Today In Both Sides Do It: Ron Fournier, The Sad Clown of Centrism

@ThePlumLineGS Hi Greg. I'm for serious gun control and for the party that gets it done. Which is neither.

— Ron Fournier (@ron_fournier) January 5, 2016

Craven Both Siderist weasels like Ron Fournier have overstayed their subsidized vacation in our public square by about 20 years and no longer have any place in any adult conversation about anything.

Which is why I'm for serious Ron Fournier control.

And for the corporate media outlet that gets it done.

Which is none of them.

The Amazing Shrinking Priebus

From Real Clear Politics:

"I’m not one of these people that think that Donald Trump can’t win a general election," Priebus said according to The Washington Post. "I actually think there is a huge crossover appeal there to people that are disengaged politically that he speaks to.… Trump taps into the culture. Some people in politics don’t get it, don’t understand it, are frustrated by it. It doesn’t matter. He does."

Now that the institutional Republican Party has collapsed, one cheap form of amusement for those of us who live in the peanut gallery is watching the former lords and ladies of the Party of Lincoln scramble like Romanovs trying to hang onto their heads after the October Revolution.

Why We Don't Have Nice Things

Longtime readers will be familiar with Stephen Moore, yet another serially-disgraced Conservative hack

In a 2014 Kansas City Star opinion piece entitled "What's the matter with Paul Krugman?" Moore responded to Krugman's opinion piece entitled "Charlatans, Cranks and Kansas."[11][12] In his piece, Moore claimed that job creation had been superior in low-taxation states during the five years following the recession ending June 2009. After substantial factual errors were uncovered in Moore's opinion piece, the Kansas City Star indicated that it would no longer print Moore's work without "thorough factchecking."[13]

who is (surprise!) also a full-bird colonel in the Koch Brother's Army of Darkness:

Moore founded the Club for Growth in 1999. Moore was ousted by the group's board in December 2004, and subsequently announced his resignation.[8] After his ouster from the Club for Growth, Moore founded the 501(c)(4) Free Enterprise Fund with other former Club for Growth members including Arthur Laffer and Mallory Factor.[8] In 2005, Moore left the Free Enterprise Fund to serve on the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal.[7] Moore is a partner in the econometrics firm Arduin, Laffer & Moore Econometrics.[9] On January 21, 2014, the Heritage Foundation announced that Moore would rejoin the think tank as chief economist.[10] Moore is a contributing editor for National Review.[9]

Being a resourceful huckster, Mr. Moore always has his finger in the wind, trying to divine the most efficient way to profit from whichever way the rage and paranoia of the Right is blowing on any given day. These days, for example, the cleverest wingnut prospectors have hiked up Mount Trump to mine a rich vein of "Whatever You Think Of Trump, It's All Obummer's Fault Anyway [Because Isn't Everything Always Obummer's Fault?])".

Here is Mr. Moore, "economic adviser at Freedom Works and a Fox News contributor",  in the Moonie Times a couple of weeks ago (no link to spare you the pain):

The ‘Fascist’ left in America
After Trump’s call for a Muslim moratorium the name-calling began

...
The left might want to engage in some introspection and ask why so many millions of Americans — many of whom enthusiastically voted for Obama — now agree with Mr. Trump. Are these suddenly terrible people? Have they been duped by a charismatic leader? More likely the answer is that an ever-shrinking number of Americans trust Mr. Obama to keep the dangerous Muslims out. People want above all right now to keep their families safe, and since Mr. Obama has no interest in real and effective terrorist screening, many Americans say best to keep them all out for now.

If middle class American voters are so afraid, so angry, so distrustful of Washington, and feeling so economically marginalized that millions would throw their support behind a man routinely denounced as a dangerous Nazi/fascist, maybe the left might want to ask: who made things so bad that it has come to this? Without Barack Obama’s full slate of failures and his eight years of polarizing politics, there could be no Donald Trump.

Got that?  It's not merely that the Kenyan Usurper is to blame for the rise of Il Douche.  It is that, according the the serially-disgraced Mr. Moore, "many" of those who "enthusiastically voted for Obama" are now out-and-proud "Chumps for Trump!"  Another wild and ludicrous lie pooped out in the pages of the poor man's Wall Street Journal in order to makes Crazy Uncle Liberty feel smug and secure in his Fortress of Derpitude.

But here's the thing.

While on paper (well, pixels), even the few remaining professionals at, say, MSNBC clearly understand that Mr. Moore is not a man to be trusted --

Being discredited is not always a barrier to success

By Steve Benen

...
I can appreciate the fact that Art Laffer and Stephen Moore aren’t household names, so the fact that they’re having conversations with national GOP candidates probably won’t raise a lot of eyebrows with the American mainstream. But these chats nevertheless touch on an important point about Republican politics: being discredited is not a barrier to success.

