Stop Me Before I Vote Again

I recognize Saul Bellow, but I don't seem to recall this Limbaugh. And who's this Obie, by the way - is he on TV or something?

Excellent post MJS! Mega dittos, especially the part about Obama killing more people than Rush ever will.

O-Bomba doesn't pull triggers any more than Limbaugh, so I think Limbaugh can fairly be blamed for wars, considering that he supports the wars and many of the politicians that have "legal" control over war, and does so with considerable influence over a portion of the people who do pull triggers, build bombs, pay taxes etc etc. Obomba has more power right now, but Limb has been around a lot longer. Both these jackasses are in showbusiness, I don't see a huge difference in their roles in the war machine, their responsibility - as fun as it is to show ways that the OBomb is worse than those who love him hate. In fact the media propaganda apparatus of the machine may be more important than the figureheads which most people don't even bother voting for once every few years.

Liberals love to pounce on outliers and extremists -- and of course this applies to extremists on their left as well as extremists on their right.

Good point. This informs every aspect of liberalism. There's no core to it; just an infinite process of triangulations and relative stances. Their selection of outliers and extremists also, and always, draws an equivalence between people who are simply opposed to Democratic Party policies—Chomsky, Nader, Zinn inter alia—and actual monsters, e.g. Cheney, Cantor, Boehner. For moral cover, they'll toss on some pull quotes from past and present humane thinkers who are comfortably distant and irrelevant to circumstances that apply right now.

What they have, effectively, is not an ideology or philosophy, but a sensibility; an unreflective way of doing things that can't process differences and can't lead to any other outcome than voting for Democrats. The same, of course, can fairly be said of conservatives, without whom the pwog sensibility couldn't exist. As you say, they'd have to invent their bogeymen if they weren't so obligingly provided.

Yeah, they're really gashing him up over at Mock, Paper, Scissors. I'll confess to having taken a nice long ride on the ol' Schadenfreude Special -- first class, of course, and because there's few things I love more than watching some big-shot media clown being kneecapped -- but after a while, I decided... OK, fine, this nasty bombastic fascist prick is getting his long-deserved comeuppance, but in the meantime... Obama's signed a law allowing for indefinite detention, he's about to sign a law that effectively outlaws public protest, and one of his soldiers has gone on another wildcat shooting spree in Afghanistan. Can we please get back to snarking on substantive issues and perhaps -- just perhaps -- start spreading the snark a little more evenly among all who deserve it, instead of spending all our time on the easy targets, i.e. GOP "Khristian Krazies", Romney, Gingrich, Santorum, That Chick On "Fox & Friends" Who Looks Like Miss Piggy?

Not that I expect that kind of change in MPS. I like to cut 'em a break because Tengrain really is a funny guy, and smart, and a big fan of my work -- I'm on his blogroll, and he recently "promoted" a comment of mine which I posted in answer to that perennial snotty Liberal's retort to anarchists, well, after you've torn it all down, what would you replace it with? Still, I get really bugged when I go on there and find nothing but obviously partisan Liberal Democratic snarking at the usual -- and pathetically easy -- obviously off-scale batshit targets.

Al:

Is there ever a true "core" anywhere in any political philsophy? The Marxism , heck Stalinism, promoted by one of our hosts is utter pernicious and violent nonsense in the real world.

So...isn't your complaint a bit of a truism?

Marcus sez on The Ides @11:28:
O-Bomba doesn't pull triggers any more than Limbaugh, so I think Limbaugh can fairly be blamed for wars, considering that he supports the wars and many of the politicians that have "legal" control over war, and does so with considerable influence over a portion of the people who do pull triggers, build bombs, pay taxes etc etc....

OK, Limbaugh's been a cheerleader for war and imperialism since forever, but right now Obummer is the goddamn' Commander-In-Chief (spit), and as far as I'm concerned Obummer, personally, is pulling the goddamn' trigger. Limbaugh may be jumping up and down on the sidelines shaking the pom-poms, but Obummer's the one ordering the actual murder, mayhem and torture.

Is there ever a true "core" anywhere in any political philosophy?

Yes, of course there is. It's readily apparent on a daily basis. There really are people who really do have shit up with which they will not put, for example, and values they pursue in spite of institutional pressure to desist. The positive expression of it finds little effective purchase, but it certainly exists.

The Marxism , heck Stalinism, promoted by one of our hosts is utter pernicious and violent nonsense in the real world.

You're just jealous. Stalinism was a huge success and the Vozhd will rise again! And aren't you contradicting yourself? More to the point, you have your ideological taxonomy wrong. Our hosts are left ecumenists, for all practical purposes. The Marxist analysis they have is different from classic Marxist prescriptions, and the prescriptions that get some love at SMBIVA, however fraught that love may be, range from lukewarm meliorism to full blown anarchy.

So...isn't your complaint a bit of a truism?

As a complaint, it's definitely trite. However, I'm not complaining. I accept it as a fact and move on from there. Point being, no one who takes any of the hundreds of left and leftish varieties seriously should waste their time with the incoherence of a toxic sensibility.

