tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post1909673935436113685..comments2024-03-28T00:02:35.850-05:00Comments on driftglass: There. Is. No. Tea. Party: Epilogue driftglasshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09379167083253389153noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-69481355160646268022016-04-23T14:06:01.920-05:002016-04-23T14:06:01.920-05:00Actually, there was an original Tea Party before O...Actually, there was an original Tea Party before Obama's inauguration; it was a grassroots basically Libertarian movement wanting tax reform (the "tea" referred to "Taxed Enough Already") and a reduction of intrusive govt. bureaucracy. Its speech-makers almost always referred to Ayn Rand and the Bill of Rights, and its activists did things like collect blankets for survivors of hurricane Katrina and drive them to N'Awlins themselves. The movement's directness and simplicity drew a lot of followers, and the NeoCons took notice. Soon after that, they infiltrated the movement and took it over. Once the NeoCons started spouting their usual garbage, the moderates and Libertarians quit in disgust. Soon there was nobody left but the nutcase NeoCons, and the movement died. No, there is indeed no Tea Party anymore. <br /><br />I've seen this kind of political parasitism before (SDS, NOW, others), and I make a point of warning all budding grassroots political groups to watch out for it. Right from the beginning, you must make a *clear definition* of your ideology, and make every member swear to it. Thereafter, make a public show of kicking out any member who doesn't adhere to that statement. Better to lose members through purges than to lose the whole organization through takeover. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-77810283373427818802016-04-21T12:16:30.490-05:002016-04-21T12:16:30.490-05:00I was at one of the first 'appearances' of...I was at one of the first 'appearances' of the teabaggers. As we all stood in line waiting to enter the venue, I talked to a lot of these spontaneous activists (90%+ retired military). Almost all of them were bused to the event from South Carolina (event was in Philadelphia). They were shepherded by gooper Hill staffers, still wearing their ID badges on lanyards. The protesters had scripts on what to say, since almost none of them knew anything about ACA, except that the black muslim was behind it. They did succeed in disrupting the meeting. And the video of the town hall was almost exclusively about their protest. So a tip of the hat to DeMint, Armey, et al, for nice choreography. <br /> If you want to call that spontaneous, then I've been using the word incorrectly for many decades.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06518025949949879535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-51935240413158795472016-04-21T11:43:42.069-05:002016-04-21T11:43:42.069-05:00Back in 2009, Rachel Maddow was already reporting ...Back in 2009, Rachel Maddow was already reporting on MSNBC on the Koch-funded astro-turfed fraud that passed itself off as the putative "Taxed Enough Already" Teabagger "party." <br /><br />Here's a clip where she tells Tim Phillips of Americans for Prosperity that he and his patrons are parasites:<br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LaxpZyZoMA <br /><br />So Maddow was already calling out the Teabaggers as a fraud back then. It appears that Scarborough is many years late to this truth-telling, but equally sure that he's richer than ever. <br /><br />I threw away my tv and haven't watched Rachel Maddow or MSNBC in quite a long time, so I have no idea what kind of a job Maddow does these days. I know that her big rich bosses put her on a pretty short leash. Oh well. Too bad, so sad get used to it.<br /><br />Yeah, people like Maddow - and the rest of the DFHs - called out the Teabaggers for the ever-willing dupes that they were and remain so to this day. A lot of people grifted a lot of money off of them, which was one of the points of the whole scam.<br /><br />The big push was for them to go rant, tirade and throw temper tantrums in 2009 at Town Halls across Murka shrieking and demanding to get "MY country back" (from the N****r in OUR White House), plus shriek about sochulized medsin and get yer gubmint outta my Medicare and other similar bon mots all whilst calling themselves Tea Baggers until the Men in Black zapped them with that pen-thing and they forgot that term and insisted they always were called the Tea Party blah blah de blah blah.<br /><br />What a buncha tools. I have super rightwing family members who attended lots of those rallies back in the day. Same ones who cried (really) when SARAH LOST (not McCain; always about Tundra Trash). Nowadays they claim to be voting for sleazy Cruzer. They don't like Trump, interestingly enough. They don't talk about the Tea Party anymore, either. I guess the Men in Black came along and used that nifty pen-forgetter machine on them.<br /><br />Hard to keep up with what's "IN" and what's "OUT" with conservatards, other than the reliable stand-bys of bigotry, racism, sexism, homophobia and now hating on trannies who use the wrong bathroom.<br /><br />Guess it doesn't matter that Scarborough tells the troof about the scam that was the Tea Party because who's paying attention anyway? Those old Baggers probably done forgot all about it by now anyway. Next GRIFT?? Ya know there's one coming along any minute now.RUKiddinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14057702539722165035noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-80723773993271035632016-04-21T09:40:52.476-05:002016-04-21T09:40:52.476-05:00What happened to Ms. Maddow, once the bastion of t...What happened to Ms. Maddow, once the bastion of truth? Passing strange, the new MSNBC. Also, what happened to Crystal Ball and Melissa Harris-Perry? Fiddlin Billhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08083633111240927563noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-84494159066530872652016-04-21T01:42:52.323-05:002016-04-21T01:42:52.323-05:00"Like German soldiers after the fall of Berli..."Like German soldiers after the fall of Berlin...have stopped running away from the catastrophe they created only long enough to burn their uniforms."<br /><br /> Brilliantly bright and clear quoted description of the illusionary Tea Party .<br /> Or as I call them Tea-publicans.