. ;) ;) I know, right?? Anyhoo, James Brown Thursday on the Daily Dose, and JB actually has some Xmas themed tunes that I dig, and this is one of them. Santa Claus, Go Straight to the Ghetto. I mean, seriously!!!! Go there!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryKRcVqsph8

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

The whole album is good. Was just playing it!

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Dig a little deeper. And check out the week after the election. He was an emotional basket case.

And it goes beyond Twitter. He's been the Lena Dunham of economic pundits since the election. http://thefederalist.com/2016/12/20/...racy-theorist/

Bill Maher handled the election as it should've been handled. "It's done. I don't like it. But I'll deal with it." And he will. He'll slay Trump week in, week out. That's respectable. Someone remind Krugman, and everyone like him -- all of those who've taken to bleating -- there's strength in mockery. Whining and carping and crying foul is for weak, thin-skinned people. People like Trump.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

The guy's having a moment. He's got a lot of power, and I think it's early to start assuming he's going to go down in flames. He's got a lot of advantages to piss away to do so. If anyone can fuck it up, he can, but assuming that's inevitable is unwarranted.

Otherwise, you got me! Zing! Fucking brilliant comment, as always.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

The GOP is poised to pick up more seats in 2018. This will only expand their already significant ability to control the electoral college vote.

He only needs to keep the Rust Belt, which, I agree with you, he may lose if he doesn't bring back all those he promised.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Huh? You can say this, like August 2018, not before.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

How 'bout you dig deeper and find a single tweet that is Alex-Jones-deranged. Just one.

eta: Your every post about Krugman is what Atrios calls hippy bashing. I don't recall you engaging with what he says (until years later, like, he was tight about the war, but ....). The whole point is to dismiss him for his tone, for bleating, as he is the one acting like a sheep.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Glass of blended scotch on the rocks minus $10. When Sebastian says something like, "The GOP is poised to pick up more seats in 2018" it is basically the same to me as him saying, "In 2018, antelope-men from a previously-undiscovered continent will take control of the governments of all the current world powers." Or, "2018 will be the year in which the long-awaited awakening of the Emperors of the Pinecones shifts the balance of power to Uranus." Or, "Happy scotch scotch pickled Steadman but beware the lizard people and their cannabis of distorted illusion so the peppermint bark pizza feet may again walk the land unfettered." You may be able to distinguish the subtle degrees of gibberish, but to me *mostly gibberish* is the same as *almost completely gibberish* is the same as *gibberish cubed*.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

I did. It was cited in the article: https://twitter.com/paulkrugman/stat...51823687368704 There are many more. Not as crazy, but as hysterical.

I may be hippie punching a bit. But it's deserved. I actually like the guy when he sticks to lucid commentary. When he starts whining, he gets annoying, and he undercuts his message. There's a lot of shit to dislike about Trump. But the way to attack him is to make a strong argument. Rip his plans, or lack thereof, dismiss him as unqualified, and make fun of him. But for God's sake, don't sound like, to borrow from Maher's favored description of Trump through the campaign, a "whiny little bitch."

You don't see Stiglitz or Reich acting like emotional fifteen year olds, do you? Krugman should know better.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Being in position to capitalize at all is 50% of the battle:* https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.b850568455bc
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* Vonnegut - "Half of life is showing up."