Take Stephen Moore, for example, the Heritage Foundation’s chief economist. Earlier this year, after Moore published a bizarre piece criticizing the Affordable Care Act, Paul Krugman described the conservative as “a guy who has a troubled relationship with facts.”

Krugman added at the time, “I don’t mean that he’s a slick dissembler; I mean that [Moore] seems more or less unable to publish an article without filling it with howlers … in a way that ends up doing his cause a disservice.”

-- just one year ago today, as the nation writhed in the grip of "Jeb!Mania!", who did MSNBC's own Steve "Chuck Todd-lite" Kornacki turn to for sage political wisdom but:



If the Left would like to make some genuine progress, then as a movement we need to stop worrying about the agenda and tactics of our political enemies on the Right.  Yes, as always, organize and votevotevote to oppose their agenda, but their their motives, tactics and goals are plain and clear and can be met and defeated head-on if...

...in this year of 2016, the Left as a movement focused on making the Both Siderist/Centrist/Beltway media pay dearly every single fucking time they enable the batshit Right.

Leave the Center intact, and nothing will change.

Take out the Center and the Right will fall.

Sunday Morning Comin' Down

Over the weekend, a group of our very own, home-brewed Murrican fascists took yet another step towards establishing the Kallikak Caliphate of their dreams by taking up arms against the federal government.  From Brother Charlie Pierce:

You have to give Captain Daniel Shays this: When he launched his armed sedition against lawful authority, he at least was invited in. Overnight on Saturday, in an obscure corner of the Oregon wilderness, and contrary to the law, and in defiance of democratic authority, both federal and local, another act of armed sedition was committed. It seems to me that this ought to be a bigger story than, say, the belated prosecution of Bill Cosby, or whatever most recently came out of the mouth of the vulgar talking yam. In a small place in Oregon, the essential compact of the United States of America has come apart.

A pretty big deal, you might think.

A major story in the middle of an otherwise dull news cycle, you might surmise.

And over in the Better Universe, you would be right and your teevee machines would be a'buzzin' and a'clickin' with learned people talking about the bloody and terrible roots of Revanchist Conservatism which the Right has been using as a sharp stick to incite our most paranoid and belligerently ignorant citizens for 30 years now.

But we don't live in the Better Universe.  We live in this Universe.   And over in this Universe, Donald Trump is running for Maximum Awesome President For Life of America.  And like every successful demagogue, Donald Trump knows that the trick to winning the loyalty of the mob is to give them permission to publicly wallow in their ugliest private perversions.

Which is why Donald Trump has given permission to the American bigot to embrace his Inner Klansman.  And given permission to the America brownshirt to beat up outsiders at his rallies.  And given permission to all of Murrica's secret Archie Bunkers to openly sneer at the handicapped, mouthy women, uppity Negros, back-sassing Mexicans and all the rest.

And he has finally located the Dick Signal "On" switch --

-- and given the Beltway Media permission to once again slobber over the only story they ever really cared about

The Clenis!

From "Meet the Press":

Shuck Todd: ...While Donald Trump takes aim at Hillary Clinton by attacking Bill Clinton's sexual peccadilloes. 

Shuck Todd: ... In a moment, we're going to look at the developing fight between the two leading candidates, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, over Bill Clinton's sexual past.

Shuck Todd: ... Up next, Donald Trump versus Hillary Clinton. He did it again this morning, folks. Clinton accuses Trump of sexism. And Trump hits back by going after Bill. Attacking Bill to get to Hillary has never worked before. Can Trump change it?

Shuck Todd: But Trump is trying to do to Hillary what no Republican has successfully done. Make Bill Clinton's personal problem a political liability for her. Trump wasn't always so critical of the former president's personal life. The Clintons were guests what Trump's third wedding. And in the late '90s, Trump criticized quote, "moralists in Congress who expressed public outrage at the president's immoral behavior."

Except these so-called "late '90s" never happened because history did not begin until January 2009. At least that's the story that every Conservative and Beltway wag has been sticking to for the last seven years.  A little late to change calendars now, Shuck.

Shuck Todd:  ...He does find a way to get at the one thing that somebody doesn't want to talk about. And while it's always benefited Hillary Clinton whenever there's conversation about Bill Clinton's past, she hates talking about it.

Over on "This Week With Whoever Is Sitting In For George Stephanopoulis..." Martha Raddaz shamed herself by promising Live!Nude!Girls! to get the chumps into the tent

RADDATZ: OK. And you're all going to be back in a few minutes. But next, we are just getting started. Donald Trump versus Bill Clinton, the battle gets raw with the brash billionaire attacking President Clinton's past.