The Rhetorical Refinement of Progressive Democrats

1) OBSERVATION: Look! Over there! A well-paid entertainer whose entertainment is MOTHERFUCKING RETHUGLICAN!

2) CONSIDERATION: This means that the entertainers have way more power than elected officials who (a) spend taxpayer $$ on various policies and programs, (b) implement that spending, (c) mandate that spending, or (d) apologize for and justify that spending.

3) CONCLUSION: Clearly, we should support Democrats. Clearly.

I like the phrase 'left ecumenist'. That's sorta what I am, with the proviso that 'left' means anybody Left enough to refuse to vote for a Democrat -- and also the odd anti-imperialist palaeocon, if it comes to that. I'm not sure Owen is equally ecumenical, though.

I'm not wholly satisfied with 'left ecumenist', but it comes close and your added proviso helps it along.

I have mixed feelings about the paleocons. They can be intriguing. Owen has referred to some of them as "conscience reds", which certainly fits. The anti-imperialist tendency is very appealing.

If Rush were to meet a Breitbartian untimely demise, liberals wouldn't know what to do with themselves. The withdrawal*, the grief...

*and I obviously don't mean withdrawal from Afghanistan. Nooooo, nothing like that.....

Margaret Kimberly said it best:

"Call a Georgetown law student a slut, and the liberal universe goes into supernova. Destroy Somalia and Libya, or obliterate due process of law, and the same people just yawn."

"Perhaps liberals are sluts and whores. They are people of easy virtue, they don’t really have any principles and they sell themselves pretty cheaply. If Eric Holder isn’t a whore, then who is?

The same can be said for his boss too. No one becomes president without making the rounds on many a casting couch, the rich people’s casting couch. If they give the thumbs up, then the presidency is within reach. No one should be called a whore merely because they are sexually active. Selling oneself in order to be the head killer in chief on the planet is another matter. That is slut work of the very highest order."

http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/freedom-rider-liberal-whores

http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/social-media-scam-alert-top-ten-ways-tell-kony-phony

That's a nice one from BAR, Troville, and dead accurate. Thanks.

Ah, but you coulda used his name in verb form.

It's occurred to me that a large portion of the Liberal populace suffer from a retaking-the-name complex as regards what it means to be a Liberal. That is, they know not the word's origin in politics and have bought the "no true Liberal" lie, even if they invoke it only when it's convenient.

And guys like Limb-ball get them all worked up, clinging to the word like sniveling children. Something which he takes great delight in, I am sure.

Might they be persuaded first to let go of the word?

Davidly, they do suffer from precisely that complex. They're degenerate lexical irredentists and the syndrome is as ghastly as the name suggests. The typical sufferer is forever attempting to reclaim what he considers a decent regard for the brand name of something no kindly disposed person has ever wanted. Hence the opprobrious connotations of Decency and Decent Left.

I'm afraid it's incurable.

Here we go with the cockburnian slap-down of the starfish liberals for having the temerity to celebrate the demise of some latter-day goering. Liberals can't get one shot in on some dimwit with HUGE SOCIAL POWER before SMBIVA/Cockburn is all aflutter with tremulous sympathy for the paleocon, the Palin, the Beck, now Limbaugh - is there a donation box for these and future hero/matryrs here, to soothe their poor ruffled feathers as they descend into a lifetime of pharoahic splender and corporate speaking gigs to get that third yacht?
It's the supersysem, stupid, and our concern should be for those naive, good-hearted liberals like Van Jones, Lisa Jackson, Jared Bernstein, Austen Goolsbee, and John Holdren, who decamped for the Obama West Wing fully expecting to undo the Cheney/Reagan/Nixon onslaught and build a Camelot, only to get ground up and crushed, to be spit once by the anti-liberals here.

These people have been howling about Rush all week:

http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/12/fury-grows-over-afghan-killings/?scp=6&sq=afghan%20man%20loses%2011%20family%20members&st=cse

mjosef sez on 03.16.12 @15:03:
Here we go with the cockburnian slap-down of the starfish liberals for having the temerity to celebrate the demise of some latter-day goering...

Hey, man, I never said that I was enjoying watching a slimeball like Limbaugh going down in flames. He's a vicious, scurrilous bully, and he's finally getting what he deserves, and I totally booked myself a first-class seat aboard the ol' Schadenfreude Special. Toot, tooooooot!

Liberals can't get one shot in on some dimwit with HUGE SOCIAL POWER before SMBIVA/Cockburn is all aflutter with tremulous sympathy for the paleocon, the Palin, the Beck, now Limbaugh - is there a donation box for these and future hero/matryrs here, to soothe their poor ruffled feathers as they descend into a lifetime of pharoahic splender and corporate speaking gigs to get that third yacht?

WTFF, man? Why is it that when one of us calls bullshit on the goddamn' Liberals for being silent for four years while Obummer and the Donkeycrats betray and back-stab them and insult them to their faces on TV -- remember Biden's "whiners" speech? -- I'm suddenly an operative for the Tea Party? Seriously, man, I had some Liberal bitch me out and call me a Teabagger to my face after pointing out that Obummer's Historically Historic Healthcare "Reform" Bill was nothing but a huge corporate giveaway which sold out womens' access to abortions and other reproductive healthcare, and totally ignored the healthy majority of Americans who were willing to consider a single-payer, not-for-profit healthcare system. It's like that old "a vote for Nader is a vote for Bush" bullshit from back in '00. C'mon, is that the best you can do?