<br /><br />The Koch organizational grass roots team you decry is closer to any truth than ever explained or spun.<br /><br />The visuals from their rallies. The Tri corner hats with tea bags hanging from the string stapled to the hats brim. The back of the head with fuzzy hair woman who told McCain Obama was an Arab. These are the John Birchers who in that year was given amnesty to return to the GOP. <br />They were bussed into the rallies. some admitted payment for attendance. <br /><br />* It was like the GOP went to AMC on sunday evening and rounded up a bunch of flesh hungry walkers Led them to a rally with the sound of music coming from the ice cream truck luring them by sound..<br /><br />" And the only people straight up calling bullshit on the whole scam?<br /><br />Surprise! Those dirty, disreputable Liberals who no one listens to anyway."<br /><br />I stand proudly at the base of Bulshit Mountain, confessing my guilt as one of many dirty, disreputable Liberal.<br /><br /> Robthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15736678459663803707noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-41048273889498985012016-04-21T00:31:01.384-05:002016-04-21T00:31:01.384-05:00That open, suppurating lunacy dollar is one heck o...That open, suppurating lunacy dollar is one heck of a dollar, I tell you what...jimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06840719620959481121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-13181306249556690712016-04-20T19:33:49.549-05:002016-04-20T19:33:49.549-05:00My favorite lost memory from the Bush years:
&quo...My favorite lost memory from the Bush years:<br /><br />"The Unitary Executive"<br /><br />It's only tyranny when you try to do it, oh dark-skinned one.<br /><br />Seriously, as the author at this joint always points out, how is it that no one remembers anything, and that there is no history, no recollection of prior things?bt1138https://www.blogger.com/profile/12843326237379459791noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-6631662688410113772016-04-20T19:18:40.176-05:002016-04-20T19:18:40.176-05:00I've never watched Scarborough before. Wow. Th...I've never watched Scarborough before. Wow. The woman next to him punches up his sentences with the occasional 'yes, uh huh.' and probably the occasional hand job under the table. And the three deer in the headlights stiffs wait for him to stop rambling so they can chime in with 'Boss, you're absolutely right.' What a freakshow.Lawrencehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05429309964648275918noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-2091362156318750292016-04-20T17:51:51.612-05:002016-04-20T17:51:51.612-05:00No Liberal article on the "Tea Party" wo...No Liberal article on the "Tea Party" would be complete without an appropriate etymology on the movement, and that awkward phase when children realize they aren't wearing clothes.<br /><br />To wit: The Tea Baggers. One source: <br />http://www.allthingsdemocrat.com/2014/02/tea-party-first-to-use-teabag-and-teabaggers-in-politics/<br /><br />In the early days of the astroturf, they didn't know what "tea bag" meant, other than to associate it with tea bags, which the Boston Tea Party did not use.<br /><br />And so the yokels managed to turn it into a verb. By coincidence, many in the Liberal community began to snicker. I was there, man. We had to snicker loudly and often and long, before it finally dawned on the 'baggers that, even worse than astronomers naming a planet "Uranus" (spawning a Klingon joke), their new verb was already taken.<br /><br />Eventually they tried to scrub the historical documents and blamed Liberals for the whole unpleasantness.bluicebankhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06821812102554488543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-1647394325745587692016-04-20T16:18:45.559-05:002016-04-20T16:18:45.559-05:00But what about the now sad sack local "tea pa...But what about the now sad sack local "tea party" organizer who actually thought this was all real? <br /><br />Who across the heatland got mysterious checks to spend the run up to 2010 midterms organizing the armed, Medicare paid for rascal, misspelled sign waving, rally's; did the "we're independents!" media blitz; and open mike night town halls but hasn't seen a check in their PO Box since the first Monday in November of 2010? <br /><br />Trump supporters are the Republicans that thought the Tea Party WAS real and was finally going to enable them to put those liberals, feminists, intellectuals, non-Christianists, and XXXX in their place. <br /><br /> trgahanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10830124404306531933noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-37722661617069259652016-04-20T15:48:19.164-05:002016-04-20T15:48:19.164-05:00Of course Joey Joe Joe Junior Scarborough would le...Of course Joey Joe Joe Junior Scarborough would let this one slip. That smug bastard could murder a puppy on live TV and not suffer any loss of prestige at MSNBC or among his Village brethren. <br /><br />The Teabaggers were a bunch of pissed off, mostly old and almost 100% white and staunchly pro-GOP or at least anti-liberal morons who had no fucking idea what they were even mad about other than that they lost the election and "that boy" in the "White" House was attempting to, you know, govern, without their express approval. <br /><br />The Beltway media flattered these afstroturfed-into-frenzied-action demented dolts to no end, educating its viewers that the teabaggers were patriotic Amerrricans, concerned about higher taxes (they were at a 60 year low at the time and Obama had just cut them for everyone via the stimulus), the deficit (suddenly became a thing in January 2009! Whocouldaknowed? and they had no idea what caused the deficit to become so large (idiots), or knew exactly what caused it but blamed the Kenyan Usurper anyway (liars)), and big government (which better not touch MY MEDICARE, dammit!). The Villager media's abdication of any responsibility to accurately report on the the teabaggers' actual origins - a corporate-funded and organized unhinged outbreak of racially-charged nihilism and ignorance - was breathtaking in its incompetence and/or mendacity, depending on which media outlet it was.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15368238520998130967noreply@blogger.com