And then tried to cover her shame with the last tatters of her journalistic integrity by pretending that somehow America demanded to know where Bernie Sanders stood on the important issue of "Whither The Clenis?":

RADDATZ (to Bernie Sanders): Hillary Clinton has Bill Clinton joining her on the campaign trail there in New Hampshire this week. Donald Trump and Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus think Bill Clinton’s sexual history is fair game. Do you?

Senator Sanders, who is both a gentleman and a grownup who understands message discipline, wasn't having any of it:

SANDERS: No, I don’t. I think, you know, we have enormous problems facing this country and I think we got more things to worry about than Bill Clinton’s sexual life. I think -- interestingly enough, maybe Donald Trump might want to focus attention on climate change, understand that climate change is not a hoax, as he believes that it is, that maybe Donald Trump should understand that we should raise the minimum wage in this country, which he opposes, and maybe we should not be giving huge tax breaks to fellow billionaires like Donald Trump.

So I think maybe he should focus on those things.

Yes for a moment there, actual issues threatened to scuttle the Beltway circle jerk. But Ms. Raddatz, a real trouper, managed to get her team of finger-puppets to stay focused on what was really important:

RADDATZ: And we’re back with the powerhouse roundtable. Let’s get right into Donald Trump’s escalating attacks on Bill Clinton.

Ms. Raddatz then asked Alice Stewart, who's resume reads as follows --

...communications director for Mike Huckabee's 2016 presidential campaign. She left the Huckabee campaign on December 14, 2015. Previously, Stewart worked as the national press secretary for Rick Santorum's 2012 presidential campaign and Michele Bachmann's campaign that same cycle.

-- if she thought it was "fair to go after [Bill Clinton] that way?"

 And no one laughed so hard that the milk they drank in 5th grade shot out of their nose.

Why yes, Martha, yes!  The stooge-for-hire behind three, different Christopath hucksters each of whom got enough of a snoot-full of Sweet Baby Jebus popskull to fail spectacularly at running for president does, in fact, think dragging The Clenis back out of the trick bag is perfectly fucking fair.   Surprise!  And you don't have to just take her word for it, because she can cite as confirming authorities of her opinion one of the most Conservative rags on the Eastern seaboard and Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal.

So there you go.

This prompted reliable Conservative scumbag, Alex Castellanos, to put down his jug and his copy of "Juggs" and jump in with both feet...

CASTELLANOS: That's not what the issue is. The issue is here that Hillary Clinton has said about women like Bill Cosby's accusers that, quote, "they have a right to be believed," which is not what she said about the women who basically thought Bill Clinton, her husband, was a sexual predator.

It is in her court. She was part of that cabal in the White House that went out and orchestrated this assault on these women who challenged Bill Clinton on this very same issue --

Over in the 3rd ring of our Sunday Morning Mouse Circus, John Dickerson gave Donald Trump a microphone which, by now, everyone on this planet of Earth knows (to quote Vince Gilligan) is like a chimp with a machine gun:

But what the Hell, right? Ratings, right?   I mean, Dickerson's gotta eat, right?

So take it away, Il Douche:

DICKERSON: Hillary Clinton, what does it mean when you say she's playing the women card?

TRUMP: Oh, she's constantly playing the woman card.

It's the only way she may get elected, I mean, frankly. I don't think anybody -- personally, I'm not sure that anybody else other than me is going to beat her. And I think she's a flawed candidate.

And you see what has happened recently, and it hasn't been a very pretty picture for her or for Bill, because I'm the only one that is willing to talk about his problems. I mean, what he did and what he has gone through, I think, is, frankly, terrible, especially if she wants to play the woman card.

DICKERSON: What does it mean, though, to play the woman card, in your view?

TRUMP: Well, she's playing it. She is just -- she is pandering. She's pandering to the public and she's pandering to women.

And when she did it with me -- she talked about sexist -- and I said, me, I have more respect for women by far than Hillary Clinton has. And I will do more for women than Hillary Clinton will. I will do far more, including the protection of our country. She caused a lot of the problems that we have right now. You could say she caused the migration. Look at the problems in Syria.

DICKERSON: You mean as secretary of state.

TRUMP: As secretary of state.  I mean, the entire world has been upset. The entire world is -- it's a different place. During Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton's term, she's done horrible job. She's caused so many of the problems...

And speaking of chimps with machine guns, Mr. Dickerson lets Ruth "David Brooks in a dress" Marcus get her Clenis freak all the way on:

...

DICKERSON: Ruth, let me ask you about this fracas between Hillary Clinton/Bill Clinton and Donald Trump. They got into a back and forth. Hillary Clinton said Donald Trump was sexist. He said, if you want to have a full and frank conversation about how do you think that works out, you were quoted favorably by some people as having said this was fair game.

MARCUS: I do think it's fair game. And let me make --

DICKERSON: To talk about Bill Clinton?