It's the supersysem, stupid, and our concern should be for those naive, good-hearted liberals like Van Jones, Lisa Jackson, Jared Bernstein, Austen Goolsbee, and John Holdren, who decamped for the Obama West Wing fully expecting to undo the Cheney/Reagan/Nixon onslaught and build a Camelot, only to get ground up and crushed, to be spit once by the anti-liberals here.

D'ahh, screw 'em. They knew goddamn' well what they were getting into, they let themselves be scammed willfully, gladly, and gleefully, like the mindless adherents to a cult of personality that they are. They're totally getting what they deserve. They'll get no sympathy from me -- especially that Van Jones character. Spit.

Mjosef's reading skills are notoriously bad. Nobody here had a good word to say for Limberger; but that didn't stop mj from inventing a story line to suit himself.

No good word perhaps, but you chose a flattering image of the young feller.

Compare your choice to this, snatched from KOS.

http://images2.dailykos.com/i/user/6685/limbaugh-caricature.jpg

I'm trying to read the following: "Liberals love to pounce on outliers and extremists."
Given my notoriously bad comprehension skills, I come up with some bizarre notion that SMBIVA sees Limberger as an "outlier" who just happens to have 20 million megadildo listeners, a seat at every Republican kingmaker function, and probably a place in my uncle's shrine next to Reagan and the popes.
Drudge, even the dead Breitbart, Ralph Reed, Norquist, "extremists" unworthy of any fear or trembling, or fascists with HUGE SOCIAL POWER? Don't come to SMBIVA to find out.
Floogs, when a liberal "bitches you out," what do they use, a wet noodle? As the sole surviving nihilist here, I'm pretty much in line with how you see it, but, either early in the morning or late in the day, I have absolutely no affinity for the fascists, and as for the liberals, well, that's just me when I was about 12, and I will always have that soft spot for that naivete, for them. This may be heresy around here, but liberals are not the only boogeyman worth chasing. Self-designated "radicals" like Nader are just as big a fraud.

mjosef sez on Drink Green PBR Until You Puke Day @06:05:
Floogs, when a liberal "bitches you out," what do they use, a wet noodle?

Actually, they've used just about every nasty, unfounded smear they can think of. I've been called a Teabagger, a GOP sympathizer, a subversive (by my wife, of all people), you name it -- by people who identify as Liberals, and as Progressives, f'cripesake... all for simply pointing out the straight raw truth about Liberalism and the Democratic Party, and telling them straight to their faces that I care about bringing down imperialism, restoring peace and freedom, and getting us some economic and social justice much more than I care about their goddamn' Party, or its craven whore politicians, or their goddamn' "election".

As the sole surviving nihilist here, I'm pretty much in line with how you see it, but, either early in the morning or late in the day, I have absolutely no affinity for the fascists...

...nor do I -- nor do I have any affinity for fascist enablers and collaborators in the Democratic Party, nor among the Liberals and so-called Progressives. This is actually one time where "You're Either With Us, Or Against Us" is an entirely appropriate mode of thinking.

OT, here is an effort worthy of word of mouth help, it not more.

This thread is all kinds of awesome. I will even take my dressing down from Big Al with aplomb!

I will say there is too often a bit too much...sympathy...for outright fascist swamp creatures like Rush...even if the goo goo progressive support for Obummer is worthy of even more scorn.

(mjosef, wait, what's the problem with Nader, again? Is this the standard "he helped Bush and has an ego" thing, or is there something of which this one is unaware?)

Nader sets the standard for self-ennobling futilty. After a brilliant early career in which the times and his go-it-alone, Princetonian style aligned and he won some actual cases against corporate mononliths, he became an ascetic drone, relentlessly speaking as if he was single-handedly going to bring back the Princetonian-Jeffersonian ideal of a paterfamilias lecturing his children about the ideal city-state.
Corporations became gargantuan, American insitutions became hopelessly corrupt within an empire, and yet throughout this rise he pontificated as if he was the single pure man - nonwithstanding his corporate investments, or his complete outlier status, or his dismal movement-building failures.

martin:

lop sided gesticulating ?

that is a satisfactory response
to the 3 decades long
left merit class "position"
that might apply take as its very label

Naderisme ?

btw

this strikes me as perilously
anachronistic :

"Corporations became gargantuan,
American insitutions became hopelessly corrupt within an empire "

guilded age II ?

too pat

Dude, you are so ON. Normative Liberals are superficial types who let style-cues discombobulate their critical thinking, all the better to look the other way from the atrocities committed in the name of cheaper oil, smaller i-phones, younger third-world nannies, you name it. Biggest hypocrites EVER; I prefer the arsehole Conservatives who openly admit to retrograde ethnocentric planet-plundering narcissism. I mean, these are the Delusionals who venerated Tipper Gore's husband (a known associate of a supremely redneck former governor of Arkansas) as the poster boy of Liberalism! Larf!