The Watering Hole, Thursday, May 24th, 2012: Aaarrrgghhh!

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The Orchard Scream

– “The Scream”, Orchard Style

(original photo by Jane E. Schneider; reproduction of Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” man by Brian Pendley)

Up is down.
Black is white.
Lies are gospel truth.
Video and audio recordings do not exist.
Greed is a virtue.
Jesus Christ said hate your neighbor, steal from the poor, starve the hungry, and only the rich and intolerant will get into heaven.
Avoiding taxes is patriotic.
Dick Cheney “is a man of wisdom and judgment.”
Corporations are people.
Gays and women are NOT people.

Am I the only one who feels like they’re screaming silently in a nightmarish, surreal landscape?

This is our daily open thread — feel free to scream if you want to!

142 thoughts on “The Watering Hole, Thursday, May 24th, 2012: Aaarrrgghhh!”

    • And the Republicans have “improved” upon it. Instead of a daily 2-Minutes Hate, and the occasional Hate Week, Republicans have perfected the 24/7 Hate.

      And instead of showing a made-up Emmanuel Goldstein as public-enemy #1, they just show any Democratic president, but they adorn him with a Hitler mustache or give him terrorist garb.

      And the tele screens don’t have government-produced propaganda on them, they have Fox News on all the time.

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  5. I doubt I’m alone in this. I’m on the edge, the tipping point of politics. I’ve come to detest it more than I’ve ever detested anything in my just-shy-of-seventy-years in this life. I was born during FDR’s third term, less than a year after the US became involved in the Second World War. I was too young, of course, to remember the victory, the celebrations at the official end of hostilities on Sept. 2, 1945, but I do indeed well-remember Korea, Eisenhower, Joe McCarthy, Kruschev, JFK, LBJ, The Nam, and all the affiliated insanity that went down whilst I was still young. I remember well, too, my middle-age trepidations that surfaced for real on the day Reagan was elected, my fears that the event essentially signaled the beginning of a slow decline in what it meant to be an American, to live in America.

    But never in my wildest nightmares did I foresee the point where we are today, and certainly never dared even IMAGINE that which well could happen a mere fifteen days following my seventieth birthday, on “election”(?) day 2012. I mean, what if the GOP wins the presidency AND an operative majority in both the House and the Senate? What then?

    I’m reminded of a line I read somewhere, words written on January 30, 1933: “The river of fire flowed past the French Embassy whence, with heavy heart and filled with foreboding, I watched its luminous wake.” Those were the words of Andre Francois-Poncet, the French Ambassador to Germany on the day Hitler finally assumed total power of the state. It’s noteworthy that Francois-Poncet well understood and had tried to warn the world of the potential consequences when true evil rises to and assumes the throne of power. His warnings had all fallen on deaf ears, of course.

    And today? Here in America, true and genuine evil has overwhelmed what was once an honorable political party, and we are within a percentage point or two of that evil assuming full control of the American state … full control that may well be granted by a MAJORITY of the American electorate, in effect, a majority of the American population. Evil. Pure. Evil. Dastardly. Destructive. Evil.

    What does one do if such were to happen? How does one get the fuck out of this emerging hell? Where can one go to escape the consequences, or at least avoid most of them till the grace of nature finally relieves the pain once and for all and for good?

    And yes, I do realize I’m not as bad off as some. I’m at least a pale-skinned blue-eyed “white” person, hated and detested only for my politics — for my “Socialist-Marxist-Communist-Fascist” attitudes — and not for my racial impurity, my in-bred and therefore insurmountable human inferiority. I’m not black, or “Mexican,” or Muslim. Or Jewish …

    But I am saddened. Terribly saddened. I’m sick. Very sick. Angry. Very angry. Disappointed. Frustrated. And I shall, of course, vote on November 6 … unless ‘they’ find a way to deny me that, given my political attitudes and all. And I shall hope that common sense prevails, that the emergent evil is dashed once and for all time upon the rocks of total destruction, never to reappear again. Anywhere. Right. Uh huh.

    Let’s hope that on November 7 I’m not forced to write something like, “The river of fire flowed past the Lincoln Memorial whence, with heavy heart and filled with foreboding, I watched its luminous wake. On TV from my new ‘home’ in Costa Rica.”

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    • It’s worse still when you realise it took most of the world to unite and stop them in 1945. I worry about my children, especially my daughter.

