The Republicans are an entire political party out of their minds.
By comparison, the Democratic Party has less interest in enthusiastically doing the wrong thing on every issue, but little interest in doing the right thing.
To the Dems I’d say: Stand up for something smart, and explain why you’re doing it. Maybe you’ll succeed, or maybe the Republicans will block you. But either way, if you’ve done a decent job explaining why what you’re saying is right, you’ll win the next election everywhere outside of the Troglodyte South, because most Americans are not Republicans. Stand up for something smart, and win elections.
Fight for action against climate change, and explain the facts and the future. Most people actually love their children, some people even love their grandchildren, and would give a damn if they understood that it’s science, not a ‘controversy’. Other than platitudes in the party platform every four years, the Democratic Party is making no effort to explain to America what the future looks like, if we continue ignoring climate change. Damn, that’s stupid.
Fight for single-payer health care, and explain why it would work. Explain that even though it raises taxes, it would be cheaper for every American than what they’re paying to for-profit conglomerates now.
The Democratic Party can’t make those arguments, because it’s opposed to universal health care. Some of them support it when they’re running, but never after the election’s over.
Fight for voting rights, and against gerrymandering, and for simple fair play in elections. This is the easiest item on my short, silly list, because anyone who knows the difference between right and wrong wouldn’t need much convincing. Yet the Democratic Party makes no serious effort to explain: Republicans want roadblocks to voting because they don’t want black people to vote. Say that, and say it out loud.
Democrats could win enthusiastic majorities in Congress and hold the White House in perpetuity, if they’d simply stand up for something, on a few key issues where most Americans would agree. But the Democratic Party doesn’t do that, because they’re Democrats.
Republicans offer bad ideas, and stupid people love bad ideas.Democrats offer no ideas.If the Democratic Party offered smart ideas, believed in them and actually fought for them, Democrats would win.Yup, it’s as easy as that.
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Canadian police make arrests, seize vehicles in Ottawa Freedom Convoy protest
I’m gonna go a quarter-inch out on a very thick limb: Cops are cops, and Canadian cops probably aren’t much different from American cops. If so, then most of them are right-wing extremists, much like the horn-honking, traffic-blocking truckers in Ottawa. That’s a major factor in why the mayhem has been allowed for so long — the cops are on the blockaders’ side.
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The hacked account and suspicious donations behind the Canadian trucker protests
The truckers’ blockade was not organized by Canadian trucking unions, the largest of which has come out against the protests. They also do not appear to reflect the values of most Canadians or most Canadian truckers: More than 80 percent of the Canadian public is vaccinated, including almost 90 percent of truckers, according to Canada’s minister of transport.
The speed at which the movement has raised millions of dollars seems suspicious…
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Jeez, that’s insulting. Republicans have zero respect for what teachers do.
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Excerpt: Judge Orville C. Pratt acknowledged that railroad laws give transportation companies the right to make exceptions to their duty to carry passengers, such as when a person might cause danger, transmit illness or refuse to pay fare. However, the judge determined that skin color does not qualify.
”The accident of color is not legitimately embraced among the causes that justify exceptions to the rule,” an October 3, 1864 newspaper article in the San Francisco Bulletin said.
That’s a remarkable woman, and a remarkable judge, for 18-frickin’-64.
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Spotify is not about the music.
Excerpt: Spotify’s profit requires that digital music have no value. Spotify continually talks down the value of music on their platform – they offer it for free; they tell musicians we are lucky to be paid anything for it; they insist that without their service, there is only piracy and zero income. Most tellingly, they invest nothing back into music. Unlike a record label, publisher, or most anyone else in the music industry, Spotify devotes none of its profits to the development of new recordings.
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This lawyer should be world-famous for his battle with Chevron – but he’s in jail
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“Free crack pipes” is the new “Biden banned burgers”
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How hard would it be to hit Jeff Bezos’s superyacht with a rotten egg?
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Starbucks fires 7 employees involved in Memphis union effort
“I was fired by Starbucks today for ‘policies’ that I’ve never heard of before and that I’ve never been written up about before.”
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Amusing: Admission to the Lyndon Baines Johnson Museum is free if your first, last, or middle name is Lyndon.
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Lindy Hopping at the Savoy in Harlem
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Real but ridiculous ads:
• International House of Pancakes
• Kentucky Fried Chicken
• Mr Clean
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One-word newscast:
• climate
• elections
• QAnonsense
• QAnonsense
• Republicans
• Republicans
Dead:
• Mel Mermelstein
• Douglas Trumbull
• Wunda Wunda
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Mystery links
— Like life itself, there’s no knowing where you’re going:
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♫♬ Sing along with Doug ♫
2/9/2022
Cranky Old Man is annoyed and complains and very occasionally offers a kindness, along with anything off the internet that’s made me smile or snarl. All opinions fresh from my ass. Top illustration by Jeff Meyer. Click any image to enlarge. Comments & conversations invited.
Tip ‘o the hat to All Hat No Cattle, Linden Arden, ye olde AVA, BoingBoing, Breakfast at Ralf’s, Captain Hampockets, CaptCreate’s Log, John the Basket, LiarTownUSA, National Zero, Ran Prieur, Voenix Rising, and anyone else whose work I’ve stolen without saying thanks.
Extra special thanks to Becky Jo, Name Withheld, Dave S., and always Stephanie…
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