...Andrew Yang 2020...
...No Labels 2010 ("Dead Center") ...
...Matthew Dowd 2016 ("So, Four Years Later, How's That Whole "Disrupt The K'rupt Duopoly!" Thing Working Out?") ...
...Ralph Nader 2000...
...George Wallace, 1968...
..Jill Stein, every fucking time:
All of these the spawn of the biggest lie in American politics. The lie whose ubiquity has done more to warp American politics than any other. The Big Lies that makes all the smaller lies possible. And because I'm rather tired today, in lieu of brand new words the explain that Big Lie, I'm gonna drop in excerpt from eight years ago and take my wife out to lunch at a local diner.
From "The Great White Party".
...Because even as they they stood in the ruins of the Republican Bush Administration -- even as they watched the Republican Congress labor single-mindedly to lie, slander and sabotage the Obama Administration's Herculean efforts to clean up the ruins of the Republican Bush Administration and get us back on our feet -- nothing could override the frantic-junkie desperation of the Beltway brain caste to go right on pretending that Both Sides Do It.And they're rich.And influential.And their bosses are rich and influential. And the lobbyists with whom they crossbreed are rich and influential. And the teevee networks that deliver their lies to millions and who depend on never offending anyone are crazy rich and influential. And the Republican moles posing as "Independents" who knew god damn well that "Both Siderism" is the Big Lie that keeps the Right propped up are rich and influential.Which is why there has always been a shit-ton of money and job security available to any unprincipled hack willing to help the Beltway prop up it's foundational Big Lie of Both Sides Do It.On the other hand, there is no profit or prestige to be found in telling the truth about the Big Lie of Both Sides Do It, for the same reason there is no profit or prestige in telling the Mayor of the "a coastal town in southern Norway" and Chairman of the Baths' Committee that the town's very lucrative spa is making people sick....Peter Stockmann. —for his own family, as I was saying, as well as for the town he lives in.Dr. Stockmann. It is I who have the real good of the town at heart! I want to lay bare the defects that sooner or later must come to the light of day. I will show whether I love my native town.Peter Stockmann. You, who in your blind obstinacy want to cut off the most important source of the town's welfare?Dr. Stockmann. The source is poisoned, man! Are you mad? We are making our living by retailing filth and corruption! The whole of our flourishing municipal life derives its sustenance from a lie!Peter Stockmann. All imagination—or something even worse. The man who can throw out such offensive insinuations about his native town must be an enemy to our community....
In Elon's case, he has hit Stage Five of the Seven Stages of Wingnut Grift.
Stage 1: Completely clueless.
Stage 2: Buying into ludicrous MAGA/QAnon conspiracy theories about why things are fucked.
Stage 3: Finding out the Right played you for a chump.
Stage 4: Blame Both Sides.
Stage 5: Third Party!!!
In five years, having voted for Bush will have become the parachute pants of this decade.It will become the “Oh my GOD. What the fuck was I thinking?” shameful secret people will occasionally and elliptically allude to by piping up with, “well, he did good after 9/11” as schoolchildren are taught what a disaster on every front and by every measure he was, and as adults who now have to pay and pay dearly for the myriad lies and crimes and follies of George W. Bush recount his Top 100 Fuckups and bitterly laugh and laugh and laugh.
...to a nursing home near you.
...to a rural hospital near you.
...to a neonatal unit near you.
...to a cancer patient near you.
...to a school district near you.
...to a promising clinical trial near you.
...to a physical therapy clinic near you.
...to a hospice near you.
...to hungry people where you live.
...to impoverished children where you live.
...to working men and women where you live.
...to the poor and desperate you will never meet in countries far away.
"So much of what we do nowadays in communications is just online and bomb throwing....when you do actually talk to the person...it radically changes your perceptions of them." "Bill's kind of more than human though, he's kind of superhuman." Sam and Tim talk Bill Kristol:
— The Bulwark (@thebulwark.com) July 3, 2025 at 4:45 PM
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Hearing Sam Stein -- who used to write about Bill Kristol as Satan incarnate -- sing the praises of Bloody Bill Kristol was...fascinating.
And, sure, he acknowledges that this might piss off some of those crusty, old Liberals who are, y'know, still hanging on to old grudges about the Iraq war from the Before Time, but whatever, bitches!
Tempus fugit! Bill Kristol is a great guy. The best. Possibly superhuman. To know him is to love him.
And that's when Sam unveiled his Policy For Judging Human Beings. That while some people may seem terribly wicked from a distance or across the interwebs, once you get to know them, "when you do actually talk to the person...it radically changes your perceptions of them" (and, in this case, once they're signing your paycheck) they're pretty OK.
Basically, people are people, so even when people seem to be malignant, lying monsters, your go-to move should be to forgive and forget. Absolve and move on.
Cool, cool.
So, given his radically revised Policy For Judging Human Beings, where does the newly enlightened Sam Stein stand on the question of those Republican people who lined up to vote for Trump's bill?
Oh, those people? Those people all spineless, unprincipled, lying, performative scum who should rot in Hell.
Here endeth the lesson.
