Wednesday, January 21, 2015

TODAY IN HIGH-TONED BUTTHURT

Jay Cost at the Weekly Standard:
Put simply, in the face of the most Republican Congress since the 1920s, President Obama has offered a defiantly liberal agenda. It has precisely zero chance of passage.

I happen to think there is a fair bit of common ground to be found between the two parties. Corporate tax reform and corporate welfare reduction come immediately to mind. On both these issues, congressional Republicans and the president could cut back government subsidies for the wealthy and well-connected.
All together now, kids: BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
In my new book I call this, pursuing Jeffersonian ends (greater equality) with Jeffersonian means (less government).

I’d add to this list, trade and immigration. In theory, common ground can be found.
Well, yes, probably trade. But immigration? Was Cost in a coma the last two years, when a few Republicans took baby steps toward immigration reform, only to run screaming from the pitchfork-wielding mob that is thier party's base? (Marco Rubio's current 2016 rank, according to the Real Clear Politics polling averages: ninth place.)
But little of that is going to happen because President Obama insists on trolling Republicans.
Yes, that's right: according to Cost, Republicans have been champing at the bit, desperate for the opportunity to work with Democrats, because nothing is more important to them than doing what's right for America, which is making democracy work via compromie -- but then Obama insulted them, so the hell with doing what's right for America, because Republicans' feelings trump America's needs. Yeah, what could be more Jeffersonian?

*****

And on a related subject, let's recall the words of Ron Fournier yesterday:
The pronouns: Count how many times Obama uses the words "I," "me," and "my." Compare that number to how often he says, "You," "we," "our." If the first number is greater than the second, Obama has failed.
Let's see: Of the president's State of the Union address and the official GOP response by Senator Joni Ernst, in which had more talk about "I" and "me"? Here, I'll give you a hint:
[Ernst's] populist conservatism was evident in nearly every passage and at times explicitly mentioned, including when she talked about the fast-food chain where she worked in her youth. “As a young girl, I plowed the fields of our family farm. I worked construction with my dad. To save for college, I worked the morning biscuit line at Hardee’s,” she said. “We were raised to live simply, not to waste. It was a lesson my mother taught me every rainy morning.

“You see, growing up, I had only one good pair of shoes. So on rainy school days, my mom would slip plastic bread bags over them to keep them dry. But I was never embarrassed, because the school bus would be filled with rows and rows of young Iowans with bread bags slipped over their feet.”
Oh, but it was okay if her speech was all about her because that's non-elitist narcissism, which is the good kind.

9 comments:

  1. For the first time in I don't remember how long, I skipped the President's SOTU speech - and the rebuttal.

    I don't think I've missed one since I was a kid.

    But I was tired, and though I wanted to see a feisty Obama trolling the Republicans, I figured I'd see both sometime later today.
    I've had so many doctor's appointment lately, it's tiring. I think my 56-year warranty ran out.
    Nothing serious - at least not that I know of yet...

    Back to Ernst:
    Let me tell you what my Ukrainian grandmother taught me - and it wasn't to put slippery plastic bread-bags over your shoes in icy, snowy, or muddy conditions. THAT, is just stupid.
    In those conditions, put a pair of old socks OVER your shoes, and you can walk on ice like you walk on pavement!
    The socks absorb the water in the ice, snow, and mud, and stick to it, giving you great traction.

    Bread-bags?
    Uhm...
    Not so much.
    I think her parents wanted her to break her stupid f*ckin' neck.

    And it looks like they weren't alone in their regard for their 'children of the corn..."


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  2. Language Log is all over the stupid pronoun thing like a ton of wet concrete.

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  3. Bread bags go inside Your boots, keep Your socks dry, feet, hence your body warm. Not to mention the traction issue.

    She lies, and by the aforementioned metric, failed.

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  4. Victor, I'm sorry about your health issues. I hope things improve for you.

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  5. Thanks, aimai!
    LOOOOOVEZ YA!!!!!!!!

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  6. Victor, take care and feel better.

    FYI, before Mark Liberman does the real thing, my tentative analysis:

    Obama, with 95 1st-person singular prounouns out of 6494 words or 1.46% of the words in his speech and 313 1st-person plural or 4.81% has a ratio of 3.29 (for comparison see Liberman's chart of past presidential ratios), which is a little lower than his usual range, he may have been in a slightly egotistical mood.

    Ernst, with 23 I/me/my words out of 1217 words total and 38 we/us/our, has a phenomenally low ratio of 1.65, lower than that of any president.

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  7. Apparently, the practice is to slip the bags around one's shoes, which can then slip easily into the galoshes which protect from the mud and moisture like they're spose to do.

    More dumb white oeople thinking, Ten Bears. The ones who came up with it, and those who swallow it whole.

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  8. Republicans keep sending bills with "corporate tax reform and corporate welfare reduction" to the president and he keeps vetoing them. Trolling bastard.

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  9. If you have galoshes, DA, else... bread bags inside your shoes.

    As to Ernst, turns out she's not only a liar and by the noted metric a failure, by having accepted tons of government farm subsidies she's a welfare whore as well.

    A Republican.

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