MARCUS: To talk about Bill Clinton, for two reasons. One is, Hillary Clinton attacked Donald Trump, appropriately and correctly, for sexist remarks, of which there are many. Bill Clinton's record with women then becomes fair game. She also has designated him as her surrogate in chief. He will be out on the campaign trail this week. When she does both of those things, attacks Trump for sexism, picks Bill Clinton as her surrogate, his record becomes fair game. And when I say record, I'm not talking about extramarital affairs. I'm talking about his conduct, predatory, offensive, inappropriate with women, including in the Oval Office. That becomes fair for Trump to raise...

Sure there were the usual, meaningless poll numbers read at you with forced excitement and, sure, Jennifer Rubin was as horrifying as she always is.

But while the chumps might stay for this listless coffee and stale muffin buffet, the reason they shamble into the club in the first place is the promise of Live!Nude!Girls!

Meanwhile, out in the real world and far, far away from the anesthetizing grotesquery of wealthy pundits sitting in circles and smirking about penises, those who ache to tear this country to bits and establish their Kallikak Caliphate are not going away:

It does us no good to ignore what is going on in this obscure little corner of the Pacific Northwest. It does us no good to refuse to hold to account the politics that led to this, and the politicians who sought to profit from it. It does us no good to deny that there is a substantial constituency for armed sedition in this country, and to deny the necessity of delegitimizing that constituency in our politics, and the first step in that process is to face it and to call it what it is.

And, in related news, of course, Tamir Rice is still dead.

As The Competition For 2016 Worst Person in America Gets Off To An Early Start

To understand what Obama wants in our future.... ....Watch the Star Wars movies and imagine that only the storm troopers have guns.

— Grover Norquist (@GroverNorquist) January 2, 2016

Yes, Grover Norquist really is saying that there is no difference between the United States government under Obama and the storm-troopers in Star Wars and that Americans need to arm themselves to the teeth against the day when they will need to violently overthrow their own government.

Because this seditious gibberish is now the basic default setting of the American wingnut brain.

One Wingnut To Rule Them All, Ctd.

The leading Republican candidate for president celebrates receiving the 2015 "Wake Up White People!" award from America's leading batshit conspiracy outlet store:

Thank you so much to https://t.co/8OMryrUVET for naming me the 2015 Man of the Year. This is indeed a great honor for me!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2016

You know, as much as I am looking forward to President Fuck Y'all's January 12th State of the Union address, I am also looking forward in a Trumpenfreude (h/t Dr. Krugman) kind of way to Il Douche's inevitable rebuttal.

Where are we going?

Planet 10!*

When are we going?

Real soon!




*thanks for the catch

The Ongoing Adventures Of America's Imaginary Reasonable Republican Party

Former Dubya Bush speechwriter, Micheal Gerson, continues to make a living putting English words together to form sentences that describe things which do not exist (from the PBS News Hour):

MICHAEL GERSON: I will tell you one hopeful issue for 2016.

With the right lineup, with, say, President Rubio and Speaker Ryan, both of them have tried, from the Republican side, to engage the issue of poverty. Paul Ryan has traveled the country looking at examples of community-based efforts. Rubio has put out serious policy on EITC and other things.

I’m hoping that, under certain circumstances — it would be different from Cruz, for example, or Trump — but under certain circumstances, you do have the groundwork laid for a debate about social mobility in this country that I think could be very productive and is necessary.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And on that hopeful note, we will end it...

And with the right lineup of, say, a series of small meteor strikes, sex scandals and meth lab explosions, it might be possible to take the entire leader caste of the American Fascist Party out of the picture in time to shift the 2016 election to a contest among grownups for the votes of well-informed and pissed-off citizens.

But I doubt that will happen either.

The guy who invented the "smoking gun/mushroom cloud" metaphor so as to better grease the skids on Dubya's Iraqi Debacle is now deeply concerned about Donald Trump because he is "vulgar and shallow" and makes "reckless statements, at worst be called divisive, but have to be called untruths" which has created "a model, a presidential model of authenticity that means thoughtlessness."

And this is why the Republican Party cannot heal itself.  Because before they can heal, they must diagnosis the problem correctly.  And to do that, they must be willing to look back down long, dark road that led them step by despicable step to being this rough beast, slouching towards the 2016 election.

And that is not a journey which establishment toadies like Mr. Gerson -- who pretend to care deeply about "careful policy" and "seriousness" -- are capable of making.

Professional Left Podcast #317

"I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.”

-- Albert Einstein, thinker

Links:

• Wonkette welcomes the newest abstinence-only Palin baby
• Ruth Marcus goes 1990’s Villager again regarding Bill Clinton.
• Karoli points out bigots should not have a “fair voice.”  
• Trailer for Spotlight
• Trailer for The Big Short
• The Professional Left Podcast reviewed at Daily Kos
• Where Dog Faced Herman got his name.