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    • Damn, Frugal, I should have had you write today’s thread! I just can’t express anymore how sickened I am by everything that’s going on. And we thought that the BushCo. years were beyond belief, who knew how much worse it would become? And how much of the madness of our country is simply because we elected a black president – or are the 1% just taking advantage of the racist bigots to secure their takeover of the country?

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      • I don’t think that it is just because we elected a Blah President. Think of all of that unused Opposition Research they have on Hillary Clinton. I doubt that it would be much different, and it could be worse.

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    • I share your fears. I cannot imagine what we’ll look like if R’s take over. Property will have more rights than people. I want to leave a better world for my children and grandchildren.

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    • If the R’s manage to win in November I suspect it won’t take long for the rest of the world to realize the US has crossed the line. Where we used to be the defender of democracy (at least in rhetoric) we will become the Great Bully so many nations have warned about. Ole Shep will be cranky and ready to bite, distemper and rabies to the point the world will have to unite to put the poor old beast down. I truly feel sorry for what my children and grand children will face, all because of uncontrolled greed.

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    • I understand, as well, your feelings. You wrote that very well. I hope it does not come to pass this year, but for the Republicans, it has been 30 years in the making of how we got here. They will not stop, even if they lose in November, I see obstructionism as far as the eye can see.

      But the tide is turning, and that they cannot stop. The young people will have their day. And for this I can hope. My husband and I will be ok, while not retirement age, we have been fortunate and can move to Costa Rica if necessary, although I doubt that my husband will want to go.

      But I fear for the future for my kids. But they are young, perhaps they can be persuaded to move to Canada or the UK where taxes may be higher, at least there are social safety nets in place. And one political party isn’t trying to eliminate it.

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    • Ok so who else thought BMM was talking abotu Bill Nye the Science Guy…. Bill, Bill, Bill, Bill… Just me huh?

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    • I’ll cut him some slack. I’m willing to bet he had no idea they were pr0n stars. He was at an event filled with “starlets” and these look no tackier than the women at the Oscars. “Ooh, Mr President, can we take a picture with you?”

      I guarantee, though, that the “third woman” is pissed.

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  8. The Extra Terrestrials who planted the dna seed that begot us must surely be disappointed beyond description. Unless Americans Bury the Republican nightmare, we shall have failed our founding father’s vision and purpose.

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  13. BTW, the photo above is actually the same as the one that I used in my recent “Apple Blossom Time” thread. Back when I took that photo, I had a Kodak program for photos that could change a photo to look like a watercolor painting, or a pencil/charcoal drawing (as above), or emboss it like a greeting card. My friend Brian drew the Scream guy on this one when I printed it at work.

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  14. Is anyone else having trouble finding the place to monkey with one’s profile on WordPress? I may be Scotty forever otherwise?

    Dammit Jim, I’m a turtle, not an engineer!

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    • Never mind the “fly count”! TP; soap and water would be a very good starting point.
      Wonder what the dysentery rate is in the region.

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  18. papá y papá

    EVERY spring for six years Gentoo penguins Inca and Rayas have lovingly built a nest together, only to find that no eggs arrive to fill it. It doesn’t seem to have dawned on the couple that both of them are male.

    But after the repeated heartbreak of watching other penguins become parents and raise their young, the “gay” couple finally have something to celebrate after their keepers gave them an egg of their own to care for.

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  19. Obama goes mobile:

    “In our NBC-Marist poll of Florida, Romney leads with landline respondents, 48%-45%. But Obama leads among cell phone respondents, 57%-34%. And in Virginia, Romney’s up one among landline folks, 47%-46%, while Obama is up 54%-36% with cell users. (By the way, 28% of our interviews in OH and FL were conducted on cell phone; 27% in VA.)”

    That’s the GOP’s generation gap in a nutshell.

    http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/24/11859035-first-thoughts-mr-48

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  21. Just got back from a quick trip into the mountains. Found a camping site at a tee-tiny USNF campground near Lake San Isabel, so as soon as the cream of mushroom soup is finished in the pressure cooker, we’re on our way! With luck, the weather will hold and we’ll be able to stay the weekend. Hope everyone enjoys Memorial Day … the holiday AND the concept. There are no Republicans here, so in all likelihood Memorial Day means something more than a shot at a fresh trip to Walmart. Yuckamundo.

    Now, if only the bears stay away all will be well!

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      • Steven Colbert has informed us repeatedly about the danger of bears so, let’s just say you haven’t been warned.
        Steven Colbert is never wrong so I would heed his warnings.

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        • Well teaching AndytheTurtle to ride a bike, don’t expect to see much of TommytheTurtle off with his posse and alas my sweet girl SammytheTurtle is not coming – she’s off to LA with the school choir.

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    • Sorry, I thought I had used zxbe’s tools correctly. In any event, the article is worth a read for the complete gall of the man.

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      • With zxbe’s tool box: the link has to be pasted over entirely (click on the existing url until its highlighted, then paste your url).

        —–

        Mittens looked mighty uncomfortable!

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  24. Friday night is too far off. THE song of the summer, Call Me Maybe gets the supercuts treatment. What fun…..

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  26. I’ve never seen anything like Mittens. In order to attract votes from his own party he has to contradict virtually every position he’s ever taken. He’s unable to remember what he’s said because he’s changed everything he’s said. To be honest; I could probably vote for the guy who ran for Governor of Massachusetts but that guy has to be killed and buried, before the convention, or the GOP will fracture into factions only distinguished by the depths of their insanity. Even if he pulls it off there’s a chance that the rabid fundies will stay home rather than vote for either the Mormon or the black guy.

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    • And if, It’s a big ass if… the voters are paying any attention at all, the Obama campaign should hammer away at every inconsistency they can uncover and hammer and hammer and hammer…well, you get the point…
      With one catchy phrase at the end.

      Mett Romney, ………who are you?

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  27. Tweety interviewed Newt on Hardball and it was a bit jaw-dropping on many levels, not the least of which was Tweety pretty much sucking up to Newt.

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    • When Newt told Tweety that Obama’s problem was that he didn’t know how Washington worked I sensed a subliminal message that Obama hadn’t given in to the corruption that permeates and infests our body politic.

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  28. Newt Gingrich is on Hardball… trying to walk back every single thing that he said about Romney… Fascinating.

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  33. Politifact settles the debate:

    “The Facebook post says Mitt Romney is wrong to claim that spending under Obama has “accelerated at a pace without precedent in recent history,” because it’s actually risen “slower than at any time in nearly 60 years.”

    Obama has indeed presided over the slowest growth in spending of any president using raw dollars, and it was the second-slowest if you adjust for inflation. The math simultaneously backs up Nutting’s calculations and demolishes Romney’s contention. The only significant shortcoming of the graphic is that it fails to note that some of the restraint in spending was fueled by demands from congressional Republicans. On balance, we rate the claim Mostly True.”

    http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/may/23/facebook-posts/viral-facebook-post-says-barack-obama-has-lowest-s/

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    • Whoa, that gave me a flashback to 1963 when I was in the Navy. We were going through the Straits of Messina I had been on watch as a Radarman in a dark and smoky CIC for 4 hours. It was almost 2400 when I walked out on deck to view a similar sight. As Bob Hope used to say, thanks for the memory.

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      • Fair question, that the answer, for me, envolves the explanation of several layers of personal experience. First, this is great rock n roll with a definitive beat, and makes my body dance. Secondly it’s political, and personal truths put to music that I have always been drawn to, and have tried to adhere to in my personal dealings. Tom Morello reminds me of Bob Dylan with the voice of Lou Reed. I have been waiting for years for someone to take the mantle from Bobby Z and be clearer musically to a progressive political outcome. I don’t want to hear angst, or songs about personal issues unfulfilled. The song also has a positive message about personal responsibility, and our place in the political dialogue of our day. Coming of age in the 1960’s my stance on this stage has to do with how music questions, answers, and entertains us to action. Anyway that is my hope for the younger generation, and Tom Morello puts it out there with good rock n roll.
        Maybe hyperbolic, but I want to play it everday as my personal wake-up call.

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        • Thank you, nwoldguy. I like hearing why certain songs are important to us. Music touches us in so many ways.

          I couldn’t put my finger on Morello’s style, but the Dylan/Reed comparison is spot on. Very rich voice.

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  36. This site is not one I’m familiar with so I don’t know how reliable it is, but if this is real, it’s darned creepy. I can’t imagine a worse prize than dinner with these two.

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